Colts issue joint Manning-Irsay statement

As it turns out, neither guy will have the last word.  Instead, they both will.

The Colts have issued a joint statement from quarterback Peyton Manning and owner Jim Irsay, to cap a flurry of sound bites that have suggested a rapidly deteriorating relationship between the two men.

“We would like to dispel any misperception that there might be any hard feelings between us,” the statement reads, ignoring the fact that the perception arose from their own words — and their compulsion to respond to each other's words.   “Since 1998, we have enjoyed a great relationship, based upon mutual respect and trust.  We have always been able to talk and address matters we've faced over the years, not just as owner and player, but as friends.  We had a long talk today and we want to assure Colts fans everywhere that we are both committed to maintaining our close relationship and to working together through any challenges the future may bring.”

The future brings one significant challenge:  What to do on March 8, when the Colts owe Manning a $ 28 million payment that could be avoided only if Manning is cut before then?  Embedded in the question of whether the Colts will give the money to Manning is the question of whether Manning will delay the due date in order to give the Colts a better chance to assess his health.

So while today's statement represents a bucket of water on the burgeoning brush fire, the embers will still smolder.  The goal will be to keep the flames from returning before the unblinking red eye of the national media leaves Indy the morning after the Super Bowl.

When about 3,200 fans were denied their seats at last year's Super Bowl because of the temporary-seating debacle, one of the NFL's offers to compensate them was a free trip to this year's Super Bowl.

More than 90 percent of those fans turned that trip down.

The NFL told the Indianapolis Star that 246 fans took the NFL up on its offer and are heading to Indianapolis. That would mean about 3,000 will take another one of the NFL's offers, or will pursue legal action to get better compensation than the league is offering.

Fans who didn't want to go to this year's Super Bowl had other options, including a trip to a future Super Bowl, or just settling the whole thing for $ 5,000. It's not surprising that not many fans took the trip to this year's game: Packers and Steelers fans would probably rather wait until their teams are back in the Super Bowl and accept the free tickets then, and a trip to Indianapolis in February isn't exactly what most people view as a great travel destination.

Temporary seats will be used for this year's Super Bowl, too, but the NFL insists that everything will be ready and no fans will be turned away.

Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora and Patriots tackle Matt Light have fought twice on a football field. The Super Bowl national media would like to thank Umenyiora for reminding us.

“I don't know what it is that he does, but it's something that he's doing that really gets under my skin,” said Umenyiora on Friday via CSNNE.com. “Because I'm not that type of guy, you know what I mean? He's probably the only person I've ever fought on a football field.”

Umenyiora stretched out his word so it sounded more like “reeeally.”  That also means both Light and and Umenyiora can reeeally expect too many questions about the issue on Media Day.

“He tried to pull the same thing the last time, so,” Faulk said of Umenyiora. “It ain't relevant to us right now, we're going to play football. Whatever he's talking about, that's bulls—.”

Nine days to go.

The Rams plan to play a home game in each of the next three seasons in London.  The powers-that-be in St. Louis apparently plan to prevent that.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission believes that the team's lease at the Edward Jones Dome requires all home games to be played there.  The CVC manages the stadium.

“We immediately brought this to the Rams' attention and are awaiting their response,” the CVC said in a statement.   “Our lease with the Rams requires that the Rams play all their home games in the Edward Jones Dome.”

Per the Post-Dispatch, the Rams' lease requires the team “to play all its home NFL Games (other than pre-season NFL Games) at the Facilities.”  The Rams can avoid that obligation if, per the Post-Dispatch, the stadium “is not in useable condition or if the lease is terminated.”

The Rams have not yet stated their position on this issue.  If it lands in litigation in a Missouri state court, look for the court system to lean toward the CVC's interests.  Elected judges tend to keep an eye on the electorate, and the local electorate will be ecstatic if the Rams can't take the upcoming game against the Patriots to London.

New Colts coach Chuck Pagano is going to run a different kind of Colts defense.

While Pagano wouldn't come right out and say he was scrapping the old Colts model, he made it clear a Ravens-style attack defense is on the way.

