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Daunte Culpepper, unable to land a starting or backup job this offseason, announced his retirement at the age of 31. Culpepper had one-year offers from the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers this offseason for backup jobs, but didn't find those offers suitable. Though his surgically reconstructed knee was healthy and his arm still strong during visits to those teams, Culpepper decided to end his career. During his career, Culpepper completed 1,867 of 2,927 passes for 22,422 yards and 142 touchdowns. His career quarterback rating was a lofty 89.9, and he was a three-time Pro Bowl selection. His best season was in 2004 when he threw for 4,717 yards and 39 touchdowns for the Vikings. But he blew out his knee the next season, and his career wasn't the same afterward.

The New York Giants agreed to a new deal with Super Bowl hero Plaxico Burress hours before the season opener against the Washington Redskins on Thursday. The five-year, $35 million contract is worth $11 million in the first year.

In the NFL 2008 season opener, the New York Giants defeated the Washington Redskins 16-7.

Nate Burleson (sp?) out for the season with a knee injury. Reportedly a torn knee ligament suffered late in the game against Buffalo. Now the Seahawks are down to three, unproven, healthy WRs on their roster until Branch comes back from his injury hopefully late Sept and Engram returns early to mid Oct. Just one more issue for a Seahawks team that could very well struggle to make even the playoffs should the Cardinals continue to carry over from the last half of last season with Warner at QB.

Alex Smith, quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, is placed on Injured Reserve and is out for the season.

Damage caused by Hurricane Ike will likely lead to the postponement of Monday night's NFL game at Reliant Stadium between the visiting Baltimore Ravens and the Houston Texans.

The storm tore chunks off the stadium's retractable roof and the damage can't be fixed in time to host the game, said Shea Guinn, the president and general manager of Reliant Park.

"There is no way this stadium will host a game on Monday night," Guinn said Saturday. "There are parts of the roof that are completely gone."

An official announcement was expected later Saturday, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said.

"It certainly appears that the stadium is not going to be able to be used on Monday night," Aiello said.

The game, originally scheduled for Sunday, was moved to Monday earlier in the week as Ike approached the area.

The field is not scheduled to host another game until Oct. 5. If the game is postponed, it is unclear when it could be made up. The Texans' off week is Oct. 26, while Baltimore's is Nov. 6.

Three years ago, when the New Orleans Saints were displaced because of Hurricane Katrina, they played four of their scheduled home games at LSU's Tiger Stadium, three in San Antonio and one in East Rutherford, N.J., against the New York Giants.

The Sanfrancisco 49ers fir Mike Nolan their long time head coach.
The San Francisco 49ers fired coach Mike Nolan on Monday night, seven games into the fourth consecutive dismal season of his attempt to rebuild the five-time Super Bowl champions.

After four straight losses culminating in Sunday's 29-17 loss to the New York Giants, the 49ers replaced Nolan with assistant head coach Mike Singletary. The Hall of Fame linebacker will take over for the rest of the season, general manager Scot McCloughan said.

Nolan was 18-37 in 3½ seasons with the 49ers, who hired the veteran defensive coordinator to run every aspect of the club in January 2005. Although Nolan brought back a measure of respectability back to the franchise, he has the worst winning percentage (.327) among any 49ers coaches who made it through more than one season with the team.

Bolts promote Rivera, relieve Cottrell

When the Chargers return from their bye next week to host the Kansas City Chiefs, they’ll have a new man calling defensive plays.

Chargers Head Coach Norv Turner announced Tuesday that he has relieved defensive coordinator Ted Cottrell of his duties and promoted inside linebackers coach Ron Rivera.
“There are a lot of things that went into the decision,” Turner said. “There are areas that we just have to play better and we have to improve. Over the next 10 days those are the areas that we are going to address. Hopefully we can not only show improvement right away but continue to improve over the next eight games.”

Through eight games this season, the Chargers rank 28th in the NFL in total defense and last against the pass. At this point last season, the Bolts had forced 21 turnovers but have only 10 takeaways this season. The Chargers have also gone the last nine quarters without recording a sack.

“It’s probably the things that we have needed to improve at are the same things that effected us in Week 2 and so on,” Turner said. “The same things have been an issue throughout the first eight games at different times.”

Rivera has enjoyed 21 seasons in the NFL as a player and a coach. He joined the Bolts in February of 2008 after spending three seasons as the defensive coordinator of the Chicago Bears, the team he also played nine seasons with.

In 2006, his last season in Chicago, Rivera’s defense led the NFL with 44 takeaways en route to an appearance in Super Bowl XLI.

“I think that he interacts well with players, I think that he communicates extremely well,” Turner said. “I believe that he is experienced. I think that his expectation level is very, very high. I believe that there’s something to having done it and then having a feel for who you are playing and to give your guys the best chance to be successful.”

Rivera has had a host of influences throughout his career. He played for the highly-aggressive Buddy Ryan as well as Vince Tobin, who Rivera described as more passive. He’s also coached under Lovie Smith, Bob Slowik and Jim Johnson. Rivera believes he has a balanced philosophy based on playing situational football.

“You just don’t blitz to blitz,” Rivera said. “There’s a reason why. You don’t play a certain coverage to play a certain coverage; you have to have a reason why. I really do believe that. I believe you try to put your players in the best position based on the information you have on your opponent through the (scouting reports) that you get that are produced during that week.”

