Week 4’s Monday night football brought one of those games that you want to watch because of the fierceness displayed on the field.

The Steelers 23-20 victory over the Ravens was just like that. It was a game where Pittsburgh was losing by 10 points and playing with third and fourth string players because of a roster plagued by injuries, but somehow managed to make a comeback and saved the day with a 46-yard field goal by Jeff Reed in overtime.

The big loss for the Steelers was first round pick Rashard Mendenhall who couldn’t finish the game because of a fractured shoulder and won’t be playing this season anymore. Mendenhall was coming in substitution of starter Willie Parker, who was off for injuries also.

The Ravens already had their bye week and are 2-1, while the Steelers are leading the AFC North with a 3-1 record.

At week 5 the Ravens have a difficult rival on the Titans, whom are 4-0, and the Steelers will face the Jaguars, whom are below Tennessee at the AFC South and are 2-2.

If Baltimore manages to handle the Titans their first defeat this season, they will come to play the Colts at week 6 with an advantage: it’s the Steelers bye week and their chance to lead their division.

The most interesting game of Week 4 was probably Bills at Rams which finished with a 31-14 victory for Buffalo.

Now the Bills are 4-0 and the Rams are 0-4.

This is the first time Buffalo is 4-0 in 16 years.

With four defeats in a row, the Rams decided to fire Scott Linehan whom benched quarterback Marc Bulger in favor of 38-year-old Trent Green. At first the change didn’t looked so bad as the Rams rallied the Bills by 14-6 at the first half, but by the second, Buffalo made the proper adjustments, and by the third quarter, the Bills took the lead by 20-14, then it was all-things-Buffalo thanks to Jabari Greer, Trent Edwards and Lee Evans.

Week 5 is the Rams bye week, and then they will return at week 6 to play the Redskins, while the Bills can increase their record at 5-0 at week 5 against the Cardinals and then rest on week 6 which is their bye week to come back and play the Chargers, whom just beat the Raiders by 28-18 and are on a rise with a current record of 2-2.

It’s been like a soap opera for the Warriors during the off-season. They lost Baron Davis and Mickael Pietrus, and had to deal with the fact that the guy that they were relying on to replace Davis, Monta Ellis, is currently injured and will not see action until December.

In order to be a competitive team, the Warriors will need to rely on new guys like point guard Marcus Williams, Rony Turiaf and the best of the 3, Swingman Corey Maggette.

Uncertainty is surrounding Golden State’s headquarters as it doesn’t seems to be that much chemistry at the locker room, and you can add to this the new blood coming to the team and their respective adaptation and development plus the soon-to-expire contracts of Head coach Don Nelson and Chris Mullin, the team’s executive vice president, and you have a Molotov cocktail.

When asked about what kind of team the Warriors are right now, Don Nelson answered the following: "I don’t know that we know the answer to that question, a lot of adjustments that need to be made and we have some new players, and the whole team is going to have to learn together, how to play with one another and I’m not exactly sure."

Matt Millen was hired by the Lions back in 2001 in order to turn around a mediocre team, but instead he contributed to the fall of Detroit’s professional football team, making the Lions one of the worst teams in the league.

After the announcement, hordes of Lions fans were on a parade around the city in celebration of Millen’s departure. Even Bill Ford, the son of team owner William Clay Ford said that he would have fired Millen way back if he had the authorization to do so.

During his stay as Lions President, Matt Millen led Detroit to a league-low 31 victories and made bad decisions at a few NFL drafts, but team owner refused to fire him until now.

Currently the Lions are 0-3.

In substitution of Millen will come current executive vice-president Tom Lewand.

The Jets are 1-2 entering week 4, and they definitely need a win against the Cardinals to balance those numbers in order to remain unclouded on week 5 which is their bye week, for then face the Bengals whom are 0-3 on week 6 for a possible New York victory.

Brett Favre got injured on the Jets 48-29 loss to the Chargers on Monday, but Coach Eric Mangini is confident that Broadway Brett is healthy enough to come up with his 257th consecutive regular season start, “Brett usually plays, and I would anticipate the same.” Mangini said.

Jets Coach is also hopeful about his team’s next performance as he’s pleased for what he saw on the game against San Diego as Brett Favre threw several short passes to Jerricho Cotchery (10 catches, 76 yards) and Laveranues Coles (6 catches, 75 yards, one touchdown). The low for Brett was Antonio Cromartie intercepting him and returning a pick 52 yards for a score.