“I was talking to Mr. Irsay, if Wade Phillips can go to the Houston Texans and install the 3-4 with no offseason and make Mario Williams an outside linebacker and stand him up on early downs, that the two explosive, great athletes, the great pass rushers that we have on the edge here, I don't see an issue,” Pagano said.

The Colts don't really “have” Robert Mathis anymore. He's a free agent. It wouldn't make sense to re-sign him to a monster deal in order to change his position.  Pagano talked about molding his defense to the talent in town, but he also talked about setting a “tempo” on defense and dictating to offenses.

That's the opposite of the old Tony Dungy approach. It's a sign we can expect to see Dwight Freeney playing in ways we haven't seen him play before.

During crunch time of Sunday's AFC title game, the Patriots used one man to cover Ravens receiver Anquan Boldin when Boldin lined up in the slot.

That one man wasn't a defensive back.  It was receiver Julian Edelman.

And so when the Giants bring Hakeem Nicks, Victor Cruz, and Mario Manningham to the line in nine days, Manningham hopes to see Edelman on the other side of the field.

“I hope he's out there when we play them,” Manningham tells the Boston Herald.  “I don't want to sound like that, but you know what I mean.  To our advantage, I hope he's out there. . . .

“It's a different stage.  This ain't regular season.  That ain't your real position, so we're going to try to expose you.  It's all or nothing now.  That ain't your position, this is the Super Bowl and we want you to play that position.”

Comments like that will serve to motivate Edelman, but how much will that matter?  He's playing out of position by necessity, and he couldn't keep up with Boldin.  Bob Glauber of Newsday predicted during today's PFT Live that, if Edelman lines up against Cruz in the slot, Cruz will “destroy” him.

It wasn't so long ago that Osi Umenyiora was implicitly calling his General Manager a liar.

An affidavit signed by Umenyiora as part of the antitrust case against the NFL was leaked to the media in attempt to make the NFL and G.M. Jerry Reese look bad.

When the lockout ended, Umenyiora didn't show up to training camp in protest. That didn't last long.

“Once I [made the decision] that OK, I'm going to play – I was like ‘I have to play!' ” Umenyiora told Michael Silver of Yahoo! Sports. “Attention had already been called to the [contract] situation. I knew I wasn't gonna get what I wanted. To get it [after the season], I had to play, and I had to play well.”

The drama didn't end there. A report emerged Umenyiora would “never” talk to Reese again. The two men spoke shortly thereafter. When the Giants wouldn't trade Osi, the defensive end was “fuming.”

Umenyiora wound up calming down, but he missed seven games because of knee and ankle injuries. When he suffered a high ankle sprain in New Orleans, he thought his Giants career was about over.

“I was under the stadium, so I couldn't see the game, but you could hear every time they scored. I still had painkillers in me from earlier, and the fact that it still hurt like it did was not good. Things were bad. Things were really, really bad. It's just weird how things happen sometimes,” he told Silver.

Things are really good, at least for now. Umenyiora has 3.5 sacks in the playoffs. His dad is flying in from Nigeria for the Super Bowl to watch Osi play for the first time in his career.

Umenyiora remains under contract at a reasonable salary for another year. Umenyiora won't make any predictions about what happens next, so we'll make one for him: The Giants probably won't give him a new deal and there is likely more offseason drama to come.

The Giants know these things usually work out in the end.

As of last night, former Vikings coach Brad Childress was close to landing a job with the Browns.  And Childress now has.

According to multiple reports, Chilly is the new offensive coordinator in Cleveland.

He joins the team after a year out of the game, following his 2010 in-season termination by the Vikings.  Before becoming the Vikings' head coach in 2006, Childress had worked as the offensive coordinator in Philadelphia.

It's unknown whether Childress, who didn't call the plays when he was the offensive coordinator of the Eagles, will call the plays in Cleveland.  If he does, here's hoping that the resists the temptation to dial up his patent-pending “12 men in the huddle” formation.

The Eagles recently lost director of player personnel Ryan Grigson to the Colts.  They've now added a pair of persons to the personnel department.  (Actually, one of them was already there.)

