Even with no official word from anybody, it's already been a big day for Big Ben news.

ESPN's Adam Schefter, your one-stop-shop for all things Roethlisberger rumor, says that the Steelers are actively contacting teams with draft picks in the top 10, and that one team is considering trading for Roethlisberger.

Who might that team be? And might we be getting ahead of ourselves if we tried to identify them? Absolutely. But let's do it anyway, because it's Wednesday afternoon, and what else are we going to do? The top 10 looks like this:

1. St. Louis Rams
2. Detroit Lions
3. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
4. Washington Redskins
5. Kansas City Chiefs
6. Seattle Seahawks
7. Cleveland Browns
8. Oakland Raiders
9. Buffalo Bills
10. Jacksonville Jaguars

Four of those teams can be eliminated immediately: The Lions, because they've got young buck Matthew Stafford(notes); the Redskins, because they just traded for Donovan McNabb(notes); the Chiefs, because they've made a pretty heavy financial investment in

Mel Kiper, Toddy McShay and Mike Mayock all thing they're soooooooo smart, but none of them have ever answered this vital question: What would all the top draft prospects look like if they were crafted entirely of lunch meat?

Well, there you go.

That's Ndamukong Suh and C.J. Spiller, Subway endorsers, crafted entirely of pepperoni, olives, cheese and various other delicious materials. Tomorrow night, I expect Roger Goodell to say something like, "With the eighth pick in the 2010 NFL Draft, the Oakland Raiders select ... C.J. Spiller. Meat version."

I always thought it odd that the NFL took a Sunday night off in deference to Major League Baseball.

There's always a World Series game on a Sunday night in late October, and the NFL has always taken that night off. I didn't think it was bad, of course -- just odd. It seemed like the NFL was making a friendly gesture, saying, "Hey, this is your big moment, you guys should have the stage all to yourselves. Let's not compete."

So, out of pure friendliness, the NFL gave up a television audience for a night, and all the money that comes with it. Cooperation, at the expense of cash. Like I said, odd.

They're done being friendly, though. This year, the Pittsburgh Steelers travel to New Orleans to face the Saints on Sunday night, October 31st, and that game could end up going head-to-head with game four of the World Series.

Said Roger Goodell last night on the NFL Network:

"The rationale is that Sunday Night Football has become a staple, and people want to watch football for the entire

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[UPDATE III: If you're wondering how the commissioner justifies the suspension, in light of the fact that Ben Roethlisberger(notes) was never charged with anything, here's how Roger Goodell explained his decision:

"I recognize that the allegations in Georgia were disputed and that they did not result in criminal charges being filed against you,” he said in his letter to the two-time Super Bowl winner, a six-year veteran.

"My decision today is not based on a finding that you violated Georgia law, or on a conclusion that differs from that of the local prosecutor. That said, you are held to a higher standard as an NFL player, and there is nothing about your conduct in Milledgeville that can remotely be described as admirable, responsible, or consistent with either the values of the league or the expectations of our fans."

Roethlisberger has yet to comment publicly.

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[UPDATE II: The NFL has officially confirmed that

A possible Donovan McNabb(notes)/Terrell Owens reunion was on everyone's mind yesterday, as ESPN reported that McNabb was nudging the Redskins toward offering Owens a contract.

McNabb, though, is denying he ever said anything. Via Redskins Insider at the Washington Post, McNabb told Michael Wilbon -- yes, Michael Wilbon personally knows Donovan McNabb, and if that happens to make you think Wilbon is super cool, then there's nothing Wilbon can do about that -- that he hasn't said word one to the Redskins about signing Owens.

New head coach Mike Shanahan poured cold water on it, too, telling ESPN last night that the Redskins, as an organization, have decided "not to go in that direction." "That direction," in this case, being spiraling towards chaos.

So it looks like it won't be happening, at least not in the immediate future. That's probably good news if you're a Redskins fan, but bad news if you're someone who wouldn't mind seeing a little extra drama and tension within the Redskins.

Finally, we've got concrete, tangible NFL football games to look forward to. The NFL's 2010 season is no longer some mythical, shapeless thing that will happen in the future. It can now be quantified with a concrete schedule that you can put in your wallet or stick to your refrigerator. That's when you know it's real.

As always, the scheduling gods were nicer to some teams than they were to others. Here's the schedule difficulty, in handy chart from, of each team in the league. The difficulty is ranked in order of opponents' combined winning percentage last year. It's not a perfect measure, but it's the best we'll have until the season's over.

As you can see, the Texans were unmercifully shafted, getting the league's toughest slate. I consider this a cosmic punishment for being a vogue playoff pick the past two years, and failing both times.

At the bottom of the list, you'll notice a bunch of teams that play in divisions that end with the word "West." That's because both of those

This time of year, mock drafts are nearly as common as claims of deviant sexual behavior made against Ben Roethlisberger. Every blog has one (or twenty), and your bigger sports sites like ESPN.com or NFL.com could be home to somewhere around 35,829 mock drafts.

But by the time the first round is over and Friday's upon us, you'll hear about how no one's mock draft was right, or even close to right. The most first-round picks anyone will get right is probably eight or nine out of 32, and then we'll deride the mock drafts and all who penned them as ignorant, useless wastes of precious internet space.

If doing that makes you happy, fine, but I think you're kind of missing the point. No one does a mock draft with the goal of getting 32 picks right -- we're all well aware that that's not going to happen (except for this one; it might be exactly right). I honestly think you'd have a better chance of filling out a perfect NCAA bracket or guessing the precise number of chest hairs on Jeff

When Roger Goodell initially took office as NFL commissioner, he promised that he'd be tough on crime and restore a sense of law and order to the league. And I thought, "Oh, tremendous. Just like every politician in the history of the world who has ever made similar promises and failed to make a difference."

Oddly enough, though, it is working.

Brent Schrotenboer of the San Diego Union-Tribune looked at the numbers this weekend, and Goodell's war on crime has actually been really effective. In the year before Goodell took office, there were 79 arrests of NFL players. The year after, 65. The year after that, 61. And this year, there have been just 44. That's almost a 45 percent drop in just three years.

My first reaction? Extreme surprise, for a couple of reasons.

First, the "exceedingly harsh penalties as a deterrent" philosophy, historically, has almost never worked. But in this case, it is -- not necessarily on the players, though, but on the people in charge of deciding what players