The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, after coming oh-so-close to hiring Oregon's Chip Kelly, have apparently now landed on Greg Schiano of Rutgers. ESPN's Adam Schefter says Rutgers and Schiano are close to a deal. It seems like the choice of Schiano comes out of nowhere. His name hadn't once been associated with any of the other coaching vacancies around the league. In fact, the last time...

-- Ongoing discussions of the St. Louis Rams' stadium situation have a lot of people wondering if the team will be in a different location by 2015. The St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission has been discussing the financial permutations of turning the Edward Jones Dome into a "first-tier" facility (read: more luxury boxes). The Rams currently have a lease through 2025, but...

I almost caught a shotgun snap during the North squad's Senior Bowl practice on Wednesday. I should have been in no position to catch a shotgun snap. I was not on the field, but behind a fence at the back of the end zone. Kevin Zeitler's pre-practice warm-up snap sailed over Kellen Moore's head and struck the top of the fence about two feet to my right. It was the first of many adventurous...

With all the folderol about the future of Peyton Manning, and the alleged coldness in the halls of the Indianapolis Colts' head offices, and all the Rob Lowe "breaking news," and Jim Irsay's ongoing twtterpation, the decision to replace ex-head coach Jim Caldwell with a new man was done in surprisingly under-the-radar fashion. On Wednesday the team announced that former Baltimore...

Brandon Thompson can go home now if he wants to. There is nothing left to accomplish. Thompson (DT, Clemson) came to the Senior Bowl as one of the top defensive line prospects in the draft pool. There was talk of a slow start on Monday, but Monday is in the rearview mirror. Thompson made so many plays in the backfield during 11-on-11 drills that it might be easier to list the times...

Up through the NFL Draft, Shutdown Corner blogger Kristian Dyer will be training at TEST Sports Club in Martinsville, N.J. along with roughly 20 players. All of these athletes are prepping for the NFL Combine, different pro days and of course, the NFL Draft in April. A former college soccer player, Kristian was a playground legend at quarterback back in middle school but never played...

It may be spicier than the "Super Bowl Shuffle", but for New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz, he is hoping it too will end with a victory dance and a hoisting of the Vince Lombardi Trophy. Cruz has made famous a celebratory salsa dance - a tribute to his Puerto Rican heritage with the steps taught to him by his grandmother when he was in middle school. In his second year in...

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has been accused of turning the NFL into the 'No Fun League', but today, he's taken a bold step to fight back against that label. He's not only allowing players to tweet during the Pro Bowl ‒ he's setting up computer stations on the sidelines to help them do so. Which is exactly how a man who is no fun would combat allegations...

The North and South squads follow very different practice schedules. Mike Shanahan and the South coaches make offensive and defensive players face off early in practice, so we can cut to the chase and start watching Quinton Coples and Cordy Glenn try to kill each other. Leslie Frazier's North squad starts with special teams drills, then individual position drills, then offensive...

Cleveland Plain-Dealer sportswriter Tony Grossi was removed from his job as Browns beat writer after he posted an insulting tweet about team owner Randy Lerner. Last week, Grossi sent out the following message regarding Lerner: "He's a pathetic figure, the most irrelevant billionaire in the world." He later deleted the tweet and apologized about it, blaming every social networker...

The opening sentence on the bio page of Birdman's official website reads: "With all of his elaborate possessions - from jewels to cars and homes; his cash money making ventures- from music to videogames to shoes and clothing; Bryan "Birdman aka Baby" Williams is poised to continue shining in everything he does." He once told Forbes magazine he tries to wear $1 million worth of orthodontics...

You know how the NFL has been so concerned about concussions and head injuries and has made an effort ‒ some might even call it an overzealous effort ‒ to limit players' risk to head injuries? Not everyone shares the league's concern. Some players, in fact, when they know a guy has had head injuries, will make it a point to inflict even more damage to that fellow'...

You'd have to go back to 1963 to find a Raiders head coach in either Oakland or Los Angeles who wasn't hired by Al Davis, and that coach back in 1963 was … Al Davis. A few months after Davis' passing, and shortly after the team fired Hue Jackson, the Raiders announced that Denver Broncos defensive coordinator Dennis Allen will be their new head coach. Allen is the first defensive...

