
12-Week Rehab for Nicks Realistic
Hakeem Nicks broke the fifth metatarsal in his right foot Thursday. Early estimates put his expected recovery at 12 weeks, giving him a chance to return to the field by mid-August...
NFLChristopher Harris, ESPN
Clifton Brown, Sporting News
Jarrett Bell, USA Today
Clark Judge, CBS Sports
Tim Kawakami, San Jose Mercury News

I've been a busy beaver for the past couple months, writing profiles and creating statistical projections for about 300 NFL players in anticipation of the 2012 fantasy football s...(full article)

Tom Coughlin and Bill Belichick, right, are among the few current NFL coaches to keep their job long enough to build something special. Mike McCarthy, right, could be on his way ...(full article)

The venue was familiar enough, on the sidewalk of a busy street in the nation's capital, right outside NFL players union headquarters. DeMaurice Smith, the eloquently cantankerous...(full article)

When the NFL and its players union last summer agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement, it was supposed to signal peace for the next 10 years ... only 10 mont...(full article)

It was just an OTA in May, without pads or large consequence, and at decidedly less than game speed. But you could not fault Alex Smith for looking especially lively on the 49er...(full article)


Hakeem Nicks broke the fifth metatarsal in his right foot Thursday. Early estimates put his expected recovery at 12 weeks, giving him a chance to return to the field by mid-August...

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Alex Smith made headlines on Wednesday, raising eyebrows on the other side of the country with these comments: "I could absolutely care less on yar...

Did the NFL and its teams secretly impose a salary cap of $123 million in the uncapped 2010 NFL season? Were teams threatened by the league with "serious consequences" if they ex...

That was the palpable difference Wednesday as Cutler was effortlessly slinging the ball around to wide receivers like he always does at the Bears’ offseason practice at Hal...

"Well, my window is getting shorter. Time goes by... Candidly, you're looking through rose-colored glasses if we all don't realize that now is the time to compete on the field." ...

Randy Moss arrived in the Bay Area in 2005 with sirens blaring and a police escort. Seven years later he's come back with an invisibility cloak. Somewhere behind the cranes and th...

Vin Ferrara felt woozy. He was wearing a football helmet and his limbs were splayed on the field’s turf, this much he knew. He had just taken a jarringly hard&nb...

Eagles quarterback Michael Vick had just finished his first full-squad practice of the spring Tuesday when a swarm of reporters engulfed him as he walked off the field. Vick must...

Football players have long been cast as some of the most homophobic men in our culture. Sports, and in particular the NFL, is branded as the last closet because of that perceptio...

The NFL took a step toward expanding the window for in-season trades while trying to make sure it doesn't become like some other sports. "You don't want anybody to be the [Pittsb...

So now the NFL will protect players by mandating thigh and knee pads for the 2013 season, and while that sounds good it doesn't mean much if the league can't go beyon...

Kenny Britt, wide receiver, Titans 2011 stats: 17 catches, 289 yards and three touchdowns Early 2012 projections: 63 catches, 955 yards and eight touchdowns Likely Average ...

With Browns quarterbacks Brandon Weeden and Colt McCoy set to square off for the first time today in organized team activities, Browns General Manager Tom Heckert clarified the e...

Robert Griffin III put on a strong performance in his first practice with his veteran teammates Monday, impressing some of the most tenured players on the Washington Redskins&rsq...

At first blush, the claim by Broncos running back Willis McGahee seems preposterous. With pass-happy Peyton Manning as Denver's quarterback, McGahee insists his rushing statisti...

Based on the advice of my legal counsel, which really was a five-line Gchat with my lawyer friend, I am not attempting to assert any facts that have been neither confirmed nor de...

He was never a toes-on-the-edge kind of guy. As much as anything, that was what doomed Kellen Winslow's career with the Buccaneers. He was never a player to charge from one pract...

Training camp is always a fun time for the personnel department. Most days are spent attending two practices, eating great food and watching college players on video. One of my f...

