FanHouse Matt Light

Did the injury bug hit your fantasy football team like it was a car windshield moving at 100 MPH? If so, it may be time to do some Damage Control.

Quarterback

• Michael Vick, Eagles - Vick took a hard hit to the ribs and had X-rays. The results came back negative.

• Peyton Manning, Colts - Manning has a sore knee after Sunday's win. The injury isn't serious, which is good news. Better news comes as the Colts now enter a bye week.

• Kyle Boller, Rams - Boller was knocked out of Sunday's game with a concussion. He'll have tests done on Tuesday to see when he can return to action.

• Carson Palmer, Bengals - Palmer injured his left (non-throwing hand) thumb on Sunday. the Bengals don't seem too worried about the injury.

Two seasons ago, Rosevelt Colvin left the field at Gillette Stadium in the company of a trainer.

A few minutes later, the press box public address system intoned: "Colvin has a shoulder injury and his return is questionable.''

Shoulder? After the game -- to which he didn't return -- Bill Belichick said it was a foot and gave no specifics. Told it been announced as a "shoulder,'' the Patriots coach replied: "OK, let's make it a shoulder and leave it at that.''

That's why nobody expects to learn anything from the Patriots about Tom Brady's throwing shoulder, bruised when he was ground into the turf in Washington Friday night by Albert Haynesworth.

I'm one of the 10 people in the world that has yet to make a purchase on eBay, mainly because I have no use for a potato chip that looks like Jesus (that's what people sell on eBay, right?). However, if I had an extra $50,000 burning a hole in pocket, I probably would have jumped at the chance to own a piece of NFL history, as a member of the Super Bowl XXXVI champion New England Patriots recently auctioned his ring on eBay. It received no bids.

According to USA Today's NFL blog, The Huddle, the ring belonged to a player who was on all three Super Bowl-winning Patriots teams.

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In the days following the 2001 draft, when a still unproven Bill Belichick drafted defensive tackle Richard Seymour with the sixth overall pick, then-Boston Globe columnist Ron Borges writing for MSNBC.com cemented his place in Boston sports history by writing these words:

The New England Patriots have been in the news quite a bit the past week, and their quarterback situation for 2009 seems to be the primary reason. First, there was the report from Mike Lombardi that it was, pretty much, a slam dunk that New England would place the franchise tag on free-agent-to-be quarterback Matt Cassel. Then, on Tuesday, Wilson passed along the report from the Dan Patrick show that Tom Brady's knee is still a major league mess, and that we could see a two-headed monster of Tom Terrific and Cassel next season for New England.

So, naturally, Tom Curran of NBC Sports passes along today's news that the Patriots have not yet made up their minds with Cassel, possibly because franchising him could destroy their salary cap in 2009.

From Curran:

A source who'll be directly involved in the call on the Patriots ascendant quarterback said in an email that the report was "speculation," adding "needless to say, no decision has been made."

While it would be very easy to talk about Patriots quarterback Matt Cassel getting a healthy dose of reality, I think that would be somewhat unfair to everyone's favorite free-agent-to-be quarterback. Sure, he had a really bad day in the Patriots 33-10 loss to Pittsburgh, but in his defense, the weather conditions were less than ideal, and he received absolutely no help from anybody on his offense.

A week after playing the disrespect card because Miami single-covered him, Randy Moss was a relative non-factor in the game. Forget single coverage, if the Steelers would have left him out there by himself, or, even worse, lined me up across from him, it wouldn't have made a difference.

Moss finished with only four catches, and dropped what would have been two guaranteed touchdowns. The first one came on a deep pass over the middle, and the second one occurred late in the first half when Moss was alone in the back of the end zone. For reasons that escape me, Moss jumped into the air to attempt to catch a pass that would have hit him right in the numbers, only to have it slip through his arms and fall to the ground. Right after that, Stephen Gostkowski shanked a 27-yard field goal, and the Steelers dominated the remainder of the game.

Near the end of last week's Patriots-Dolphins tilt, and after the game had pretty much been decided, Miami's Channing Crowder and New England's Matt Light shared a moment. Specifically, Light tried to yank out Crowder's weave while Crowder did his best to get away.

Ultimately, both players were fined $15,000 because, as everybody knows, pulling hair is just as offensive as having your hair pulled. And even though Crowder and Channing were the only players taking part in the extracurriculars, we learn that the NFL has subsequently fined Joey Porter. No idea if he did anything wrong, but it's probably safe to assume that he was guilty of something. Actually, his gum-flapping incited the whole melee. From the Miami Herald (courtesy of MDS at PFT):

Somewhat overshadowed by the end-of-game Matt Light Hair-Pulling Extravaganza! was the news that Dolphins head coach Tony Sparano tried to bench linebacker Joey Porter and failed miserably. Porter's only been in Miami two seasons, but he has a history of paying his coaches no mind (or, more specifically if you're Cam Cameron, no respect)

Unlike Cameron, however, Mr. Peezy admitted he was wrong to ignore Sparano. Via NFL.com's Adam Schefter:

Porter personally apologized to Dolphins coach Tony Sparano for refusing to leave the closing minutes of Sunday's 48-28 loss to the Patriots after he drew 15-yard penalties on back-to-back plays.

Not only did Porter apologize to Sparano, he apologized to the rest of his Dolphins teammates as well. Porter knows that what he did Sunday was wrong and he tried to take responsibility for it after the fact

Schefter also writes that "there could be further repercussions from the team or the league." Given that Commissar Goodell has decreed Light will be fined but not suspended for fighting like a 13-year-old girl (nice call, Logan Mankins!), I can't imagine that they would punish Porter for disobeying his coach.

Of course, I never thought I'd see the day when players would get fined for dancing in the end zone so what do I know. That's right: nothing.

Patriots offensive lineman Matt Light and Dolphins linebacker Channing Crowder both got ejected for this altercation, in which Light pulled Crowder's hair:

Now they've both been fined $15,000 -- but not suspended -- for their actions, Adam Schefter of NFL Network is reporting (via PFT).