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Each week in the NFL, there are players that impress and players that distress. One week a certain quarterback might toss four touchdowns and run around pointing skyward, while the next he's laying on his back, holding his facemask as the other team returns one of his three interceptions for the game-winning score. With that in mind, here's Studs and Duds.

Studs

Ted Ginn Jr., WR Miami (6 KRs, 299 yards, 2 TDs) -- Miami fans didn't want him, and how could you blame them for what Ginn Jr. had done so far this season? One touchdown and just 30 yards receiving per game for the former Ohio State star forced a benching by head coach Tony Sparano, only to have Ginn do something on Sunday that had never been done before.

BALTIMORE -- A linebacker who won a Super Bowl ring with the Baltimore Ravens has been called ''the strongest man in the building ... it's not even close'' by head coach John Harbaugh. He isn't talking about Ray Lewis.

O.J. Brigance hasn't worn a Ravens uniform in nine years, or been an active player in seven. The strength Harbaugh refers to has been on display for the last two years as Brigance has battled Lou Gehrig's disease, and as he has done so, he has united and inspired the Ravens in ways nobody else ever has.

Said Spencer Folau, one of Brigance's teammates on the 2000 Ravens team that won Super Bowl XXXV, ''What Ray does on the field, (O.J.) does off the field.''

WILMINGTON, Del. -- There are plenty of reasons why Sunday afternoon, on the second weekend of the NFL season and with no thoroughbred racing scheduled, license plates from at least seven states and the District of Columbia were spotted in the parking lot of Delaware Park. Simulcasting was still going on, and the slots floor was still busy -- and, besides, people might just be slow in updating their car registrations.

But that wouldn't explain, for example, why one cream-colored Cadillac with Florida plates sported four Miami Dolphins flags. Or why many of the cars were expelling, or re-admitting, customers wearing NFL jerseys, caps, T-shirts and other paraphernalia, and carrying long white, beige or yellow strips of paper. Or, most transparently, why the infield videoboard was showing one of the network pre-game shows.

Football may not have taken over the biggest of the three tracks in the state now taking NFL bets, but it has staked its claim and apparently won't let go any time soon, at least without the interruption of the courts.

CANTON, Ohio -- The NFL's first preseason game of 2009 was billed as an AFL tribute contest honoring two charter members, the Houston Oilers and Buffalo Bills -- and no, that wasn't George Blanda handing off to Billy Cannon in the first quarter on Sunday night.

Most of the real nostalgia centered on whether Tennessee Titans quarterback Vince Young could recapture any of his 2006 rookie-season impact. Or even show anything of relevance after he sat on ice most of '08 following the loss of his starting job to veteran Kerry Collins in Week 1.

The verdict on Vince through one outing? Not so hot.

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The day after his first (and, so far, only) collective bargaining negotiating session with the NFL, new players union head DeMaurice Smith was on Capitol Hill, beginning to build congressional support for the prevention a lockout by NFL owners in 2011. This was back on June 4, and it didn't get a lot of attention at the time. But it's yet another indication that the CBA negotiations between players and owners could get very ugly.

Smith and Baltimore Ravens defensive back Domonique Foxworth attended the meetings with the House Judiciary Committee, the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Commerce Committee. Both described the sessions as "meet-and-greets" and declined to go into detail about what was discussed. But there are a couple of ways in which the union hopes Congress can factor into its strategy going forward.

The NFL and its players' union officially opened negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement Wednesday, but it looks like it was just the simple beginning of what should be a very long, drawn-out process.

Union representatives weren't making any comment, and the league said it would only confirm that the meeting took place and was "the first of many." But according to a person familiar with the meeting, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and new NFLPA head DeMaurice Smith were both present. The meeting was described as "procedural." Nothing was resolved, of course, and there is currently no date set for the resumption of talks.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank has made it clear that Michael Vick won't play for the Falcons again. But he said on his way out of the NFL owners' meetings this morning that he has no problem with Vick returning to the league with some other team. Blank also gave some indication of what might constitute the "genuine remorse" that Vick supposedly has to show before commissioner Roger Goodell reinstates him.

"It goes beyond whether he's paid his debt to society," Blank said. "From a legal standpoint, and financially, he has. But it goes beyond words. It goes to how he's going to live, personally and in the community with others. The people that Michael spent time with and the influence they had on him were a big part of what happened. His ability to separate from those people is going to be critical for Michael."

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- We didn't get a lot of time with new NFLPA boss DeMaurice Smith as he raced from his meeting with NFL owners to catch a plane. But while he took questions in the elevator, the lobby and the Ritz-Carlton driveway, Smith reiterated his belief that the key to a successful CBA negotiation will be the NFL owners' willingness to disclose more financial information to the players.

"Can we start talking? Yes. But the first thing I would like to talk about is the process of negotiation," Smith said. "It seems to me that the right place to start is a place where the players understand why the owners opted out of the current agreement."

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The NFL and Comcast have ended their five-year feud and agreed on a deal that will put the NFL Network in about 15 million more homes by Aug. 1, the league announced this morning at the NFL owners' meetings here.

Since its inception, the NFL Network has been part of a paid sports tier option for Comcast's customers. The new deal moves the network from Comcast's "Sports Entertainment Package" to its "Digital Classic" service tier. It's a big boost for a network looking to get more exposure, and the league hopes it can lead to similar deals with other cable companies that have so far resisted the NFL's desire to put its network on more mainstream tiers.

More on this in a few hours, when commissioner Roger Goodell is scheduled to address the media on this topic.