Hurricane Sandy bought teams 48 extra hours to make any last-minute adjustments to their rosters by way of trades, as the NFL moved the trade deadline back two days in the aftermath of the devastating storm. This comes after the deadline was already pushed back by two weeks prior to the season, meaning any deals […]

  As we reach the midway point of the 2012 NFL season, it's becoming obvious that nobody will cruise to the Super Bowl this season. Nobody is standing out above everyone else on a consistent basis thus far. Here's how we rank all 32 teams through Week 8. 1. Atlanta Falcons (7-0, 1st last week): […]

We wrap up the eighth Sunday of the NFL season by looking at a handful of players who exceeded expectations and a handful who failed to deliver. Surprises Blaine Gabbert, Jaguars: The final numbers weren't astounding, but Gabbert put up a really impressive, gutty effort in Green Bay, nearly leading the Jaguars to what would […]

One of the readers over at ProFootballTalk pointed Mike Florio to a great piece in the SI Vault from 1979. In it, Frank Deford speaks to prominent people in the world of professional football about where the sport would be in the year 2000. With the beauty of hindsight plus a dozen years, let's go through […]

This was the week in which some of the cream began to rose to the top of the crop. Does that metaphor make sense? Who cares. The point is that the six teams that lead our rankings either won again in solid fashion or were on a bye. That half dozen appears to be in […]

We wrap up the seventh Sunday of the NFL season by looking at a handful of players who exceeded expectations and a handful who failed to deliver. Surprises Ryan Fitzpatrick, Bills: Fitzpatrick's taken a lot of heat lately but it wouldn't be fair to put this loss on him. He bounced back with a solid […]

Kathleen Russell runs a daycare business out of her Los Altos, Calif. home, so when anybody shows up unannounced, she's a little suspicious. That happened at around 4:45 Monday afternoon, when a baby-faced 30-something wearing a polo shirt and Dockers approached the house. But the first thing the man did was assure Kathleen he wasn't […]

There isn't a lot we can conclude based on what's' gone on over the first six weeks of the 2012 NFL season, but this much is for sure: the NFC has kicked the AFC's ass. Not only do NFC teams have a combined winning percentage of .556 while the AFC's combined percentage is only .446, […]

We wrap up the sixth Sunday of the NFL season by looking at a handful of players who exceeded expectations and a handful who failed to deliver. Surprises Russell Wilson, Seattle Seahawks: It's not as though expectations weren't at a relatively high level for Wilson, who's had a decent start to his career. But few […]

One year ago. Week 5. The Houston Texans are off to a hot start, especially on defense, having held three of their first four opponents to 13 or fewer points. But in that fifth game of the season, Houston loses an elite presence in the front seven with Pro Bowler Mario Williams going down with […]

Suddenly, this week's Giants-49ers game in San Francisco is looking like it could be one of the biggest matchups on the 2012 NFL schedule. The G-men crushed the Browns in Week 5, while Niners demolished their opponent for the second week in a row. The Texans and Falcons remain unbeaten, and thus they still occupy […]

We wrap up the fifth Sunday of the NFL season by looking at a handful of players who exceeded expectations and a handful who failed to deliver. Surprises Andrew Luck, Indianapolis Colts: We saw a glimpse of the future Sunday in a very memorable performance from Luck. Don't look past those 24 rushing yards he had, […]