Andre Johnson, who had surgery on his left knee two weeks ago, says to remain calm, Texans fans. Calm? But it’s May. The Texans have only a measly 31/2 months to get ready fo...

Dontay Moch didn’t play in any games last season and could be missing the first four this year. NFL Network/CBS Sports’ Jason LaCanfora reported Saturday night that the...

There are players who are in no hurry for the offseason to end before getting back to the NFL grind. And then there’s Brandon Flowers. It’s not just Kansas City’s...

For New York Jet and prolific baby daddy Antonio Cromartie, it was wedded blitz. Terricka Cason Cromartie, while seven months pregnant with their second child, sent her cornerbac...

By now you know former players -- lots of them -- are suing the NFL over the long-term effects of concussions. What you might not know is who -- other than names list...

"We're working," Jon Kitna says. "We're working." It's his first-period math class at Lincoln High School, and yes, Kitna is working. Has been since 7 on this Thursday morning, wh...

Brian Price closes his eyes but sleep rarely comes, not more than for an hour a day, not since the hit-and-run automobile accident last week that killed his sister and left two n...

The New England Patriots and receiver Wes Welker appear to be at an impasse. The star slot machine signed his franchise tag earlier this week, ensuring he will earn $9.5 million in...

Defensive end Justin Tuck says the New York Giants are talking "dynasty," but they should be talking the Philadelphia Eagles instead. Because while the Giants are the ...

Jamaal Charles, RB, Kansas City -- With the likes of Adrian Peterson, Tim Hightower, Peyton Hillis, Knowshon Moreno, Rashard Mendenhall, DeMarco Murray, Fred Jackson, Matt Forte ...

The current status of the great linebacker Ray Lewis suggests Rolando McClain still has time to reconstitute himself and become the productive team leader the Raiders thought t...

Jonathan Vilma's lawsuit against Roger Goodell sets the table for a historic challenge to a historic commissioner. On the surface, the suspended Saints linebacker's defamation cla...

Bucs defensive tackle Brian Price was at Los Angeles International Airport last week preparing to board a flight to Tampa when he got a phone call informing him that his sister B...

1. Vultures circling: The New Orleans Saints' pay-per-hit bounty story has dominated the offseason. Meanwhile, division rivals are quietly making changes to affect the reigning N...

The playful jabs started from five, maybe six, lockers away. New York Jets linebacker Bart Scott began digging into quarterback Tim Tebow, pestering him in a style that sent a jolt...

New Orleans Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma is trying to force the NFL to play defense for a change. His defamation lawsuit against NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on Thursday w...

Before his season was derailed by a fractured foot last December, DeMarco Murray was one of fantasy football's rising stars. Incumbent Felix Jones, presumably constructed from tis...

There are plenty of people out there, including some in his NFL fraternity, who believe Wes Welker is foolish to surrender all of his leverage to the Patriots [team stats]. Signi...

As the 21st century poster child for staying in school, rather than cashing in and bolting for the pros, Andrew Luck is supposed to be eternally comfortable in what he calls "The...

Through the course of a 15-year career in the media, I have had the honor and privilege of speaking with a great number of military veterans, both on and off the air. Sadly, far ...

Sam Bradford, QB, Rams. The Rams traded the No. 2 overall pick (instead of drafting Robert Griffin III) because they still view Bradford as a franchise guy. Bradford regressed la...

Apparently, the Saints plan to treat Sean Payton's absence with the reverence accorded a fallen hero, not a head coach serving a fairly justifiable year's suspension from the NFL...

The New York Jets insist they have no quarterback controversy, and I believe them. Mark Sanchez is their guy, they tell us, and they're going to do everything t...

Terrelle Pryor was the Raiders' famous phantom last season -- highly anticipated but nearly invisible, unplayable and inaudible. He knew it. He didn't know what to do about it. H...

Another team that came up empty in the Peyton Manning bromance was the Miami Dolphins, although their rejection was more public than Arizona's. GM Jeff Ireland also lost Flynn to...