Rivera worked in Ryan’s “46,” Smith’s “Tampa 2,” and Johnson’s blitz-heavy 4-3 before working in San Diego’s 3-4. Rivera likes the Chargers’ current scheme, is comfortable in it and doesn’t see many significant changes in the Bolts’ base defense.

“Our base is we’re a 3-4 defense,” Rivera said. “We’ve got to put (the players) in the best position to make plays, and that’s kind of how we look at it.”

For the time being, outside linebackers coach John Pagano will add the inside ‘backers to his responsibility as Rivera moves to his position overseeing the entire defense.

“There will be some things that I will help in terms of the linebackers as I will the other positions,” Rivera said. “Coach (Turner) would like to have me move around from one spot to the other and just kind of see how things are being done.”

Both Rivera and Cottrell were informed of the change during separate meetings with Turner Tuesday morning. After spending the last year and a half as a position coach, Rivera is excited to once again call defensive plays and coordinate the defense.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for me personally and it’s also a great opportunity for us as a team to do some things differently,” Rivera said. “I think it’s a good challenge.”

(OMG I'm pretty excited!)

2009 Hall of Fame nominees:

Preliminary list of nominees for class of 2009
First-year eligible nominees:

RUNNING BACKS -- Larry Centers, Brian Mitchell (also KR/PR).

TIGHT ENDS -- Shannon Sharpe, Frank Wycheck.

OFFENSIVE TACKLE -- Lincoln Kennedy.

DEFENSIVE LINEMEN -- John Randle (DE/DT), Bruce Smith (DE), Dana Stubblefield (DT).

LINEBACKER -- Jessie Armstead.

DEFENSIVE BACKS -- Darren Woodson (S), Rod Woodson (CB/S).
Additional nominees:

QUARTERBACKS -- Ken Anderson, Boomer Esiason, Jim Plunkett, Phil Simms, Ken Stabler, Joe Theismann, Doug Williams.

RUNNING BACKS -- Ottis Anderson, Roger Craig, Terrell Davis, Greg Pruitt (also KR/PR), Herschel Walker, Ricky Watters.

WIDE RECEIVERS -- Cliff Branch, Harold Carmichael, *Cris Carter, Wes Chandler, Gary Clark, Isaac Curtis, Henry Ellard, Irving Fryar, Roy Green, Harold Jackson, Herman Moore, Stanley Morgan, *Andre Reed, Sterling Sharpe.

TIGHT ENDS -- Mark Bavaro, Todd Christensen, Ben Coates, Russ Francis, Brent Jones, Steve Jordan.

OFFENSIVE LINEMEN -- Tony Boselli (T), Lomas Brown (T), Jim Covert (T), Randy Cross (G/C), Dave Dalby (C), Dermontti Dawson (C), Ray Donaldson (C), *Russ Grimm (G), Jay Hilgenberg (C), Kent Hill (G/T), Chris Hinton (G/T), Kent Hull (C), Joe Jacoby (T), Mike Kenn (T), *Bob Kuechenberg (G), Jim Lachey (T), Henry Lawrence (G/T), Mark May (G/T/C), *Randall McDaniel (G), Max Montoya (G), Marvin Powell (T), Steve Wisniewski (G).

DEFENSIVE LINEMEN -- Ray Childress (DT/DE), *Richard Dent (DE), Chris Doleman (DE/LB), Carl "Big Daddy" Hairston (DE/DT), Charles Haley (DE/LB), Ed "Too Tall" Jones (DE), Cortez Kennedy (DT), Joe Klecko (DE/DT/NT), Steve McMichael (DT/NT), Leslie O'Neal (DE), Fred Smerlas (NT), Art Still (DE).

LINEBACKERS -- Cornelius Bennett, Robert Brazile, Kevin Greene (LB/DE), Ken Harvey, Rickey Jackson, Tom Jackson, Clay Matthews, Karl Mecklenburg, Sam Mills, Hardy Nickerson, Chris Spielman, Pat Swilling, Darryl Talley, *Derrick Thomas.

DEFENSIVE BACKS -- Eric Allen (CB), Steve Atwater (S), Joey Browner (S), LeRoy Butler (S), Deron Cherry (S), Raymond Clayborn (CB), Kenny Easley (S), Lester Hayes (CB), Albert Lewis (CB), Ken Riley (CB), Eugene Robinson (S), Donnie Shell (S), Louis Wright (CB).

PUNTERS/KICKERS -- Rich Camarillo (P), *Ray Guy (P), Nick Lowery (K), Reggie Roby (P).

SPECIAL TEAMS/WIDE RECEIVER -- Steve Tasker.

COACHES -- Don Coryell, Tom Flores, Jimmy Johnson, Chuck Knox, Buddy Parker, Dan Reeves, Clark Shaughnessy.

CONTRIBUTORS -- Bud Adams, Gil Brandt, C.O. Brocato, Leo Carlin, Ed DeBartolo, Jr., Ben Dreith, Bob Harlan, Jerry Jones, Art Modell, Art Rooney, Jr., Ed Sabol, Steve Sabol, *Paul Tagliabue, Ralph Wilson, Jr., Ron Wolf, George Young.

Much to the Patriots’ chagrin, the reports are accurate. Pro Bowl linebacker
Adalius Thomas will have season-ending surgery tomorrow for his broken forearm, a league source confirmed Tuesday.