Running backs Chris Rainey of Florida and Chris Polk of Washington were singled out by their head coaches for their outstanding play during Tuesday night's Senior Bowl press conferences. South squad coach Mike Shanahan (Redskins) praised Rainey for his ability to play running back, slot receiver, and split end. "He picked things up quickly," Shanahan said of the 5-foot...

We've got a special treat for all you draftniks — Mike Tanier of Football Outsiders is down in Mobile for Shutdown Corner to cover all the sights from the Senior Bowl. This is his second of many practice reports. You should also follow Mike at @FO_MTanier for further updates and general football wisdom! The real action was in the trenches during the South squad's Senior...

Today, we say goodbye to the Baltimore Ravens, a team that has many players who are not Billy Cundiff, though it's been easy to forget that over the past couple of days. Fact: the Ravens were good enough to be a Super Bowl team this season; it just didn't happen to work out that way. One pass couldn't be squeezed and one kick went wide left, and we go from elation (or at least contentment...

If you're the type of fan who prefers to think of a Giants/Patriots game as a duel between purple, cycloptic club-wielding monsters and revolutionary war soldiers, then the Taiwanese animators at Next Media Animation really have their fingers on the pulse of this matchup for you. Note: There is a version in English, but I prefer the Chinese-language one, just to add to the "I don...

We've got a special treat for all you draftniks — Mike Tanier of Football Outsiders is down in Mobile for Shutdown Corner to cover all the sights from the Senior Bowl. This is his first of many practice reports. You should also follow Mike at @FO_MTanier for further updates and other football wisdom! After a rain-soaked Monday, the weather in Mobile was sunny and cool for the North...

Having had a couple of opportunities to speak with San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh on media calls this year, I'm well aware that while the man clearly knows as much about football as anyone on the planet, he's not always very open with reporters. That's not unusual among coaches, though it's a bit jarring when you live in Seattle and are used to Pete Carroll's two-page...

Well, there's one thing we DO know about Peyton Manning — he's watched Francis Ford Coppola's 1983 adaptation of "The Outsiders," S.E. Hinton's seminal book that this writer read about 100 times growing up. Rob Lowe's recent pseudo-announcement of Manning's retirement brought the quarterback to Lowe's role as the middle brother in that movie. "I never thought `Sodapop Curtis' would...

Say you're lucky enough to be a New York Giants or New England Patriots fan. Your dream came true on Sunday, and now you want to head to Indianapolis to see your team win it all. Is it even possible for a regular person to get tickets to the game? The answer is yes, if that regular person is ready to part with a large amount of cash. Don't expect to get tickets through your team...

Rob Gronkowski's eyes get big when he realizes that someone's speaking a language other than English, but then he flashes his mad Español skills and settles into a groove. By the time he's done, you know just about everything you need to know about Rob Gronkowski. If Super Bowl week passes and I don't see anyone wearing a #87 Patriots jersey with "YO SOY FIESTA...

No one has provided more information on Billy Cundiff's miss than Stefan Fatsis, author of "A Few Seconds of Panic", a book about his brief stint as a backup kicker with the Denver Broncos in training camp. For Deadspin, Fatsis has talked with Cundiff and has his own uniquely qualified perspective on the yank. To summarize — and you should go read the whole thing...

Sunday night, after Billy Cundiff missed a field goal that would have given the Baltimore Ravens a chance to make the Super Bowl, ESPN's Skip Bayless tweeted that field goal kicking should be banned because of Cundiff's missed kick. Cundiff's teammate, Terrell Suggs, called in to Bayless' show, "First Take," on Monday morning. He spoke with Skip Bayless...

Peyton Manning was but an observer on Championship Sunday, a time of year when he's so often been the center of attention. He was at a football game yesterday, but only to cheer for his brother Eli. He was on your TV, too, hustling pizza with Jerome Bettis and the Papa. Next year, Peyton hopes to be back on the field, though there's uncertainty about where that might be. The Colts...