(USA Today Sports Images)

Former NFL great Tim Brown made one of the most baffling, hard to believe claims you'll ever hear - even in a post-Manti Te'o hoax world - on Tuesday when he suggested Raiders coach Bill Callahan sabotaged Super Bowl XXXVII.

Well, given a day to think about it (or given a day to to hear from his lawyers, perhaps) Brown is softening his stance.

On Tuesday: "We all called it sabotage...because Callahan and Gruden were good friends," Brown said on an interview with SiriusXM NFL Radio.

On Wednesday: “I’ve never said [Callahan] sabotaged the game,” Brown said on the Dan Patrick Show.

Oh. OK then.

[Related: Bill Callahan 'shocked, saddened over allegations]

(USA Today Sports Images)

Judging by the effort in the Pro Bowl recently, it is reasonable to assume the players wouldn't mind seeing it go. Yet, the highest profile player at the game is fighting to keep the Pro Bowl alive.

Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning, in what has become an annual speech at the Pro Bowl before practices begin, asked the players to play hard and save the game, according to two separate reports from NFL.com reporters.

Peyton Manning is currently giving a rousing speech to Pro Bowl selections about giving a full effort to keep Goodell from canceling game.

— Jeff Darlington (@JeffDarlington) January 23, 2013

The NFL.com story said Manning made "an impassioned plea for a return to a time when players cared about the NFL's all-star game and played at full speed."

There's much of America that loves kicking the Patriots when they're down, and if the Pats kick back, well, so much the better.

Several days after the AFC championship, talk continues to center on whether New England quarterback Tom Brady intentionally tried to kick Baltimore safety Ed Reed while scrambling late in the first half. Was it a slide gone wrong? An attempt to injure? Competition? Poor sportsmanship? You can make a case in every direction.

[Related: Ravens' Ed Reed overshadowed by Ray Lewis' last hurrah]

Reed himself has his own thoughts. Speaking to WJZ-FM, he said, "Leg is feeling all right. A little sore right now. A little slide kick, you know what I'm saying. But it's a tough spot the quarterback's in. You know, I understand Brady's point. Him protecting himself. I know he's a great player. I respect Brady and his game for all it stands for, and I know he's not a dirty player. And emotions get going in the game."

As NFL.com reported, he continued: "I told him ... you

Bill Callahan denies allegations he "sabotaged" Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII (USA Today Sports Images)

Former Oakland Raiders head coach Bill Callahan issued a statement to ESPN on Tuesday denying allegations from wide receivers Tim Brown and Jerry Rice that he "sabotaged" the Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII.

"While I fully understand a competitive professional football player's disappointment when a game's outcome doesn't go his team's way, I am shocked, saddened and outraged by Tim Brown's allegations and Jerry Rice's support of those allegations made through various media outlets over the last 24 hours," Callahan said. "To leave no doubt, I categorically and unequivocally deny the sum and substance of their allegations."

[Related: Tim Brown suggests Bill Callahan 'sabotaged' Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII]

In a Saturday interview with SiriusXM NFL Radio, Brown suggested that Callahan had "sabotaged" the Raiders' efforts to win that game by altering the game plan on Friday, going from a run-heavy game plan during the week to pass-heavy play-calling against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who boasted the NFL's No. 1-ranked defense against the pass. Brown also suggested that Callahan may have done so due his loyalties to Jon Gruden, the Raiders' head coach from 1998-2001 before leaving the organization to coach the Buccaneers, and that Callahan "hated" the Raiders' organization.

Former Raiders fullback Jon Ritchie, a former analyst at ESPN, has confirmed that the Raiders' offensive approach in Super Bowl XXXVII differed from what the game plan that had been implemented. Rice, who played on that Raiders team, supported Brown's comments during an appearance on ESPN's "NFL Live" program on Tuesday.

"I was very surprised that he waited till the last second and I think a lot of the players they were surprised also so in a way maybe because he didn't like the Raiders he decided 'Hey look maybe we should sabotage just a little bit and let Jon Gruden go out and win this one,' " Rice said on Tuesday.

Sloane Stephens in Australia. (Getty Images)Nineteen-year-old Sloane Stephens became the talk of the sports world when she upset Serena Williams at the Australian Open quarterfinals, and she certainly advanced the family name (especially in the Twitter world) by doing so. But she's not the first member of the Stephens family to gain fame in sports. Her father John, selected in the first round of the 1988 NFL draft out of Northwestern State, won the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award that season after he gained 1,168 yards and scored four touchdowns on 297 carries.