TE Rob Gronkowski, New England Patriots (Age: 23) The word "Beast" is grossly overused in today's sports vernacular. However, in Gronk's case, there is no better term to describe...

Nothing amuses me more than when a public servant tells me that I ought to mind my own business and stay out of his. The tricky thing about being a public servant — with strong...

Former NFL linebacker George Koonce recently submitted to Marquette University a doctoral dissertation on transitioning from life outside the game. This column represents his per...

Joe Vitt felt the void immediately. He took the field Friday for the first practice of the New Orleans Saints' rookie minicamp, and for the first time in a long time, colleague and...

A Matt Leinart bobblehead, with the likeness attired in an Arizona Cardinals uniform, can be found on the Internet at prices ranging from $28 to $80. Leinart may have been a disa...

Miami's stout O-line and Bush's newfangled gusto between the tackles — he racked up 5.6 ypc in up-the-gut runs last year — would lead one to surmise the RB's claim, t...

We're a few years away, but it's coming. It's happening, and there's nothing any of us can do about it. In a few years courts will start hearing class-action lawsuits...

he NFL is both beloved and exalted in the pantheon of spectator sports because absolutely no one knows what will unfold from week to week. But that doesn't stop us from predictin...

2. Robert Griffin III, quarterback, Washington: The learning curve is steeper for this rookie because of the blockbuster trade that brought him to the Redskins. The cl...

The miracle Chad Jones has been waiting for will have to wait. Jones, the Giants safety who nearly lost his leg in a car accident just months after he was drafted in 2010, was wai...

With the NFL entering its annual breaking news lull now that free agency and the draft are well behind us, I figured now would be a good time to open up the floor to one of the m...

The Houston Texans made the NFL playoffs for the first time in their decade-long history by winning the AFC South in 2011. The Detroit Lions also ended a dozen-year postseason drou...

By now, Kellen Moore knows the drill. The promising young quarterback with staggering, mind-boggling statistics enters a new phase of his football career only to be defined by th...

You know what's really fun? Asking Google how much Bo Jackson was able to bench press. An L.A. Times article from 1985 quotes an Auburn beat writer as saying Jackson could bench 40...

A linebacker from The Ohio State University chose law school over a chance to play for the Cleveland Browns. If they can remember, Tom Cousineau, Marcus Marek, Chris Spielman, And...

There are plenty of headlines and stories that should spring out from Monday's public unveiling of the Rams' vision for renovating the outdated Edward Jones Dome. But this is the...

Different column this week, stretching from Foxboro (Tom Brady) to San Diego out West (Dan Fouts), from an unhappy Dolfan in the Southeast (Daniel Tosh) to Russell Wilson in the ...

f we build it, will they come -- in February? A day after the Legislature agreed to help build a new football stadium for the Vikings on the site of the Metrodome, team president ...

Riley Reiff is a 300-pound man with a chance to start for the Lions for a decade. He also is a 23-year-old who just left the University of Iowa and is trying to impress his bosse...

In the moment of the explosion, the pain arrives quickly. Only later can the wreckage be properly measured. It happens every week. One athlete crashes into another with unnatural ...

As an undergraduate at West Chester University in the 1980s, Kevin Guskiewicz spent summers working at Eagles training camp. He even remembers meeting safety Andre Waters a coupl...

Wes Welker essentially closed out any thoughts of a protracted contract war with the Patriots [team stats] yesterday by stating definitively he would not miss any regular-season g...

I had a great 20-minute football talk with Robert Griffin III the other day, and he's simply more impressive every time I talk with him. His poise, maturity, and vision...

Proving doubters wrong is nothing new to quarterback Kellen Moore. He spent four years at Boise State constantly knocking on the Bowl Championship Series national title door, eac...

As a young athlete, Dustin Fink suffered 11 concussions while skiing and playing football and baseball. Three years ago, he began to suspect that the knocks had seriously damaged ...

Clean cut with a short hairdo and sporting a red No. 84 jersey while running routes Thursday, Moss was one of the signature faces for the new-look 49ers after spending a year out...

