It's hard to feel too bad for Tom Brady and the Patriots. Much has been made of Brady's struggle to find a groove after returning from last year's season-ending knee surgery -- but even at less than top form, Brady's fourth in the league in yards passing, and the Patriots are tied for first in the AFC East.
New England's golden boy has looked very un-Brady-like at times, though, and his struggles have transferred over to Randy Moss, who -- despite 30 catches -- has found the end zone just once.
Both Brady and Moss are in need of a confidence-boosting breakthrough performance. They could get just that against Tennessee's disheveled secondary on Sunday.
Andre Johnson isn't much of a talker by most accounts, though Cortland Finnegan got his attention last Sunday. During the Texans' 34-31 win over the Titans, Johnson and Finnegan were yapping at each other the entire day, which eventually turned into a brawl after Johnson threw Finnegan into the players on the Texans sideline.
The other sideline is a dangerous place for any player to be during a brawl, and, according to this report from Jerome Solomon of the Houston Chronicle, one unnamed Texan took a chunk of Finnegan's red hair off the field as a souvenir of the fight. Titans defensive tackle Jason Jones was ejected from the game for throwing a punch and one of the smallest Texans, wide receiver David Anderson, was assessed an offsetting 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Training camps have wrapped up, the NFL season is right around the corner, and it's still hot as sin outside. But instead of cooling you off with a warm island song, FanHouse break out ye old heat check for our 2009 NFL Season Previews. " We'll rate each club in 5 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.
Let's rewind back to March 2008: I joined a couple buddies of mine for a Spring Break excursion to Las Vegas. We had an outstanding time, and the day we were to leave, we headed down to the sportsbook to lay down some futures bets. One of my friends had an interesting wager. His Super Bowl bet? The Tennessee Titans.
When Keith Bulluck and LenDale Whitewent to town on a Terrible Towel in the waning moments of the Titans' beatdown of the Steelers in Week 16 last season, they had just clinched home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. So, sure, they had every right to celebrate.
Plus, no way a team full of grown men would take offense at the defacing of a yellow hand towel, right. Uh, not quite. The reaction was swift, and last month, Titans cornerback Cortland Finnegan even called it unacceptable.
Earlier this week, JJ pointed out that Titans cornerback Cortland Finnegan admitted that defacing the Terrible Towel wasn't "... what this coach is about, that's not what our team is about. You do it in between the lines ... the rest of it is unacceptable."
He was referring to this, when teammates LenDale White and Keith Bulluckwent to town on a Terrible Towel in the closing minutes of their Week 16 beatdown of the Steelers. Myron Cope's spirit was not amused. Tennessee would lose to Baltimore in the divisional round of the playoffs, and Pittsburgh would win their sixth Super Bowl in team history.
Keith Bulluck has long been one of the leaders of the Titans defense, but he was just called out by teammate Cortland Finnegan.
In a chat on NFL.com, Finnegan was asked if we will see more Terrible Towel stomps this season--something Lendale White and Bulluck did after the Titans' regular season win over the Steelers last year. Finnegan made it clear that not only does he not expect to see it again, but he's pretty upset that any Titan would do it.
Another NFL draft has come and gone, and it's possible that you spent much of your weekend glued to a television set laughing at the Raiders and screaming for your team to find the next Tom Brady at the bottom of the sixth-round. If you're like me, you live in an area of the country where your only option for draft day coverage is ESPN's wire-to-wire mayhem.
If you happened to miss the draft, or watched it on the NFL Network, here's what you missed.
If you were one of the billions of people who missed yesterday's Pro Bowl, consider this your recap: the NFC scored 13 fourth-quarter points and rallied to beat the AFC, 30-21. It wasn't nearly as exciting as it sounds. That's what I hear, anyway.
For me, the Pro Bowl is all about making sure nobody gets hurt. The few extra bucks that go to the winners is nice, but it's not much of a retirement plan should a player suffer a career-ending injury. Which is why these get-togethers are mind-numbingly boring.
As the Patriots continue to rebuild their front office and coaching staff following another offseason exodus, the team has announced the hiring of former Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans general manager Floyd Reese as a senior football advisor. According to the team's official press release, he will work alongside director of player personnel Nick Caserio and head coach Bill Belichick in "various football-related assignments, including contracts."
"We consider ourselves fortunate to have the opportunity to add someone with Floyd Reese's NFL experience and expertise to our staff," said Patriots Chairman and CEO Robert Kraft. "Floyd will be a tremendous asset serving Coach Belichick in an advisory role."
We may be only three games into the season, but it's hard to image Cortland Finnegan not making the Pro Bowl.
The Titans cornerback already played a large role in the season-opening win against the Jaguars with a pair of interceptions. A week later he snared his third interception against the Bengals.
Now this week he clinched the Titans' win over the Texans by picking off Matt Schaub and returning the interception 99 yards for a touchdown. Finnegan has been in the right place at the right time in some ways, but with four interceptions and a 99-yard touchdown return in the first three games, Finnegan is going to only need to play decently over the final 13 games to earn a Pro Bowl spot.
And with the Titans front four providing a crushing pass rush, Finnegan will likely get several more picks before the season is over.
It's hard to feel too bad for Tom Brady and the Patriots. Much has been made of Brady's struggle to find a groove after returning from last year's season-ending knee surgery -- but even at less than top form, Brady's fourth in the league in yards passing, and the Patriots are tied for first in the AFC East.
Andre Johnson isn't much of a talker by most accounts, though 
Training camps have wrapped up, the 
When 
Earlier this week, 
Keith Bulluck
If you were one of the billions of people who missed yesterday's Pro Bowl, consider this your recap: the NFC scored 13 fourth-quarter points and rallied to beat the AFC, 30-21. It wasn't nearly as exciting as it sounds. That's what I hear, anyway. 
As the Patriots continue to rebuild their front office and coaching staff following another offseason exodus, the team has announced the hiring of former Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans general manager 
We may be only three games into the season, but it's hard to image 