Mangini got severely criticized due to the Jets conservative play-calling against the Patriots on week 2; on the game against the Chargers the story was different, and against the Cardinals, coach and team are expecting to provide their best performance so far, we’ll see…

Last Monday night football game between the Chargers and the Jets left both teams at 1-2 and third on their respective AFC divisions, and San Diego acquiring their first victory.

David Barrett intercepted Philip Rivers’ first pass and throw the ball back 25 yards to give the Jets their first touchdown of the night, but soon after the Chargers began to command the game for a 48-29 win.

LaDainian Tomlinson looked like if his recent toe injury had gone away, and so he ended up scoring his first two touchdowns of the season. We were going to do whatever it took to get this win, that was our whole approach throughout the week. We needed this one bad. And we got it." said Tomlinson.

It doesn’t look good for Brett Favre and the Jets at the AFC East with an unexpected rival like the Bills whom are 3-0, and now that Tom Brady has said goodbye to the current season, Buffalo is the current favorite to win the division, but we’ll be more sure after the match between the Bills and the Rams at Week 4 that can leave the Bills at 4-0 and moved significantly ahead of any of their divisional rivals.

Week 4 is also bye week for the Patriots whom are 2-1, and so if Buffalo manage to win both of their games against the Rams and Cardinals (week 5), they will be 5-0 and will take a leap of 2 games ahead the Pats, then on week 6 is the turn for the Bills bye week, and here is where things gets interesting.

Chad Pennington vs. Matt Cassel? I guess you know the answer after the Dolphins 38-13 smashing victory over the Patriots.

With this win, Pennington remains as the NFL’s all-time leader in passing accuracy, completing 17-of-20 passes for 226 yards.

And this was a well-needed victory for Miami whom are now 1-2, while the Pats are 2-1.

This is New England’s first regular-season loss since December 10, 2006, when they got beaten by… guess… the Dolphins.

The victory also meant Coach Tony Sparano’s first NFL win: “It was obviously a pretty emotional deal. They executed the game plan on both sides of the ball to perfection.” He said.

New England fans were booing their own team when they left the field at halftime with a 21-6 score.

The surprise of the week came with the Bills, whom are now leading the AFC East with a 3-0 record, something that was truly unexpected before Tom Brady got injured.

Last Monday Night Football we had the chance of watching the Eagles playing the Cowboys on a game that is considered the most highest-rated cable program in history, where Dallas came up with a 41-37 victory.

That means that we can expect a lot of action next Sunday when the Steelers visit the Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field for the Philly classic, one where the Eagles can increase their 1-1 or allow the Steelers to take a 3-0 advantage at the AFC North.

The advantage is on the Eagles side as Donovan McNabb is injury-free and for the Steelers, Ben Roethlisberger is suffering a shoulder injury that might affect his performance, but Coach Mike Tomlin is positive about Big Ben and said that there are 85% chances for Roethlisberger to play against their city rivals.

For bettors, the Eagles at -3 are as great a pick as they were against the Cowboys where they covered their +6 outstandingly.

There is people saying that the US golf team will be better without Tiger Woods at the coming Ryder Cup, but who can believe them?

The truth is that the US golf team is as good without Woods as the Patriots are without Tom Brady.

A good reason for people to believe that the US has a better chance of winning the tournament without Tiger Woods is based on the fact that the pro golfer doesn’t have a good record on this tourney as he only has 10 wins in 25 matches in 5 Ryder Cup appearances, with 3 of those victories coming last year when he finished with his best record so far of 3-2.

Tigers Woods might not have a good record at the Ryder cup, but he has 75 victories around the world, has won 14 majors and has been ranked at number one for a total of 513 weeks on his career, which sets him in an enviable position.

With Woods out, Phil Mickelson is the favorite among the 12 members of the US golf team to end with a good result for the Americans, but all in all, they are 12 equals.

In despite of the Eagles good performance yesterday, the Cowboys were a bit superior and so they came with a 41-37 victory at home.

Terrell Owens was the key man for Dallas, as he finished the game with two touchdowns, while teammate Marion Barber also had two, though Owens gave Cowboys fans a better show than Barber and proved that he is deserving of the 27-million, 3-year contract extension which Dallas grant him during the off-season.

As of yesterday, Terrell Owens has 29 touchdowns and 171 catches in his first two seasons with the Cowboys.

The Eagles played a great first half and were ahead 30-24 when the third quarter began, and at the fourth, Philly were still leading by 37-31, but the Cowboys responded with 10 straight points which buried Eagles hopes for good.

