Compelling matchups dot the NFL landscape on the opening weekend, including rematches of the NFC and AFC title games–Tampa Bay vs. Philadelphia and Oakland vs. Tennessee. Nothing is more intense than Minnesota at Green Bay.
“The only other rivalry I can think of is Cleveland-Pittsburgh. This is a notch up,” said Vikings defensive tackle Chris Hovan, a Cleveland native. “I thought Cleveland-Pittsburgh was a huge rivalry. I got here and . . . whoa.”
Cleveland plays Indianapolis this week in a game between former quarterback teammates Kelly Holcomb and Peyton Manning. Pittsburgh plays Baltimore in the return of Ray Lewis.
Packers-Vikings beats them all this week.
“Bears-Green Bay is a good rivalry, but Minnesota-Green Bay is a border battle,” Hovan said. “Half the people living in Minnesota are Green Bay fans. Half the people living in Wisconsin are Minnesota fans. This is huge. You’ll have more people watching this game than will watch Chicago-Green Bay, I bet you.”
Hovan and Packers quarterback Brett Favre have been going at it since an end-zone confrontation after the Packers’ 26-22 victory at Lambeau last Dec. 8.
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Sideline fights broke out when Packers safety Darren Sharper started running with a game-ending interception, needlessly risking injury on both sides. Six players were fined a total of $40,000.
Both sides are weary of the rematch hype.
“This game’s about two teams, not two men,” Hovan said.
“I don’t plan on talking going into this game. I plan on playing,” Favre said.
Vikings coach Mike Tice added: “We’re going over to play a football game. I’m not Don King. We’re not going over to have a boxing match.”
Still, Hovan doesn’t expect a warm welcome.
“I expect batteries, chew, beer bottles thrown at me,” he said. “I expect people to give me the sign. Usually women take their tops off at the Metrodome. They’ll probably be covering themselves in Green Bay. I’m going to hear it all day, but that is what I love. I love when they boo me in Green Bay.”
Hovan explains he’s “not trying to be buddy-buddy with Brett. I have respect for the guy, but when I cross the line and step onto the field with the big G, it’s competitiveness to where I almost want to hate the person and I don’t give a darn what he has done. For those 60 minutes, his rear end is mine on the field. When we get off, hey, I’ll have a beer and tell him how good he is.”
How good is this rivalry? The Vikings-Packers series is tied 41-41-1. The average point differential is 1.4. The Vikings are 20-21-1 in Green Bay.
Bills vs. Pats: If you think the Bears trading Ted Washington to New England was strange, the Patriots’ release of All-Pro safety Lawyer Milloy topped it. The Bills grabbed him and now Milloy could face his old team Sunday.
Patriots players were stunned. After adding Washington, Bears linebacker Rosevelt Colvin and Chargers safety Rodney Harrison and finishing 4-0 in the preseason, coach Bill Belichick dumped Milloy because Milloy wouldn’t take a $1.5 million pay cut to $3 million.
Unlike last year’s trade of quarterback Drew Bledsoe to the Bills, when the Patriots had Super Bowl MVP Tom Brady in the wings, the Patriots don’t know who will replace Milloy.
Harrison said the chance to play alongside Milloy and Ty Law was a big reason he joined the Patriots.
“There’s like a black cloud around here,” Harrison said. “Everybody wonders about the timing, with the first game coming up this weekend. This is supposed to be about winning games, and I can’t say we’re better without Lawyer Milloy. You’d have to be an idiot to think that you’d get better by losing an All-Pro safety like him. I’m still kind of shocked.”
The Bills gave Milloy a $5 million signing bonus and a $2 million base salary this year. The deal is worth $9.75 million over the first two years, about $15 million over four years.
Brady said it showed NFL business is “as cutthroat as cutthroat can be. Everyone worries about the loyalty to the team, but at the same time we see what happens. It doesn’t surprise me because I saw it happen with Drew Bledsoe and Otis Smith.”
Milloy had no interceptions last year, so Belichick thinks his play is slipping.
“We think he’s still a good football player,” Bills general manager Tom Donahoe said. “Obviously, they do too. They tried to keep him. And we heard a lot of stories out of New England last year that Bledsoe was washed up too. So draw your own conclusion.”
Donovan and Simeon: Bucs pass rusher Simeon Rice and Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb, both from Mt. Carmel, are good friends who will meet again Monday night. In eight games against each other as pros, Rice has shown little mercy, sacking McNabb 11 times, making 40 tackles and forcing seven fumbles. In 14 career games against the Eagles, Rice has 14.5 sacks total.
Check back in a decade or so.
Woody, but he won’t: If the Falcons claimed ex-Cowboys runner-returner-safety Woodrow Dantzler to help them decipher Dallas schemes before their opener, good luck.
“I don’t see that as being too ethical or too moral,” he said. “As far as schemes and whatnot, no, that’s just not right. If you’re asking about a player, about personnel, maybe.”
Longer season? Commissioner Paul Tagliabue told the Washington Post he is considering authorizing the NFL to study the feasibility of adding two regular-season games and reducing the number of exhibition games. The proposal would be made at a league meeting in Chicago in late October, with the 2005 season the earliest target for change.
The league has drawn criticism this summer for the length of its exhibition season after injuries to key players, including QBs Michael Vick of the Falcons and Chad Pennington of the Jets. But Tagliabue said the proposal would be considered for competitive reasons and not in response to the loss of key players.
“We need to focus on whether or not two games are sufficient to get a team ready for the season,” he said. “Many clubs feel that just in the past five years the off-season training and preparation has changed dramatically for the better. Some of these clubs are concluding that for many players, the second and third preseason games are critical while the first and fourth games are merely complementary.”
Gene Upshaw, executive director of the NFL Players Association, said he was aware of the possible proposal.
“The game has changed so much a player does not need four games to get ready for the regular season,” Upshaw said. “You’re not going to get any complaints from the players if they shorten the preseason.”
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The economics of adding games to the regular season would have to be worked out.
Ridiculous: The Saints love running back Deuce McAllister, but the hype in only his second season as a starter is becoming an affront to the accomplishments of others.
“There are guys in the Hall of Fame who aren’t as gifted as Deuce is,” coach Jim Haslett said. “I see these running backs like Marcus Allen, Walter Payton, guys who are in the Hall of Fame. And I look at Deuce and I see a bigger body, plus he’s faster. He can be that kind of player.”
Want to feel old? The Bucs just promoted Ryan Nece to starting outside linebacker ahead of free-agent signee Dwayne Rudd. Nece is the son of Ronnie Lott.
Nece missed most of his rookie year last season with a knee injury. Said linebackers coach Joe Barry: “I want everybody to realize that it wasn’t anything Dwayne Rudd did or did not do. Dwayne Rudd has been unbelievable from Day One to right now. I want everybody to realize, it’s more what Ryan Nece did.”
Pack rat: Bucs coach Jon Gruden, who used to coach in Philadelphia, said he is eager to see the new stadium and collect some memorabilia.
“I’ve had a chance to see a lot of the great stadiums, and I always pick up a blade of grass or a ticket stub on my way off as a token,” Gruden said.
Gruden beat the Eagles for the NFC title last year in the last game at Veterans Stadium.
“I think I kept the Gatorade cup I was drinking out of,” he said.
He said he kept 20 to 30 blades of grass from Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego after the Super Bowl. “You should see where I live. It’s like Sanford and Son at my house. I have all kinds of things collected there. My wife [Cindy] doesn’t understand the importance of some of these items. . . . When it’s time for me to go, I know my wife’s dumping all that stuff in the coffin with me.”