FanHouse RodneyHarrison

Not to pick on poor Calvin Pace, who claims today to be the latest NFL victim of those sneaky, nefarious over-the-counter supplements, but come on here, people. At what point is it fair to start calling out the NFL on the performance-enhancing drug issue? This guy's no superstar, but he's an important player on a New York team. The baseball equivalent would be somebody like Ryan Church on the Mets or Hideki Matsui on the Yankees. Imagine if one of those guys had been suspended today for steroids? Would ESPN even think about leading SportsCenter with anything else?

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When Tony Dungy and Rodney Harrison were introduced as the newest members of NBC's NFL commentating team, I figured that NBC was trying a "good cop/bad cop" routine.

Dungy could appear on Football Night in America to offer his analysis from his perspective as the consummate nice guy, while Harrison could play the heel, ripping everyone and everything.

In one of Harrison's first interviews since getting the NBC job, he strongly indicated that the bad cop will, indeed, be his role.

The FanHouse Podcast: Because bloggers are much sexier on the phone.

The NBA Finals start tonight and FanHouse columnist Kevin Blackistone is in Los Angeles for Game 1. Before heading to the Staples Center he talked to Will Brinson and Ryan Wilson about what the Magic will need to do to have a chance in the series (apparently, "more J.J. Redick" isn't the correct answer).

Kobe Bryant is the main story, but Kevin also discusses what this could mean for Stan Van Gundy's legacy (while also making the astute observation: "Do we really know that Stan and Jeff are brothers?").

The conversation then turned to the news that Rodney Harrison will join NBC's Football Night in America and Kevin points out that a player suspended for using HGH would never get a studio gig in baseball. We also touch on drug-testing in NASCAR, before Will wonders if Tom Glavine got a raw deal in Atlanta.

Click below to listen.

This is sure to rile up the natives but, well, Rodney Harrison built a career around that -- along with late hits, blows to the head, and 15 years of some pretty solid football.

Earlier today he announced his retirement from tackling fat guys for a living, as well as his plans for the future: studio analyst for NBC's Football Night in America, along with recently retired Colts coach Tony Dungy.

NBC will add former Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy and former Patriots safety Rodney Harrison to its Sunday night football broadcast team, the network announced today.

"Both of these guys will have no problem talking about the game in both positive and critical ways," NBC chairman Dick Ebersol said on a conference call.

The NBC executives on the call said they hadn't finalized their broadcast crew for the 2009 season, but they did say they were planning more changes, that they would be moving at least part of their pregame show to the venues where the Sunday night games will be played and that they'll be "clearing out" more time for their analysts to analyze the specific game they're broadcasting that night.

New England's Rodney Harrison this morning announced his retirement from the NFL after 15 seasons. A two-time Super Bowl winner with the Patriots, Harrison is the only player in NFL history with more than 30 sacks and 30 interceptions.

"I had to contemplate a lot of different feelings, a lot of different emotions," Harrison said in a conference call. "But I feel like I've done everything I could possibly do on the field and have nothing left to prove."

Harrison didn't immediately announce his future plans, but it's pretty clear he will begin a career as a broadcaster with NBC. He worked for NBC during the network's Super Bowl coverage this year, and NBC is holding its own conference call today at noon.

After being released by the Jacksonville Jaguars this past week, Fred Taylor is already finding some teams willing to see how much tread is remaining on his tires.

Shalise Manza Young of the Providence Journal reported on Saturday that the Patriots and Bills are likely landing spots for the 33-year-old running back, while Mike Reiss of the Boston Globe says he could be visiting New England as early as this week.

On Friday, the Oakland Raiders released safety Gibril Wilson, defensive end Kalimba Edwards and wide receiver Ronald Curry, saving the team about $6 million against the 2009 salary cap.

Think back to last offseason when owner Al Davis, in an effort to return his once proud franchise to glory, was signing blank checks with a stamp and passing them out to second-tier free agents like it was the fashionable thing to do. A year later, it's becoming obvious as to how much of a total failure the offseason was.

Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.

Even though they lost franchise quarterback Tom Brady to a knee injury in Week 1, the Patriots managed to finish with a rather impressive 11-5 record in 2008. Impressive because they did so with a quarterback (Matt Cassel) that hadn't started a game since he was a senior in high school.

In most years, an 11-5 record is a lock for the NFL's postseason, but the Patriots became the first team since the 1985 Denver Broncos to miss the playoffs with such a mark. They already started the offseason by placing the franchise tag on Cassel, and it remains to be seen if they intend to trade him off to the highest bidder, or keep him around is a rather expensive insurance policy.

In anticipation of Cardinals-Steelers, FanHouse takes a look back at some forgotten storylines from past Super Bowls.

The play of Super Bowl XLII was easily the catch made by David Tyree, holding onto the ball for dear life between one hand and his helmet. The Giants would go on to slay the giant and knock off the previously undefeated New England Patriots. Let us pause for a second and think about what would have happened had Eli Manning not even made that throw. He broke away from what appeared to be a sure sack. What if he didn't?