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady spent time with teammate Wes Welker last weekend at the Kentucky Derby. Between the schmoozing and excitement of horse racing, Brady sh...

After spending his first year learning how to run an NFL organization while observing the staff he led, John Elway is taking charge. In year two, Elway has made a series of sign...

The doors to the state Capitol opened and a rumble of cheers and full-throated rendition of "Skol, Vikings'' echoed off the marble floors and walls. Fans dressed in Vikings garb ...

Two things stand out looking at the 10 best rookie quarterback seasons in modern (post-merger) NFL history: one, that there aren't very many great ones; and two, that most o...

The Jets' big-picture vision for Tim Tebow is coming into focus. Tebow, perhaps the most versatile “backup quarterback” in NFL history, will be doing far more than hol...

Matt Light had pranked Bill Belichick so many times, on so many levels, that Belichick figured Light’s retirement ceremony on Monday was the last chance he had at payback. ...

For many loyal members of the Who Dat Nation, the choice of whom and what to believe in this great bounty debate is an easy one: Defend the New Orleans Saints, no matter what. But...

The three-day crash course in Colts 101 ended in fitting fashion Sunday morning. Quarterback Andrew Luck scanned the field on the final play, saw wide receiver Jabin Sambrano cut...

On the swells where Junior Seau spent carefree hours surfing his hometown break with friends, participants in the seaborne memorial held hands in a circle like a human garland s...

Chicago Bears linebacker Lance Briggs grew up idolizing Junior Seau, and he believes head trauma from a 20-year NFL career played a role in the former NFL great's suicide on Wedn...

An estimated 1,200 spectators and 200 surfers including New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees gathered on the beachfront outside Junior Seau's home Sunday to honor the deceased...

Washington Redskins coach Mike Shanahan came away from his team’s 2012 rookie minicamp so impressed with quarterback Robert Griffin III that he named the rookie the team&rsqu...
Robert Griffin III, QB, Washington Redskins: I live in Washington, D.C., and the excitement surrounding RG3's arrival is enormous. Griffin is an excellent athlete who made plays o...

Roger Goodell came down with his latest bit of heavy-handed punishment regarding the New Orleans Saints' bounty scandal, but be sure of one thing: As quickly as Goodell might wan...

With the long awaited news coming Wednesday of the suspensions for their involvement in a New Orleans Saints bounty scheme, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell noted the four have three...

The fallout from the New Orleans Saints' participation in the bounty program threatens to wreck their 2012 season. The team has already lost Sean Payton to a season-long suspens...

The war between Osi Umenyiora and Jerry Reese is heating up again. One day after the Giants’ GM insisted the team has offered Umenyiora a contract extension in each of the l...

Stanford wide receiver Chris Owusu went undrafted during the NFL's lengthy seven-round draft over the past few days. It's not because of his talent -- the NFL Draft Scout guys ha...

From a South Carolina state prison, former NFL kick returner Dave Meggett awaited word Saturday that one of his sons would be drafted into the league. That wait ended Saturday nigh...

The Cincinnati Bengals have been the punch line for a lot of jokes, many of those aimed at owner/general manager Mike Brown. The Bengals have a skimpy scouting staff and oth...

Tim Tebow began the week by having his NFL career ranked the seventh best for a Heisman Trophy winner by NFL Films -- a major injustice in our estimation -- and ended it by being v...

The Washington Redskins had their typical, well, Redskins type of draft. It is filled with brilliant moves and putrid ones. The kind of stuff that makes you wonder if...

Reigning in Baltimore: Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome trades completely out of the first round, but still ends up with the solid strongside linebacker his defense needed in...

The Oakland Raiders are in desperate need of a backup QB, and there is not a better fit for that spot than Matt Leinart. Both parties seem to be fully aware of this as ESPN's...

This time, it really was the Cincinnati Bengals calling Mohamed Sanu. A day and two rounds after he was the victim of a prank by someone claiming to represent the Bengals and telli...