National Football League Blogcast, NFL Blogcast
Yesterday, I wrote about the New Orleans Saints signing 12-year veteran safety Darren Sharper and revamping their defense. Today, much to my surprise, the team released one of their best defensive players — 10-year veteran cornerback Mike McKenzie. Mike played five seasons with the Saints after coming over from Green Bay in 2004. He started all but one of the 63 games he played in and had 225 tackles, 58 passes defensed, 12 interceptions and one forced fumble. He wasn’t the reason for the team’s less-than-stellar defensive efforts the past couple seasons. Saints Executive Vice …read more

National Football League Blogcast, NFL Blogcast
The New Orleans Saints signed former Minnesota Vikings safety Darren Sharper today. Terms of the deal weren’t known at the time of this post. At 33-years-old, Darren has no doubt seen his best years, but he will probably give the Saints some much needed leadership in their defensive secondary. After all, he’s been to four Pro Bowls and has 54 career interceptions, which is more than any other active player. He seemed pretty excited to be leaving Minnesota to play for new Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams:
“He’s excellent. I talked to guys around the league, …read more

Blogcasting the National Football League, Blogcasting the NFL
As a member of the Pro Football Writers of America, I have a vote in the Annual PFWA Awards. Below are the five categories, the nominees, and who I voted for.
Horrigan Award (for the person — not a player or team PR staffer — who helped the media best do its job last season):

Roger Goodell, NFL commissioner. Roger’s background in NFL public relations and his understanding of our jobs have helped improve the lines of communication between the media and teams. His appearances at our writers meetings at the Super Bowl, where he …read more

Photo by Greg Trott/Getty Images
Blogging the National Football League, Blogging the NFL
The Dallas Cowboys placed a league-high 12 players on the NFC All-Star team. Among the players selected to the NFC squad was Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor, who died last month. Sean received the most votes at his position and was chosen as the starting free safety for the NFC team. A replacement will be announced at a later date. Eleven NFC players will participate in their first Pro Bowl, including Minnesota Vikings rookie running back Adrian Peterson, who leads the NFC in rushing yards with 1,278.