It seems with each passing week of this 2009 National Football League season, Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre is reaching a new milestone. Yesterday, Brett turned 40-years-old. Today, in leading the Vikes to a 38-10 thumping of the St. Louis Rams, Brett is part of a team that is 5-0 for the first time in his 19-year NFL career.
After putting in an impressive 18-of-24 passing performance (with 232 yards and one touchdown) this afternoon, Brett proclaimed this Vikings team the best he has ever played for:
“From a talent level, this is the best team I’ve ever been on. Now, I’ve …read more

As expected, the Jacksonville Jags signed free agent receiver Torry Holt to a three-year deal worth about $20 million today. Sure, Torry is 32-years-old, but he’s a seven-time Pro Bowl player who gives the Jags their best, most-established, go-to receiver since Jimmy Smith. If Torry comes close to producing the same kind of numbers as Jimmy, the Jags will consider themselves very lucky.
As far as I’m concerned, Torry’s got six-to-eight more years left in his career. You can’t base an opinion on his production — or lack thereof — with the Rams last season (64 catches, 796 yards, three TDs). …read more

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To create nearly $8 million in salary cap space, the St. Louis Rams released seven-time Pro Bowl receiver Torry Holt today. Torry was one of the few remaining players from the Rams’ glory days — aka “The Greatest Show on Turf.” Ironically, one of the other remaining players, tackle Orlando Pace, was also released this week. That leaves only defensive end Leonard Little and quarterback Marc Bulger from the team that lost Super Bowl XXXVI to the Patriots. Owner Chip Rosenbloom said the decision wasn’t an easy one:
“The Rams will forever be grateful for the …read more

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The St. Louis Rams unloaded the foundation (literally) of their offensive line for the past 12 seasons today. To clear some much needed space under the salary cap ($6 million, in fact), left tackle Orlando Pace was released. Rams Owner/Chairman Chip Rosenbloom made the following statement today:
“I can’t begin to thank Orlando for all he has meant to the Rams organization, since we selected him with the first overall pick in the 1997 draft. It is never easy to end a relationship that has had as much success as ours, but in the best interest …read more

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The St. Louis Rams have hired former N.Y. Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo as their head coach. Coach Spags has certainly earned this opportunity. After spending eight seasons working with Jim Johnson on Philadelphia’s defense (defensive assistant, defensive backs coach and linebackers coach), he became the Giants’ defensive coordinator and spent the past two seasons impressing with his trademark creative blitz schemes. Of course, those very schemes helped the Giants win the Super Bowl last season, but New York finished 5th in total defense this season — most impressive considering Michael Strahan retired and Osi …read more

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The opponents for all 2009 regular-season games have been determined and a complete list of each team’s home and away matchups was issued yesterday by the NFL. The scheduling formula implemented in 2002 with realignment guarantees that all teams play each other on a regular, rotating basis. Under the formula, every team within a division plays 16 games as follows:

Home and away against its three division opponents (6 games)
The four teams from another division within its conference on a rotating three-year cycle (4 games)
The four teams from a division in the other conference on a …read more

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Dallas Cowboys defensive end DeMarcus Ware tied an NFL sack record by recording a sack in his 10th straight game this afternoon. But it was the only good news the Cowboys had as they were not only beaten — they were lambasted by the revived St. Louis Rams 34-14. DeMarcus finished the day with three sacks and led the Cowboys with seven tackles. Interestingly, though he now shares the NFL record, DeMarcus remains one game shy of the franchise record. The Cowboys recognize Harvey Martin’s 11-game streak from 1976-77, a run that ended five years …read more

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With this afternoon’s surprising 34-14 win over the Dallas Cowboys, the St. Louis Rams are now — amazingly — a team to watch out for in the NFC. Just three weeks ago, the Rams were in total disarray at 0-4 and, without question, they were playing the worst football of any NFL team. After dismissing then-head coach Scott Linehan, the Rams named defensive coordinator Jim Haslett the interim head coach and he has not only submitted a strong bid to serve as the future head coach of the Rams, he has put his winning stamp …read more

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Miami Dolphins linebacker Joey Porter can’t help himself. His mouth won’t stop. But his wallet is taking a hit as a result. Joey was fined $20,000 for exercising his freedom of speech about the officiating after last Sunday’s loss to the Houston Texans. On the first play of the Texans drive for the winning touchdown late in the game, Joey stripped quarterback Matt Schaub. Recently beleaguered referee Ed Hochuli ruled the play an incomplete pass rather than a fumble, saying Matt’s arm was moving forward when he was hit. Joey disagreed and shared his views …read more

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This is why we love the National Football League, right? Even if your team came out on the losing end of one of these games, you have to appreciate the beauty of the fantastic finish. And five of today’s games had ‘em. If you were watching the 1 p.m. ET games on DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket Game Mix, good for you. You got your money’s worth. Four of the five fantastic finishes were early games ending at roughly the same time:

After trailing for most of the game, Minnesota Vikings kicker Ryan Longwell hit a 26-yard …read more