SANTA CLARA, Calif. — When Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers makes his first career appearance at Candlestick Park, the home stadium of the team he idolized as a child, all eyes will be on the former Cal star who was notoriously spurned by the San Francisco 49ers in the 2005 NFL draft.

For 49ers cornerbacks Tarell Brown and Carlos Rogers, two men whose mission is to prevent the 'Stick from becoming Mr. Rodgers' Neighborhood, Saturday night's NFC divisional playoff game represents a golden opportunity to display their shutdown skills to the masses.

Tarell Brown breaks up a pass in the end zone intended for Patriots WR Deion Branch last month. (AP)"When you make it to the playoffs, man, you want to go against the best, just to prove to everybody else that you can play with the elite players," Brown said Wednesday. "Anytime you're playing a big-time game, you definitely want the pressure to be on you. So, for us, it's a challenge — and it's a challenge we're going to live up to. It's gonna be fun. It's exciting. They'll make plays as well as we will, and let the best

Read More »from Niners DB admits it's 'gonna be real tough' keeping Aaron Rodgers in check again

Nick Saban, the undisputed emperor of college football, has everything he could ever want in Tuscaloosa: Three national titles in four seasons; a great shot at another one a year from now; the best players; no static from anyone, including the browbeaten reporters who cover him; and the whole world kissing his feet.

Thus it's no surprise that I think Saban, whose name has naturally come up in conversations among some NFL teams conducting coaching searches, should stay in Tuscaloosa.

Nick Saban is dunked with Gatorade in the final seconds of the BCS title game win over Notre Dame. (AP)Yet there's another, far more compelling reason Saban should stick to the college game: He's too much of a hard ass — and too much of a lightweight — to survive in the big leagues.

As with Crash Davis, he's far more suited to being the king of the minors.

After coaching Alabama to a 42-14 victory in Monday night's BCS title game, Saban told reporters he's staying at the school, saying, "Maybe this is where I belong, and I'm really happy and at peace with that."

Then again, this is the

Read More »from Dictator Nick Saban indeed better off staying in school instead of returning to NFL

BALTIMORE — During his 14 seasons of professional football, Brendon Ayanbadejo has enjoyed an abundance of enriching experiences. He has seen the world, having played for teams in Vancouver, Toronto and Amsterdam; he has worn the uniforms of the Dolphins, Bears and Ravens; he has played in three Pro Bowls and a Super Bowl; he has been publicly rebuked by a politician for speaking his mind; and he once sat in Nick Saban's office and told him he "should devote more time to coaching and less time to being a jerk."

On Sunday morning, however, Ayanbadejo was privy to a moment that may move right to the top shelf of his memory bank. As the passenger in fellow Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis' white Infiniti on the drive from the team's downtown hotel to M&T Bank Stadium, where Baltimore was hosting the Indianapolis Colts in a first-round AFC playoff game, he had a shotgun seat on one of football's most celebrated last rides.

Ray Lewis celebrates with a victory lap around the field following the Ravens' win over the Colts. (AP)What Ayanbadejo witnessed was an outpouring of

Read More »from Morning Rush: Teammate says Ray Lewis was 'nervous' prior to last home game with Ravens

BALTIMORE — As the roaring lungs and stomping feet of 71,379 fans had M&T Bank Stadium pulsating with energy early in the fourth quarter Sunday, Ravens star pass rusher Terrell Suggs felt an equally intense throbbing in his surgically repaired right heel.

With the home team protecting an eight-point lead against an Indianapolis Colts offense that had yet to reach the end zone, Suggs briefly considered heading to the sidelines. Just as quickly, "T-Sizzle,"  whose mere presence in the Ravens' lineup is considered somewhat of a, minor medical miracle, bit his lip and rejected the possibility.

On this emotional, ceremonial and utterly surreal afternoon, leaving was not an option.

Ray Lewis celebrates after a play during the first half. (AP)"My Achilles started acting up, and it felt pretty bad, but I was like, '[Expletive] that,' " Suggs said shortly after the Ravens had closed out a 24-9 AFC wild-card victory over the franchise that formerly played in Baltimore. "I wasn't going to let a repaired tendon steal our glory. We had

Read More »from Fired-up Ravens complete first step of sending iconic LB Ray Lewis off in style

Two years ago, the earth shook in Seattle, and Pete Carroll stood at the epicenter, harboring no illusions about his football team's flimsy foundation.

