NFL Football at its best. NFL Football at its craziest.
Green Bay? Green Bay can win the Division? Come on. How can that be. Didn’t they have that quarterback that was always hurt, that Brett Favre wantabe?

No, Aaron Rodgers played every game, even though he was injured. The Packers are young and hungry with plenty of talent to go around.

Ryan Grant with his burst and speed will be key for the Packers

Most of all the Green Bay Packers live in a Division that is one giant unknown. Will the Bears get along with Jay Cutler and who does he throw to? Will the Lions have time to play after introducing themselves to each other? Will Brett Favre be the quarterback in Minnesota or will they have no quarterback in a Division filled with exciting quarterbacks?

Yes, Green Bay is ready and the team chemistry has never been better.

“But we love the guys we’ve got. We have the kind of team (Coach) Mike McCarthy is looking for. We are a team that is very united in the locker room, united in purpose and believes in the schemes on both sides of the ball.”

Universally, well, at least in Green Bay’s locker room, there is no mention of Favre unless it is brought up by someone else. For the most part, his expected return to the Vikings is referred to as the “situation” or “possibility” in Minnesota.

Worrying about what Favre plans to do pales to what the Packers plan to do to him. And Cutler. And Stafford or Daunte Culpepper in Detroit.

Green Bay is busy becoming the only team in the NFC North that will use a 3-4 defense — a defense that specializes in getting after the quarterback.

“With all the new quarterbacks around, I look at it as a chance to add some more names to (my) list,” said defensive end Cullen Jenkins, who missed most of last season with a torn pectoral injury but is expected to be medically cleared by the start of training camp.

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Image: Zuma Press

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How can this be happening and happening in Green Bay, where they are typically very sharp about their payouts to players?

Greg Jennings signed a contract that makes him the second highest paid receiver in the National Football League. He is second only to Larry Fitzgerald.

Hey, Greg Jennings, look at the ball!

You can almost hear the rush to the phones as quite a few NFL receivers are texting their agents to ask for a better deal.

They always think they’re underpaid, and they always wait for that one example – a player they think can’t compare to them on the field – to use as leverage.

Jennings will become that guy for wide receivers throughout the league. He will become the new guy to emulate when it comes to negotiations and contract demands.

Jennings, who is only 25 years old, had solid numbers in 2008 (80 receptions, 1,292 yards, nine TDs),
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Ahh, the NFL money beat goes on. Remember when the Detroit Lions made Cory Redding the highest paid defensive lineman after one good year? Quite a few NFL players benefited from that and quite a few more will benefit from this signing.

Image: Zuma Press

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There are reports circulating out there from ESPN that the hunt for Brett Favre has been suspended.

According to Werder, the Vikings have at least temporarily suspended their pursuit of the for-now retired quarterback after he failed to report to the latest session of Organized Team Activities as Childress had mandated. Werder cited team and league sources in his story.
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Now that would great, but there are reports out there that Brett Favre may not join the team until July 15th.

So which is it and why all the drama?

Brett Favre may be wearing the Viking horns soon

Brett Favre already holds almost all NFL Quarterback records and now has the record for most unretires and the most faked unretires. Let’s face it, he is the best unretirer ever to unretire in the NFL.

Brett to the Vikings? Well, the most telling evidence may come from his own family members. They booked a room for the Vikings/Packers game.

Favre’s family and friends have booked 25 to 30 rooms at the Midway Motor Lodge near Lambeau Field for the weekend of the Nov. 1 Vikings game at Green Bay, according to the Green Bay Press-Gazette.

The quarterback’s family and friends often stayed at the hotel during Favre’s final years with the Packers, Midway manager Doug Warpinski told the newspaper. Warpinski declined comment to The Associated Press on Tuesday
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Photo source Newscom

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51 points.

That is a lot of points.

Saints 51 Packers 29

Try this byline for Drew Brees:

20 of 26, yeah he only missed on 6 passes.
4 touchdown passes.
157.5 quarterback rating, nobody knows what that means, but it is ridiculously high.

Meanwhile, Aaron Rodgers coughed up 3 interceptions.

Sideline note on my Lions - They mentioned on Monday Night Football that my Lions will not win the North Division (Packers are still in it). They also came to the brilliant conclusion that the Lions will not win the Super Bowl.

Statistical Oddity - Saints are last in the South Division. The Monday Night crew was picking Green Bay to come back and win the North Division.

Drew Brees and Kurt Warner are on pace to eclipse Dan Marino’s single season passing yardage record of 5,084 yards.
Photo source Newscom

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Coach Mike McCarthy is asking Aaron Rodgers for a loan

Wonder how Brett Favre feels about this one. The Green Bay Packers anted up 65 million dollars and signed Aaron Rodgers through 2014.

On Friday morning, Thompson and the Packers finished high stakes but quick negotiations that began during the Packers’ bye last week, and signed Rodgers to a lucrative contract extension through the 2014 season. Rodgers had one more year left on his rookie deal, but Thompson pulled the trigger after watching Rodgers grow the three previous years and then this offseason slide into the role as starter at the game’s most important position.

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20 million was guaranteed and it seems that was because of the current salary cap for the Packers.

No details were available on the structure of Rodgers’ deal, but the Packers had about $20 million in cap room before signing him Friday, so they undoubtedly structured it to count significantly against that $20 million. They also are a decent bet to extend the contract of another player or two before the season ends — receiver Greg Jennings is a prime candidate, though others, such as safeties Nick Collins and Atari Bigby, are possibilities as well.

Photo source Newscom

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Brett Favre fell over at the thought that he exposed secrets of the Packer offense

This story is almost too ludicrous to report, but report we must.

The story goes that Brett Favre called the Lions coaches before their game against the Packers and told them how to counter the Packers attack.

