Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints / Image: Zuma Press

Balloting for the 2010 Pro Bowl will conclude on Monday, December 21 following the conclusion of Monday Night Football (New York Giants at Washington Redskins, ESPN, 8:30 PM ET). The teams will be announced at 4 PM (ET) Tuesday, December 29 on a special NFL Total Access 2010 Pro Bowl Selection Show on NFL Network. The 2010 Pro Bowl will be played on Sunday, January 31, 2010 and televised live on ESPN at 7:20 PM ET from Dolphin Stadium in South Florida, also the site of Super Bowl XLIV a week later on Sunday, February 7. Fans can buy tickets to the 2010 Pro Bowl at NFL.com/probowl and TICKETMASTER.com or by calling 800-745-3000.

Listed below are the top 10 overall All-Star vote-getters:

1. Drew Brees, Saints (1,120,535)
2. Brett Favre, Vikings (1,120,174)
3. Peyton Manning, Colts (1,113,934)
4. Adrian Peterson, Vikings (1,079,993)
5. Larry Fitzgerald, Cardinals (684,698)
6. Tom Brady, Patriots (622,916)
7. Dallas Clark, Colts (603,492)
8. Cedric Benson, Bengals (565,763)
9. Chris Johnson, Titans (560,479)
10. Andre Johnson, Texans (546,693)

Source: NFL Media

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NFL Pro Bowl Top Ten, One Week Left to Vote

Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints / Image: Zuma Press

The Saints amassed just under 500 yards of total offense in scoring 38 points—even without slasher back Reggie Bush. Drew Brees was as close to perfect as a quarterback can be in this league. And the defense forced two Tom Brady interceptions and held the Pats to just 17 points—without starting cornerbacks Jabari Greer and Tracy Porter. That’s impressive.

Of their five remaining games, only the Dallas Cowboys appear to pose a serious threat to an undefeated New Orleans Saints season. And that particular game is in the Superdome. So I’m going to go ahead and give the Saints a perfect 16-0 record with home field advantage heading into the playoffs. As far as the road to Super Bowl XLIV is concerned, I’ve got to say—advantage Saints.

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Will the New Orleans Saints Go Undefeated?

Peyton Manning, Indianapolis Colts / Photo: Newscom

The Pats couldn’t challenge the controversial decision because they wasted two timeouts on their final drive and had nothing left to possibly overturn that ruling. As I saw it, Kevin had the first down when he caught the ball. But because he briefly bobbled it, he was not awarded forward progress that would’ve essentially ended the game in New England’s favor.

I don’t really blame Pats head coach Bill Belichick for going for it. After all, his success rate on 4th down is over 70%. But when you’re on your own 28-yard line with the game on the line, this is a very puzzling decision. It’s having supreme confidence in your team’s ability to convert, but it’s certainly going against the percentages. And it cost the Patriots the game.

As far as the Colts are concerned, this is an amazing comeback. After Peyton Manning threw his second interception of the game with just over seven minutes to play, I felt the game was over. But with their resolve and New England’s questionable decision-making, the door was opened for their victory. And the Colts merely walked through that door.

Source: NFL.com

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Colts Stun Patriots to Remain Unbeaten

Tom Brady, New England Patriots / Photo: Newscom

Tom has been under criticism for not performing up to his typically superhuman levels so far this season, but he now seems to be in “mid-season form,” as they say. Which makes sense because it’s pretty close to mid-season. Tom finished his impressive work day completing 29-of-34 passes for 380 yards. His six TDs tied a franchise record. Granted, Tom’s achievements were more-or-less target practice against the NFL’s second-to-last rated defense. But given the elements and the fact he was playing against a professional football team, it was nonetheless very impressive.

Source: NFL.com

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Tom Brady Has Career Day, Patriots Roll

Ray Lewis, Baltimore Ravens / Image: Zuma Press

On one play, it appeared that Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs just swiped at and maybe brushed Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s legs, but didn’t really even “touch” him (UPDATE: After re-watching this, Terrell Suggs did bump Tom, but it wasn’t anything more than that). I would have to agree with Ray—that kind of preferential treatment is taking the issue of safety too far. I can understand protecting the quarterback to a certain extent, but when the game becomes touch football—or in this case not even touch football—it’s pretty ridiculous.