For Philly fans it might be disappointing to loose a road game against their divisional rivals, but for bettors, it was a great night, as betting lines were set at +6 for the Eagles, and Philadelphia covered the spread just fine.

The new ballpark for the Minnesota Twins already has a name: Target Field, this came after Target Corporation reached an agreement with the baseball franchise for a 25-year partnership, which also includes the naming rights for Target Plaza, a pedestrian public space that will connect Target Field to downtown Minneapolis.

Target Field will have 40,000 seats and the cost of its construction is $412 million.

The Minnesota Ballpark Authority (MBA) is overseeing the project which is an effort between the Minnesota community and the Twins, with a public contribution of $350 million and $130 million from the baseball franchise. Target Field is the culmination of a 10-year effort to return outdoor baseball to Minnesota.

If you want to check on the progress of Target Field, you can check the webcam that the Twins added to their official website where it shows the entire process of the construction.

Here:

http://minnesota.twins.mlb.com/min/ballpark/new_ballpark_webcam.jsp

There is something for sure: if the Giants and Jets allow their new stadium to be named Allianz, it would create an uncomfortable environment for many fans when visiting the new arena at the Meadowlands.

The reason?

Allianz is an insurance company that had heavy tights with the Nazis at World War II. The company, which is based on Munich, sold accident insurances to engineers handling the Zyklon B gas at Auschwitz.

Allianz claims that they have spent decades trying to make up for the company’s past wrongdoings, but all in all, the total they’ve paid to holocaust victims is $12 million, not even half of the $30 million they are offering the city of New York for naming their new stadium Allianz Stadium, which the former director of the World Jewish Congress (who negotiated restitutions with German companies) Elan Steinberg, considers it as “nothing more than a pittance,” as according to him, Allianz still owes beneficiaries around $2 billion.

Allianz is one of the finalists for naming rights, but most likely they will not win as both NFL teams might prefer to stay out of controversy.

For some reason I think this is the year for the Cowboys, even non-sports related, as they were ranked number one by Forbes Magazine as the most valuable franchise in the NFL and with a new stadium coming next year.

On the other hand, the Vikings were ranked last among the 32 teams in the league.

The team with the biggest jump in the rankings was the Colts who went from 21^st to 8^th due to their new Lucas Oil Field on which the Colts opened this season.

An interesting note is that just 10 years ago when Forbes first valued NFL teams, the average franchise was worth between $250 and $300 million dollars, now the average is one billion.

Here are the teams that ranked at the first five positions according to Forbes:

1. Cowboys at $1.612 billion
2. Redskins at $1.538 billion
3. Patriots at $1.324 billion
4. Giants at $1.178 billion
5. Jets at $$1.178 billion

Both NY teams share a growth of 21% from last year’s rankings due to their new stadium, the Giants went from 8^th to 4^th and the Jets went from 10^th to 5^th.

It seems like the Packers and the Patriots are now in similar conditions since both of their regular starting quarterbacks are no more. On one side we have the Pack without Favre, who flew to NY and became Broadway Brett and on the other we have the Pats who just lost Tom Brady, who was considered the best quarterback in the league before the injury he suffered just 7 minutes after New England’s first game of the regular season, which is leaving him out of competition at least until next year.

So as replacements are coming:

Aaron Rodgers for the Packers, a guy that was the shadow of Brett Favre during three seasons and whom just won a lot of trust from Green Bay fans as he finished with a victory on his first NFL regular season start.

Matt Cassel for the Patriots, who is arriving in the same conditions Tom Brady did when he had to replace Drew Bledsoe back in 2001, when he led New England to 14 victories in route to their first NFL championship, now is Cassel’s turn to prove that he has what it takes to replace Brady, but as for what we saw in the game against the Chiefs where he played a few minutes, it will be a hard task since the Chiefs are considered one of the worst NFL teams and Cassel barely carried the Pats through the rest of the game after Brady’s injury.

Now that the pressure is more on Cassel than on Rodgers, let’s check on week 2 when the Packers face the Lions and the Patriots face the Jets.

First Monday night football match is quite interesting, with the Vikings as favorites to win the NFC north, and the Packers with a young and inexperienced quarterback, things are surely favoring Minnesota, and the only advantage for the Pack tonight is that they are opening their regular season playing at Lambeau field.

