FanHouse Shawne Merriman

With attention spans dwindling, we forgo full game-by-game previews to give you the essentials you need to know about every contest this glorious NFL weekend. We call it The Once-Over.

The Early Games

New England (4-2) at Tampa Bay (0-6): Tom Brady threw for six touchdown passes last week, five in one quarter alone. And to be honest, it gets easier for him this week in London against the Bucs. Expect fireworks from the Patriots offense, as Brady is beginning to click with Randy Moss, and he's extremely happy that Wes Welker is back in action.

On defense, the Buccaneers don't have the speed or skill at the cornerback position to defend against Brady and the Patriots' aerial attack. On offense, the Bucs are young and inexperienced -- especially at the quarterback position where Josh Johnson is already looking in the rear-view mirror at competition from Josh Freeman.

Pick: New England

SAN DIEGO -- It's Week 3 in the NFL, and already the anger is spewing across San Diego over the Chargers' inglorious 1-1 start. Whether it is frustration over coach Norv Turner's play calling, uneasiness over the team's myriad injuries or overall disappointment with a franchise expected to dominate a weak AFC West, there is one player who is holding it all together.

The glue is no longer running back LaDainian Tomlinson's team -- the one-time NFL Most Valuable Player is sidelined a second consecutive week because of a sprained ankle.

Now, the burden of leading this locker room, this franchise, has fallen to quarterback Philip Rivers.

When Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman was arrested on charges of battery and false imprisonment, general manager A.J. Smith called it "disappointing." Don't know if he'll be more or less so in light of the most recent news involving Merriman and his accuser, Tila Tequila.

Via 10News.com, multiple sources claim that Tequila "was unhappy that she was not the only woman getting attention from Merriman, and jealousy played a role in the early morning altercation."

So far, it's your typical, run-of-the-mill Springer episode. And then it got spicy.

As the NFL and celebrity worlds await word from Shawne Merriman battery accuser and MySpace/Playboy/TMZ/Perez Hilton luminary Tila "Tequila" Nguyen, San Diego Chargers general manager A.J. Smith offered more insight Tuesday into whether he is disappointed by the alleged altercation last weekend at the linebacker's home.

Longtime San Diego Union-Tribune beat writer Kevin Acee wrote:

Asked specifically whether Merriman would be here through the 2009 season, Smith neither answered the question nor denied the possibility Merriman wouldn't.

"I've already addressed the Shawne Merriman situation," Smith said. "I'm sure when the legal process runs its course, Shawne will update you. As far as his future with the Chargers, which appears to be an ongoing debate, we will let you know right away if his status should change."

My first instinct is to doubt a girl who, among other idiosyncrasies, changed her name from Tila Nguyen to a potent Mexican liquor. Tila Tequila has posed for Playboy and Maxim. She is a bisexual whirlwind who hosted an MTV reality show, A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila, in which she chose between lesbians and heterosexual men for dates. She wrote a book called, "Hooking Up with Tila Tequila: A Guide to Love, Fame, Happiness, Success and Being the Life of the Party." She has 4 million friends on MySpace and is a social-networking fiend.

One of her recent posts, on Twitter, involved love letters to football star Shawne Merriman. Wrote Ms. Tequila on Saturday: "Im tweeting you from the next ... room ... WAKE YOUR --- UP! LOL. ... awwww U sleeping like an angel. ... SExy Sexy babay!"

"I like attention,'' she once said.

Ya think?

It was only a matter of time before Shawne Merriman spoke out against the allegations he choked and restrained reality TV star Tila Nguyen (aka Tila Tequila). Merriman was accused of battery and false imprisonment through a citizen's arrest warrant signed by Nguyen, but the Chargers star claims he is innocent and says he "in no way caused any harm to Ms. Nguyen."

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Early Sunday morning, Shawne Merriman was arrested on suspicion of physically assaulting Tila Tequila, a model and television personality. He was taken into San Diego County Jail.

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On Wednesday the Giants made Eli Manning one of the league's highest-paid players. It's a long way from April 2004, when the Chargers selected him first overall, even though the Mannings specifically warned the team not to.

But everything has worked out: the Giants made a draft-day trade for Manning, sending Philip Rivers (and draft picks that would become Shawne Merriman and Nate Kaeding) to San Diego. And after a rocky first three years in the league, it all came together for Eli midway through the 2007 season ... all the way through the Super Bowl.

As a fitting recap to the 2009 ESPY awards, FanHouse's own Elie Seckbach works with AOL Video to talk to some of the biggest names in sports live from the red carpet in L.A. And as usual, Elie gets some great stuff. From Landon Donovan dishing on the David Beckham situation, to Samuel L. Jackson talking about which athlete he most wants to meet (hint: she's a female golfer), to Tim Tebow talking about what sports means to the kids, to the Texans' Chester Pitts giving his opinion on FanHouse itself, Seckbach scores some quality time with the stars of the sports world. Check out the full video below.