The Philadelphia Eagles today announced that Anthony Patch has been hired to be the director of college scouting, and that Rick Mueller has joined the club as a player personnel executive.

“We are very pleased to promote Anthony and add Rick to our scouting staff,” said Eagles G.M. Howie Roseman.  “Anthony has been one of our top talent evaluators during his tenure as a college scout, has great relationships throughout football and is an extremely hard worker.  Rick brings a wealth of NFL experience while giving us a new and fresh set of eyes to evaluate incoming talent.  They will both play a role in helping us prepare for this offseason of free agency and the draft.”

Patch previously worked on the team's scouting staff.  Mueller rejoins the NFL after spending time with the UFL.

For any members of the media working on a story comparing the Patriots-Giants matchup at Super Bowl XLVI with the Patriots-Giants matchup at Super Bowl XLII, you can skip right over Patriots guard Logan Mankins.

Mankins was asked at a press conference today to talk about the way the Giants' defensive line pressured the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII, and he declined to talk about it.

“That was four years ago. Next question,” Mankins said.

Mankins is blunt, but he has a point. The teams are largely different now than they were four years ago. The Giants' leading pass rusher, Jason Pierre-Paul, was a freshman at College of the Canyons when the 2007 Giants were making their run to the Super Bowl. The way the Patriots' offensive line matched up with the Giants' defensive line four years ago isn't particularly relevant to how they're going to match up this year.

New Buccaneers head coach Greg Schiano said at his introductory press conference this afternoon that he's going to build the kind of team that becomes a hot ticket in Tampa Bay, playing winning football that will make the fans proud.

“We've got to re-connect with our fan base, and I can't wait to do it because we have to earn your trust,” Schiano said. “This Buccaneer football team will earn your trust. We'll earn your trust on the football field. We'll earn your trust in the community. Something that you can be proud of.”

When he got his first question, Schiano was asked how quickly he thinks he can turn around the fortunes of a team that ended the season on a 10-game losing streak, and he said he views it as his job to turn things around immediately.

“I don't believe in doing anything except to be the best, so we're going to try to be the best today, starting today,” Schiano said. “How long that will take, I can't tell you that, but we're going to work to be the best we can be every single minute. And I've said this many times: When our best is the best, we'll be Super Bowl champs.”

Schiano is a much more conventional choice than the first college coach the Bucs tried to hire, Oregon's Chip Kelly, and he described his coaching philosophy as one he learned from his old boss, Joe Paterno.

“Great defense, win the special teams battle, and be a physical offensive football team that takes shots down the field,” Schiano said. “Physical, run the football physically and take shots down the field. That formula works.”

Schiano said he didn't take the job until he had time to study the team, its personnel, the ownership, the front office and the facilities, and he concluded that the Bucs have a young core of talented players who can win right away.

“I'm very impressed with the young group, that core group,” Schiano said.

Now Schiano's job is to turn that core group into what Raheem Morris failed to make it last year: A winning team.

Several weeks ago, Charley Casserly of CBS reported that Ravens center Matt Birk will retire after the 2011 season ends.

It was news to Birk at the time.

And it's still news to Birk.  He told PFT Live earlier today that he will choose between retirement and returning to the Ravens for a fourth year in Baltimore, and a 15th year in the NFL.

His contract is up in Baltimore, so they'll have to want him back.  But they should want him back.  He has started every game in his three seasons with the team.

Birk said he'll make the decision after his body “heals up,” although he added that none of the bumps and bruises will require surgery.

For a team that seems to be determined to finish the job after coming tantalizingly close to a Super Bowl berth, it wouldn't be a surprise to see Birk return.

Only the Raiders could make an announcement of a head coach feel oddly anticlimactic.

Three days after it was widely reported that the team chose Broncos defensive coordinator Dennis Allen to be their next head coach, the Raiders confirmed the news Friday.

They did so by pointing out a press conference to introduce Allen as the head coach will take place Monday at noon PT.

The Associated Press reported Thursday that Allen agreed to a four-year deal. That's significant because Raiders coaches have only been getting two-year deals lately.

G.M. Reggie McKenzie has taken some criticism for continuing the trend of firing coaches in Oakland, but we think it made a lot of sense to start fresh with his own guy.