There are a couple of good reasons not to miss tonight’s game between Green Bay and the Vikings, the first one is their long-time rivalry, the second one is the tampering charges that the Packers filed against Minnesota due to their interest and contacts between them and Brett Favre when the now-Jets-quarterback was trying to be released from the Pack so he could go and play somewhere else, and there is no secret that the Vikings was one of his first true options.

So be sure of one thing: Vikings coach Brad Childress and Packers coach Mike McCarthy might shake hands at the end of the game, but there would be cero honesty on that ‘friendly’ gesture.

After 16 seasons wearing the Packers uniform, Brett Favre is finally going to be cheered by different fans on Sunday, when the Jets face the Dolphins on their regular season opening game.

New York at Miami is a very interesting game, with both franchises having a terrible last season, they are sure their renewal processes during the off-season is going to make them stronger in order to fight at the AFC East that is tougher now more than ever with only the Bills seeming to go unnoticed this current 08/09 NFL season.

Favorite here? The Jets because of Favre, but we’ll have to wait and see how is Miami working for Chad Pennington, whom is the hope of the young Dolphins. ``I think the guy will do a great job of managing our team,'' Miami’s coach Tony Sparano said of Pennington.

After winning 3 MVP awards with the Pack, it seemed like Favre was going to play for Green Bay his entire career, but last off-season, he brought the retirement possibility to the table again, a situation that was turning into a bad habit and into a childish attitude from the all-star quarterback. So I would say that I’m agree with the Pack, Favre had to remain retired or coming back as the supporting QB for Aaron Rodgers, otherwise it would had been just one more chapter in the Brett Favre soap opera.

1. Is a fact that Aaron Rodgers is not a better quarterback because Brett Favre barely gave him the chance to shine, but now that he’s the starting quarterback for the Packers, he will try to prove that he deserved this opportunity a long time ago, and of course, playing in the NFL’s weakest division doesn’t hurt at all.

2. Tony Romo has been ranked as the second best quarterback of the past season, and now he’s ready to lead the Cowboys to the Superbowl, while LaDainian Tomlinson is eager to help the Chargers to face Dallas at the most important game of the season, so Dallas and San Diego is my prediction with no pick between these two for a winner.

3. Bill Parcells still needs a miracle to make the Dolphins a contender.

4. Brett Favre is one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history, but he’s no messiah, and the Jets still has lots of flaws to go for something more than a decent record this season.

5. If Tom Brady gets seriously injured, the truth will come to light about the Patriots: they are weak without Brady’s help.

It seems like the Packers have a harder test than the Jets at NFL Week 1, with Green Bay facing their divisional nemesis, the Vikings, which is going to be the first true test for Aaron Rodgers to prove that he has what it takes to lead the Pack.

Though Rodgers have been booed at Lambeau Field before, Packers fans knows that he’s the starting quarterback for their team, and from now on they will have to show him more support if they want Rodgers to play motivated.

The same day (September 7), the Jets will be facing the Dolphins, the new team of former Jets starting quarterback Chad Pennington in what is expected to be the most interesting game of the ones scheduled for such date.

Aaron Rodgers might have it easier than Brett Favre as he has the support of a great renewed Packers defense with players like Donald Driver, Ryan Grant and Greg Jennings, while Favre is currently dealing with the fact that he’s been with the Jets less than 2 months, and he needs to adjust to a whole different tactical scheme and one of the most complex offenses in NFL this season, “The whole season in itself will be, as I've always felt about my career, that you're learning each game." Favre said.

Who will have more wins during this season: The rookie Rodgers or the holder of the record for most victories in NFL regular season history (with 160) Favre? Make your bets…

How odd is what just occurred to John Lynch, as the 36 year-old veteran was released from the Patriots just two weeks after reaching a 1-year contract worth $1.5 million.

The reason? Well the Pats are known for letting veteran players go and then acquiring them back when needed, and it looks like Lynch is under that veil of players, so chances are that he will make it back sooner than one might think.

The 9- time pro-bowler was acquired by the Patriots in replacement of Tank Williams who is out due to a knee injury that will keep him away for at least a year. Lynch played in 3 pre-season games with the Pats and is hopeful of coming back to the team soon.

"I have no regrets about my time thus far with the Patriots, the immense respect that I've long held for the organization has been only heightened over the past couple of weeks. I am going to keep all options open and look forward with excitement to see what the future brings." He said, after hearing the news of his dismissal.

Before coming to the Pats, Lynch played four seasons for the Broncos and 11 for the Bucs, with whom he earned a Super Bowl ring in Super Bowl XXXVII.