Several sources have told FOX Sports that Favre earlier this year phoned the Detroit Lions prior to their battle versus Favre’s old team, the Green Bay Packers, and gave them a rundown of the nuances of what Green Bay does on offense. According to the sources, Favre actually spent over an hour on the phone with Lions coaches, who were connected with Favre by then-team president Matt Millen.

While the Lions still lost and the Packers and Favre’s replacement Aaron Rodgers played well, it’s still baffling that the Packers legend would spend such a significant chunk of time giving tips to an opponent of his long-time franchise.

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Let’s go back to my original thesis that this is just too stupid. Maybe Brett talked to teams about the Packer offense when he was looking for a job, but certainly not in the detail required to defense the Packers.

One has to admit that was a curious game, though. The Lions were being pounded and came back to take the lead 25 to 24, but in the last 5:17 of that game the Packers scored 24 points to win big 48 - 25.

Hey, maybe Brett lied?

Photo source Newscom

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Commissioner Roger Goodell, seen here praying for steroid users, is strangely in favor of drug testing

There is a new rule in the NFL. No more drug testing.

What?

You heard me, no more drug testing. It is not necessary. We just have the player write a memoir and they confess. Much easier than all that urine sample stuff and much more accurate.

Mandarich, drafted by Green Bay with the second overall pick in the 1989 NFL draft, talks in an interview airing on Showtime’s Inside the NFL on Wednesday about his struggle with alcohol and drug abuse that he also chronicles in his upcoming book My Dirty Little Secrets -– Steroids, Alcohol and God.
…
He says he gave the NCAA a fake urine sample before the Rose Bowl -– “you got to improvise” –- and continually used anabolic steroids as he publicly denied it.
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Like this is news to any person that attended Michigan State University while Big Tony was there. There was a huge scandal on the steroid usage by the football team. The team was littered with 300 pounders that could lift ungodly amounts of weight back in the day before 300 pounders were common. Hey, just where do all these 300 pounders come from?

Photo source Newscom

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Aaron Rodgers has some hop in his step

Now bear with me, because Aaron Rodgers was playing quarterback for the Green Bay Packers and they were running the same offense that they used to run with Brett Favre. That part is good.

The Packers had the same offensive line they have had for 5 years and they were solid, so the comparisons at quarterback could be valid.

There was only one problem. The Green Bay Packers were playing the Detroit Lions. Last week the Lions fell behind 21 -0 in the first quarter. This week it took until 6:47 of the 2nd quarter to fall behind 21 - 0. The Packers were feeling bad for their division rivals, so they held back a little.

Ahh, the Lions. As my best friend RonB says, “The Lions are even hard to watch in Hi-Def.” Or something like that.

Anyway, Aaron looked great, he really did.

Rodgers was 24-of-38 for 328 yards, three scores and a fumble in his first start on the road and his first fourth-quarter comeback.

“We just kept pushing the envelope and I think that speaks volumes about the coaches and everybody involved to have confidence with Aaron to stay aggressive,” coach Mike McCarthy said.

Greg Jennings caught six passes for 167 yards, including a 60-yard gain to set up Mason Crosby’s go-ahead field goal with 5:17 to go.

Donald Driver, James Jones and Jordy Nelson all had TD receptions from Rodgers.

“We have a lot of confidence that he’s going to find whichever one of us is open,” Jennings said.

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Aaron showed good elusiveness when trapped and made good decisions with the ball. He could throw hard and accurate with the short passes, just like Brett Favre, only maybe not quite as hard.

Aaron did not look long as many times as Brett does, but when he did, he could make the throw and it was accurate. The Packer offensive line kept him out of any serious trouble, although he did have one ball knocked out of his hand.

If Aaron had played for anyone else the last few years, he might have started.

Aaron Rodgers even began to establish his own identity.

Rodgers took a step out of Favre’s shadow in his highly anticipated debut last week and moved closer to establishing his own reputation in his first road game.

After a three-and-out, he stepped up in the pocket to avoid a sack, scrambled to the right and threw a sharp pass in the end zone to Jones.

Rodgers looked right and threw left on the next drive for a 2-yard pass to Driver.

He perfectly lofted a pass to Nelson for a 29-yard score to give the Packers a 21-0 lead with 6:47 left in the first half.

photo source newscom

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Jon Kitna says, “Hey, we aren’t that bad” and then promptly predicts 16 regular season victories

Just a thought…

The Detroit Pussycats…err, Lions have Jon Kitna at quarterback.

The Chicago Bearcubs…err, Bears have Kyle Orton at quarterback.

The Minnesota ViQueens…err, Vikings have Tarvaris Jackson at quarterback.

The Green Bay sent Brett Packing…err, Packers have Aaron Rodgers at quarterback.

What do they all have in common?

Answer: Has there ever been a worse group of quarterbacks in one division in the NFL before?

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Tarvaris Jackson sprains his MCL

So how has your life been going lately?

If you are Tarvaris Jackson the answer might be “not good”.

First the Vikings tried to get in the Brett Favre sweepstakes that would have made Brett the starter and not Tarvaris, and then Tarvaris injured his MCL in a preseason game by being too aggressive and was criticized for it.

Jackson will probably miss the preseason as a precaution against further injury as it was just a sprain.

Top it off; Tarvaris did not have a stellar year last year.

the passing game, ranked 28th in 2007, must be better. The deep threat provided by free-agent signee Bernard Berrian should help, but Jackson’s progress is critical.

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Could be a tough year for Jackson and the Vikings are depending on him a lot. If the Vikings are to go to the Super Bowl, it will be Tarvaris Jackson that takes them there, whether Adrian Peterson has a great year or not.

Just a note here. Brett was a Packer. Berrian was a Bear. What? No Lion?

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