If Allen doesn't make it to the end of his contract, then you can criticize McKenzie.

The Patriots were back in full pads at Thursday's practice and they had every player available on the field except for one.

Yes, Gordie Gronkowski's favorite player missed the session with his ankle injury.

In New York, three of the team's seven injured players returned to practice. Center David Baas (abdomen/neck), linebacker Chase Blackburn (calf) and running Ahmad Bradshaw (foot) were all back on the field, according to Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News.

Four Giants rested again: Cornerback Will Blackmon (knee), wideout Hakeem Nicks (shoulder), cornerback Corey Webster (hamstring) and linebacker Jacquian Williams (foot).

Coach Tom Coughlin indicated those four players only missed work for precautionary reasons. They are expected to practice next week and play on Super Bowl Sunday.

There are less injury questions for this Super Bowl than most. Gronkowski is the main concern, and it's already been widely reported that he'll play.

The New York Daily News isn't waiting for Super Bowl week to throw down the gauntlet.

“Patriots QB Tom ‘Fraidy' one nervous cat” says the headline accompanying an article dismissing Tom Brady's toughness, by columnist Gary Myers.

Yeah, we know the writer doesn't make the headlines. But that won't stop the Patriots from clipping and saving the article. Myers spoke to one opposing coach, who had this to say about Brady's performance in the playoffs against the Jets last year.

“There's not a doubt in my mind that [the Jets] rattled [Brady.] He started seeing things that weren't even there,” the source said. “He's human. He literally ducked down one time and there was no one there. Nobody was close to him. He thought he saw something and it wasn't there. He literally ducked. We were literally like, ‘Did you see that? Is that really Tom Brady?”'

The headline may be inflammatory, but the suggestion isn't so crazy. Brady still has great pocket presence, but he occasionally becomes aware of the pass rush more than he did early in his career.

“Everybody can be rattled,” linebacker Mathias Kiwanuka said Thursday.

Since we're on the subject, we may as well link to a clip from Thursday night's NBC SportsTalk. Who has the better pocket presence at this point his career: Eli Manning or Tom Brady?

Greg Cook, a Bengals quarterback whose immense talent was never fully realized because of a shoulder injury suffered in his third professional game, has died at the age of 65 after being hospitalized with pneumonia.

The Bengals selected Cook with the fifth overall pick in the 1969 NFL draft and instantly fell in love with his arm, proclaiming him the starter and releasing their starting quarterback from the previous year. Paul Brown, the Hall of Famer who at the time was the Bengals' head coach and general manager, said, “We believe this young man is the best quarterback prospect in the country.”

Cincinnati started that season 3-0 with Cook leading the way, but in the third win, over eventual Super Bowl champion Kansas City, Cook suffered a serious shoulder injury. He played through the shoulder pain for much of the remainder of that season, but by the end of the year his shoulder was so badly damaged that he would miss the next three seasons, then return to play just one more game before retiring for good.

“I tore my rotator cuff and we didn't know it at the time because we didn't have the medical attention that you have today,” Cook recalled years later.

Amazingly, Cook led the league in passer rating, completion percentage, yards per attempt and yards per completion as a rookie playing through a torn rotator cuff. But by the time the season was over and doctors operated, there was little they could do. The relatively primitive surgical procedure used for such injuries in the 1960s required cutting through muscles, which only damaged Cook's shoulder further.

“Greg was the single most talented player we've ever had with the Bengals,” Bengals president Mike Brown said in a statement released by the team today. “His career was tragically short due to the injury. Had he been able to stay healthy, I believe he would have been the player of his era in the NFL.”

In his book Greatest Quarterbacks, Peter King rated Cook as one of the 50 best players ever to play the position, even though Cook played in just 12 professional games. Longtime Sports Illustrated writer Paul Zimmerman called Cook's rookie year one of the greatest individual seasons any quarterback has ever had, and Bill Walsh, the Bengals' offensive coach at the time, said years later that Cook could have been the greatest quarterback ever. NFL Network ranked Cook as the greatest one-shot wonder professional football has ever seen.