FanHouse Sal Paolantonio

I feel confident in writing that if the Cardinals are going to win Super Bowl XLIII it'll be because of Larry Fitzgerald. Nobody is expecting much from Arizona's running game, including, I'd imagine, Edgerrin James.

Arizona's best chance comes in the form of No. 11 who, in three postseason games, has racked up 23 receptions for 419 yards and five touchdowns. But during the Super Bowl edition of ESPN's NFL Matchup show, Sal Paolantonio brought up a point that -- at least to hear Sal explain it -- nobody all week has talked about:

TAMPA, Fla. -- The best Super Bowl pregame show on TV comes on at the ungodly hour of 6:30 AM ET on Super Bowl Sunday, but it's worth getting up early (or setting the DVR) to see ESPN's NFL Matchup, the show that goes beyond highlights and analyzes the game with the same tape that coaches use. Today I watched the taping of the Matchup show that will air Sunday, and it was an Xs and Os education.

ESPN made big news out of Sal Paolantonio's report earlier in the week that Brian Westbrook reinjured his knee in the Eagles win over the Giants at the Meadowlands, but as our own Ryan Wilson surmised, the tweak was just another day at the office for No. 36. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the ESPN report later changed the word "reinjured" to "tweaked."

Westbrook participated in practice on Friday at the NovaCare complex in South Philadelphia before flying to Arizona later in the day and said the knee "feels good," even better than it did last week. This could be bad news for Cardinals fans.

The Jets offense is not very good. Sure, they hung 56 points on the Cardinals earlier this year, but in back-to-back weeks, they have lost to the Raiders and should've lost to the Chiefs.

Brett Favre -- the sensitive, emotional, loving father and husband, not the vindictive, hateful monster created by the media (hi, Sal Paolantonio!) -- has been especially atrocious, heaving a league-leading 11 interceptions (a league, by the way, that includes J.T. O'SmellingSalts), and playing about like you might expect a 39-year-old would after sorta coming out of retirement on three different occasions.

Things were so bad yesterday that Jets fans booed Favre, which, if we're being honest, was about a month overdue. Even the famous supporters got in on the act.

I haven't talked to Sal Paolantonio's hair about this, but based on several comments from the NFL Matchup host, I can only assume that he's not a big Brett Favre supporter. In March, ESPN excerpted part of Paolantonio's book and slapped it with this title: "Overhyped: Favre Didn't Deliver in Second Half of Career." Shockingly, Green Bay fans weren't impressed.

To his credit, Paolantonio responded to his critics a week later, writing this in a letter to the editor of the Green Bay Press-Gazette:

"Thank you for Mike Vandermause's smackdown of my espn.com column on Brett Favre. But I take issue with one major point: I was not trying to criticize Brett Favre, only offer some healthy perspective, provide an alternative take. Favre, as I pointed out, is a bonafide first ballot Hall of Famer. But I just wanted to hit the pause button on the over-the-top deification of No. 4. In my view, he is not even the greatest Packers quarterback of all time. That would be Bart Starr."

Now that we're all caught up, Favre has been in the news recently for spilling the Packers' game-planning beans to his huntin' buddy Matt Millen back when Millen still had a job.

The accusation that Colts wide receiver Marvin Harrison shot a man outside his North Philadelphia bar is extremely disturbing, and if it's true, Harrison deserves to suffer serious consequences.

But there's one thing that Harrison has been criticized for that is completely unfair: Opening that bar, as well as an auto garage, in that North Philly neighborhood.

Yesterday on ESPN, Skip Bayless and Sal Paolantonio both criticized Harrison for going back to his old neighborhood, referring to it as unsafe and dangerous and saying that Harrison deserves scrutiny simply for being there at all. They couldn't be more wrong for that.

Soon after Brett Favre retired, Sal Paolantonio took a break from blow-drying his hair to repackage a passage from his book for ESPN.com. Depending on your perspective, it was a Favre rip-job or some much-needed balance to a story that has, for the better part of 17 years, been decidedly one-sided.

Predictably, Packers fans were not amused. And now, Cowboys fans can join them. Because Paolantonio, who apparently doesn't have time to do any actual writing because he's too busy repurposing material from the book, is back, and this time he's taking aim at that overrated Terrell Owens.

Sal Pal is upset because T.O. has been recently mentioned as one of the league's best wide receivers in various silly-season columns. Apparently, this is a situation that needs rectifyin', stat. So, naturally, Paolantonio goes straight for his signed copy of "The Paolantonio Report: The Most Overrated and Underrated Players, Teams, Coaches and Moments in NFL History".

"He started out as 90 percent Terrell and 10 percent T.O.," a former coach said. "A few years later, he was 90 percent T.O. and 10 percent Terrell."

Owens began criticizing his coaches, ripping his teammates and shredding team chemistry, which effectively neutralized his on-field pyrotechnics.

That's why Owens is one of the most overrated wide receivers in NFL history.

Have you had enough Tiki Barber gossip yet? If not, then have I got the story for you! And if so, I apologize, but this thing is going to be beaten to death one way or another.

The latest entrant into Barber gossip circle is none other than ESPN's own Sal Paolantonio. Unlike Barber, his brother, Eli Manning and Tom Coughlin, Paolantonio didn't enter the fray intentionally. He did it, as Barber has in recent weeks, just to sell his book.

Within the page of "The Paolantonio Report: The Most Overrated and Underrated Players, Teams, Coaches & Moments in NFL History," he refers to Tiki as one of the most overrated running backs in NFL history.

"(Barber's) career has been habitually over hyped and overrated. Maybe it was that infectious smile. Maybe it was because he played in New York. Maybe because he fell in love with the camera and it fell in love with him."

Although I've been really hard on Barber because of the stupid things being spewed from his mouth, I've got to respectfully disagree with the Philadelphia-loving reporter here. Sure, Barber is no Hall of Famer, but overrated? I think not. Barber was one of, if not the top running back in the NFL over the last three-four seasons. He carried the New York Giants at times and was a weapon in all phases of the game.

But you have to take Paolantonio's opinions with a grain of salt anyway. Hell, the guy called Brett Favre overrated and suggested that Barry Sanders is one of the most overrated players in the NFL Hall of Fame.