Ray expressed his displeasure in no uncertain terms after the game:

“Without totally going off the wall here, it’s embarrassing to the game. You can’t do that. Brady’s good enough to make a play. Let him make his own play. You can’t end the play like that, and then throw the flag. No, man. The embarrassing part is when he understands that, and he walks up to one of us and says, ‘Oh, that was a cheap one.’ That’s not football. And that’s the embarrassing part about it. Two great teams going at it, let them go at it. But you can’t stop drives like that, you can’t throw flags and say, ‘Oh, you touched the quarterback.’ Put flags on them. Put a red buzzer on them, so if we touch them, they’re down. But you can’t do that, when a guy’s on the ground, it’s over. Both of the drives they got touchdowns on—personal fouls that kept the drives going. That’s embarrassing to our game. Fine me, do whatever you please. I’m not speaking against anybody. It’s embarrassing, for them to treat one person on the football field different than everybody else. That’s what’s embarrassing about this game. You can NOT do that. You gotta let the game take care of itself like it just did. But when you call penalties like that, it takes away from the love of the game, because you can get a Tom Brady to walk by you and say, ‘Oh, that’s a cheap one.’ Wow.”

Source: SportingNews.com

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Ray Lewis Upset With Treatment of QBs

Tom Brady, New England Patriots / Image: Zuma Press

Sure, the Bills practically handed the Pats the game with a bonehead costly late turnover. But Tom shook off some early rust and did what he had to do. He completed 39 passes for 378 yards with two late touchdown passes, making up 11 points in less than five minutes to get the win. And in the National Football League, it doesn’t matter how you win. It only matters if you win. And as long as Tom Brady is under center, the New England Patriots have a pretty good idea how it’s done.

Source: NFL.com

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Tom Brady Returns, Finds a Way to Win

Matt Cassel, Kansas City Chiefs / Photo: Newscom

Chiefs GM Scott Pioli issued the following canned response statement with the news:

“We are happy to announce that the Chiefs and Matt have entered into a multi-year commitment. Since Matt arrived in Kansas City, he has embraced the team and the community. His work ethic, his ability and competitive presence is what we expect from our players.”

What Mr. Pioli really wanted to say was he hopes the Chiefs gambled all that money wisely.

Source: KCChiefs.com

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Matt Cassel Gets Six Years, $60 Million

National Football League Blogcast, NFL Blogcast

N.Y. Jets fans are not going to be happy with this news. The New England Patriots signed free agent tight end Chris Baker today. The Jets released Chris earlier this month with good reason — they didn’t want to pay him a $9 million option bonus payment that was coming due early next month. Chris is a fine player and has tremendous potential as a tight end in this league, but I wouldn’t want to pay him $9 million, either. He had good numbers in 2007 (41 catches) but tapered off last season with the emergence of rookie tight end Dustin Keller. Chris had considered returning to the Jets, but ultimately decided that catching passes from Tom Brady and/or Matt Cassel made more sense. The Patriots will be thrilled to get 40-50 receptions from Chris this season. And with the QBs in New England, I believe they will.

Source: NFL.com, Photo: Newscom

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Patriots Sign Chris Baker

National Football League Blogcast, NFL Blogcast

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady married supermodel girlfriend Gisele Bundchen and her three dogs yesterday. Apparently, they tied the knot at St. Monica Catholic Church in Santa Monica, CA with just a small group of family and friends in attendance. Tom and Giselle were rumored to have become engaged last Thanksgiving. I can’t believe I’m writing about this. I could care less. I mean, I’m happy for Tom, but really — whatever. I just hope it produces a lot of traffic and I can make a nice chunk of money off it.

Source: Usmagazine.com, Photo: Newscom

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Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen Get Married

National Football League Blogcast, NFL Blogcast

The New England Patriots placed a non-exclusive franchise tag on backup quarterback Matt Cassel today. The Pats will keep Matt if they have any doubts that QB Tom Brady won’t be ready for the start of the 2009 season. But if Tom is ready (as he’s expected to be), it’s likely New England will trade Matt rather than pay him the $14.65 million brought by the tag (of course, the Pats aren’t stupid — they could also offer him a long-term deal). In a statement released by the Patriots today, head coach Bill Belichick said:

“Matt has been a pleasure to coach his entire career and last season in particular, when his years of hard work and commitment resulted in a most impressive performance. We look forward to working with Matt again in 2009.”

After a phenomenal 2008 season, Matt is nearly as hot a commodity as his mentor. He was certainly an adequate replacement, completing 63% of his passes for 3,693 yards and 21 touchdowns. Those are good enough numbers to start for any team in 2009. And he just might get that chance.

Source: Patriots.com, Photo: Newscom

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Matt Cassel Gets Franchise Tag