Recently in Football Category

First, a full disclosure: I grew up in Virginia singing "Hail to the Redskins" and worshiping at the alter of Hall-of-Famer John Riggins as the team dominated all before them in the 1980s.

So I now know how fellow Pros(er) Kyle feels watching the Lions. Somewhere between sick to my stomach and just plain heartsick. It's a bumbling team that at one time not long ago was the class of the NFL - OK, similarity with the Lions ends there - that's become a conundrum of underperforming talent and a league laughingstock that winless teams look forward to on the schedule.

But I'm nowhere near as upset as Riggins, who currently is hosting a video series and lighting up Twitter with his ideas on why the Redskins have become one of the worst teams in the league. "Head" coach Jim Zorn ("he could be a good high school coach") and General Manager Vinny Cerrado ("He should go on radio ... be an analyst") receive the brunt of the Diesel's wrath.

And as if that weren't enough, he's also taking his assault on Daniel Snyder's (the worst NFL owner ever?) heaping pile of steaming football team to "Inside the NFL" on Showtime reports Brad Biggs.

Keep on blasting away, Riggo, like you did back in the day:

A lawsuit against Madden video game maker Electronic Arts filed by the man who routinely attends Cleveland Browns games wearing a dog mask will likely go away, according to an article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

John Big Dawg Thompson sued EA after he found out that Madden 09 -- released last year -- showed a Browns fan wearing a get-up that resembled his own.

Thompson's lawyer, Alan Parker, told the Plain Dealer that the case is being dismissed.

Part of the complaint reads, "Cleveland Browns Stadium includes animated fans that features a character dressed unmistakably as Big Dawg, with a distinctive pop-eyed and heavily jowled dog-face mask and orange hard hat."

For this perceived transgression, Thopmson was seeking a minimum of $25,000 and a demand that EA would stop putting his image in its video games.

John Big Dawg Thomson is the man's legal name -- hence the lack of quotes around the phrase "Big Dawg."

On a day when the Chicago Bears, the NFL and anyone who ever loved the game pays tribute to Walter Payton - the 10th anniversary of his death in 1999 from bile duct cancer - it seems fitting to simply sit back and take in what made Sweetness so great. So memorable.

The Bears put together a nice video tribute, played at halftime, to the Hall of Famer that lets his friends, teammates and coaches speak to his greatness as a player and a person. One of the toughest, most elusive, most determined players in the history of the game, Payton was as well-known as a prankster as he was a hard-nosed football player.

Some great moments and memories to savor.

Carolina Panthers' Dan Morgan looks out from the bench during a preseason NFL football game in Charlotte, N.C., in this Aug. 24, 2007 photo. The former Panthers linebacker and Pro Bowl pick suffered at least five concussions in his career, which does not tie him specifically to a possibility of dementia later in life, but can't help. (AP)

For those of you who have never appreciated how violent and life-changing the game of professional football can be for the men who play it, here's another sobering reminder.

A new study suggests retired National Football League players may have a high rate of Alzheimer's disease or other memory problems. The telephone survey asked if the retirees had ever been diagnosed with dementia, Alzheimer's disease or other memory-related disease. Nearly 2 percent of the former players ages 30 to 49 said yes. That's 19 times the rate for the same age group in the general population.

For retirees over 50, the rate was about five times higher.

That's another consequence to a group that already suffers from a staggering array of post-retirement maladies, including severe arthritis, problems with the knees and legs in general, debilitating hand injuries and an array of other problems.

Lead author David Weir emphasized the results don't show football causes memory problems, only that the risk is worth studying. The study of more than 1,000 ex-players was performed by the University of Michigan at the request of the NFL and its Player Care Foundation.

Higher risk of dementia seen in NFL players (NYT)

Ben Roethlisberger comes to Soldier Field this weekend bearing gifts.

The Super Bowl champion quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers announced the first grant of the year for the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation at the Giving Back Fund will go to the Cook County Sheriff's Police Canine Unit, according to a press release.