In the first season of his third stint as an NFL head coach, after having restored USC to national prominence during a wildly successful nine-year run, Carroll watched excitedly as his Seattle Seahawks surged to a stunning first-round upset of the defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints. So energized was the crowd at CenturyLink Field that during the night's most scintillating sequence, Marshawn Lynch's epic, 67-yard, game-clinching touchdown run, a seismic event literally took place.

Yet even amid the madness of that Saturday night, and certainly in the aftermath of the Seahawks' 35-24 divisional-round defeat to the Chicago Bears the following weekend, Carroll and his closest confidante, rookie general manager John Schneider, stood their ground and stuck to their plan.

Instead of viewing the team's unlikely

Read More »from USC 2.0: Pete Carroll brings same approach to Seahawks that made his Trojans champs

The man in the black pullover, black pants and black skullcap crouched next to the visitors' bench at Qualcomm Stadium, his hands on his knees, his energy emanating everywhere. Just before the ball was snapped, he reached down, grabbed a bit of sideline chalk and rubbed it vigorously in his hands.

I couldn't tell if Ray Lewis was doing this for good luck, or as a means of trying to convince himself he was actually part of the action. Whatever the great linebacker's intent, his intensity was awe-inspiring.

As Baltimore Ravens receiver Tandon Doss took a short pass from Joe Flacco and slithered across midfield with three minutes left in overtime of a Nov. 25 game between the Ravens and San Diego Chargers, the 37-year-old Lewis still served as his team's emotional epicenter.

Ray Lewis speaks to referee Gene Steratore during the Ravens' victory over the Chargers. (Getty Images)"That's a first down!" Lewis screamed as he sprung from his crouch and uncoiled his sculpted body, making the corresponding arm gesture for effect. "Let's go! Come on!"

A few minutes later, as rookie

Read More »from Is Ray Lewis the greatest gridiron leader ever?

They call it Black Monday, and when nearly a quarter of the NFL's head-coaching population is wiped out in a matter of hours — including three men that led their teams to Super Bowls, one of whom went 10-6 in 2012 — it's clear that this is one bit of football-related hyperbole that may actually be understated.

With seven coaches fired on the day following the end of the regular season and an eighth, the New Orleans Saints' Joe Vitt, preparing to yield the floor to Sean Payton when the exiled coach's season-long suspension ends, there were more boxes being hastily packed in NFL facilities Monday than there were a week earlier at a certain bearded benefactor's North Pole workshop.

[Related: Tracking all of the NFL coach/GM firings]

Sudden turnover is no longer remarkable in a league which has reinforced its 21st century standing as the sports world's most unremitting win-or-else enterprise. At least two more head coaches, the Jacksonville Jaguars' Mike Mularkey and the

Read More »from Black Monday delivers harsh blows, uncertainty

As the final hours of a memorable 2012 regular season played out in living color, Denver Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey sat back, relaxed and enjoyed a hi-def glimpse into his past.

Bailey, whose Broncos had earlier claimed the AFC's No. 1 playoff seed with a 38-3 cold-cocking of the calamitous Kansas City Chiefs, spent Sunday night watching the Washington Redskins secure the league's 12th and final postseason slot with a 28-18, NFC East-clinching victory over the Dallas Cowboys.

Champ Bailey is in his ninth season with the Broncos. (USA TODAY Sports)Bailey, fresh off his 12th Pro Bowl selection and still seeking a Super Bowl ring at age 34, had all sorts of nostalgic pangs as he stared at the television set. The 'Skins, the team that picked him in the first round of the 1999 NFL draft, were gunning for their first division title since his rookie season. And Washington's current coach, ex-Broncos boss Mike Shanahan, was the man who brought the future Hall of Famer to Denver in March of 2004, trading star halfback Clinton Portis for Bailey

Read More »from Morning Rush: Champ Bailey takes stroll down Memory Lane after Broncos wrap up No. 1 seed