The department will use the grant to purchase a new police dog to replace one that recently retired.

"It's incredible to see the strong bond that is formed between the dogs and their partners both on the job and at home," Roethlisberger said in the release.

Adding another dog to the canine unit "will enable our department to even better serve the citizens of Cook County," said Sheriff Tom Dart. We are honored to be the first recipient of this year's grant and thank the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation for its generous support to local law enforcement."

On the field this weekend, Roethlisberger will be looking to target Hines Ward, who is 117 receiving yards away from 10,000 for his career -- a feat that could be achieved Sunday at Soldier Field. Unlike the canine, it's a gift most Bears fans would most likely prefer he save for another city. 

When the country's economy takes a brutal smack to the face, academia suffers, too. The solution? If you're a 2,601-enrollment school in Greenville, South Carolina, you travel to the Midwest to play a football game.

The Furman Paladin football team will be in Columbia, Missouri this weekend to take on the Mizzou Tigers, a game that guarantees the school $450,000 -- win or lose. The school pulled out of a scheduled game against fellow FCS school Deleware in order to make the game work after SMU backed out of a game in Columbia.

According to an article in today's Columbia Missourian, "Because Missouri generates so much more revenue from a home game, it can afford to pay Furman more money than Furman would receive from a home game of its own."

"Gifts to the university are down just as they are across the country," Gary Clark, Furman's director of athletics told the Missourian. "Bills are up. Expenses are up, revenues are down, in general, yes."

This could be construed as child abuse in some places.

Technically, this probably is a throwback jersey, even if it is new.

Brett Favre's Vikings jersey was the top seller on the NFL's merchandise Web site. His purple No. 4 was only available for the last two weeks of that timeframe, too.

Fans typically flock to new products, and Michael Vick's Philadelphia jersey has been a hot commodity as well: His No. 7 in Eagles green ranked No. 4 on the list behind Favre, Jay Cutler and Troy Polamalu.

Favre didn't express much surprise Wednesday when the popularity of his jersey was pointed out. He said friends and family have asked him if he can get one for them, but that all he has are the ones he wears in the games.

Favre then retired and un-retired again, making the jersey a collectible, too.

Because we all are wondering what magic could come of a Kansas State-Connecticut football match, Yankee Stadium officials are in talks with the Big East and Big 12 conferences to host a bowl game there.

The Yankee Bowl would pit the seventh-place team from the Big 12 against the third- or fourth-place team from the Big East, according to the New York Times.

Officials from both conferences say they intend to make the deal happen.

There's no word yet on when the bowl game would be played, but there's definitely been a huge push to have football in the new stadium -- just as it was in the old one. Notre Dame is inked to play there next season, and Army has three games lined up there.

But another bowl game? As cool as it would be to schlep to NYC to watch a 6-win Mizzou team take on a sub-par Louisville, I just don't see it.

So my prediction for this year's Indiana Hoosier football team?  They'll finish 1-11, just barely missing a bowl selection.  But, hey, don't lose hope just yet, Hoosier fans.  I've been wrong before.  Besides, right now they're tied for first in the Big Ten with nine other teams.  Neat!

If you thought LeGarette Blount's yearlong suspension for punching Byron Hout was the last you'd hear of the Oregon-Boise State stupid fest, think again.

Now, Ducks blogger Bob Rickert is speculating as to what Hout might have said to deserve Blount's knuckle sandwich.

There are two leading theories in the Rickert camp:

"The most circulated and not denied by those inside the Boise State program is that Hout asked Blount how his dead family member was doing. The one he buried just a few weeks ago."

"The second rumor not denied by Boise State's program is that Hout dropped the N bomb."

An argument could be made -- not by this blog, however -- that the punch, while inappropriate, is more understandable than previously thought.

What do you think? Boise State hasn't come out to deny these rumors and no one is talking about what was said. If either of these rumors prove true (unlikely) should Blount's suspension be lifted at some point?

Someone needs to call "The Lip Reader."