Stephens played seven years in the league -- five for the Patriots, one for the Green Bay Packers, and one for the Kansas City Chiefs -- and he was out of football after the 1993 season. That was the same year Sloane Stephens was born.

Sadly, John Stephens is no longer with us to enjoy his daughter's athletic exploits -- he died in an automobile accident in September of 2009 on a stretch of Louisiana's Highway 169 when he lost control of his truck, veered off the

(AP)One of the biggest draft busts in NFL history is trying to re-kindle his football career. Yahoo! Sports has learned that JaMarcus Russell is planning a comeback attempt that he hopes will see him play in the league again. The former No. 1 pick in the 2007 NFL draft has not played a single NFL snap since the 2009 season with the Oakland Raiders.

The reclamation of Russell will follow a tricky road for a quarterback who was always known more for his physical blessings than technique. Russell, 27, who has effectively been out of football since tryouts with the Washington Redskins and Miami Dolphins in 2010, might find overcoming himself his biggest challenge. Currently at 308 pounds, Russell is down from the 320 pounds he weighed this past fall and has been focusing on cardio conditioning the past six weeks to lose the weight.

“My first year out, I couldn’t watch football but after a while, I couldn’t keep the TV off. I got that itchy feeling but now I gotta watch it, gotta watch,” Russell said.

“The last few years, the things going through my life, football is my job and it is how it feeds my family. People would say [that] I didn’t love the game but that pisses me off. People don’t know the real you but I want people to know the real me and see what I can do. People are always saying that I’m a bust. I want show them I’m not. I’m committed to this now.”

Yahoo! Sports has learned that Russell’s mentor through this whole process is former NFL wide receiver Mike Clayton, who like Russell is a LSU product. Over the next couple months, Russell will be training with Brian Martin of TEST Football Academy and TEST West, whose draft products include Joe Flacco and Patrick Peterson among others. In addition, former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jeff Garcia (quarterback technique training), Olympian Ato Boldon (speed training and analysis), Dr. Robert Price of Elite Minds (mental and psychological analysis), former NFL wide receiver Quinn Early (disciplinary work and focus), former New York Giants quarterback Scott Brunner (reading defenses and classroom sessions) and NFL Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk (reading defenses) will work as part of the team trying to reclaim the quarterback’s promise.

Jay Ratliff at the Dec. 11 funeral for Jerry Brown. (AP)Apparently, it takes more than the death of a friend and teammate, and the arrest and incarceration of another, to wake Dallas Cowboys nose tackle Jay Ratliff to the simple reality that driving drunk is a really stupid thing to do.

Cowboys linebacker Jerry Brown was killed on Dec. 8 when a car driven by defensive lineman Josh Brent flipped and caught fire on State Highway 114. Brent was indicted on one count of intoxication manslaughter and faces up to 20 years in prison if he is convicted. Brent is free on $100,000 bond and he is required to wear an alcohol monitor.

Ratliff was arrested on that same highway after his 2012 Ford pickup crashed into an 18-wheeler, and he was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated after he reportedly refused to take a breathalyzer test. Neither Ratliff nor the driver of the 18-wheeler were injured.

It's as confounding and infuriating a situation as possible, because given what happened to Brown and the penalties Brent may be in line to receive, you'd think the last person in the world who would drive drunk would be a Dallas Cowboys player.

[Also: NFL reinstates Saints head coach Sean Payton]

Ratliff went through an injury-plauged season in 2012, and has battled with the media and with team owner Jerry Jones. On Tuesday from the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala., Jones said that Ratliff was still a key member of the organization, though it's assumed that the comments were not given with knowledge of Ratliff's arrest.

We all make mistakes, sometimes very big ones. But if we're lucky, there's someone around to pick us up, to help us to our feet, to get us back on the right path. Patrick Peterson of the Arizona Cardinals has taken on this challenge with Tyrann Mathieu, the controversial former LSU cornerback now seeking a job in the NFL. The two are the focus of this week's Yahoo! Sports Outside The Game feature.

Peterson, already a two-time Pro Bowler in just his second year, is an ideal role model for someone like Mathieu. Peterson credits the influence of his father in keeping on the straight-and-narrow. And now Peterson is trying to pay the favor forward, focusing on the disgraced Mathieu. Once a Heisman finalist, Mathieu couldn't avoid trouble and ended up getting kicked off the team in 2012 for drug violations.

Peterson is already an inspiration. And if Mathieu is able to turn his life around, he too will be a role model for young people who have made mistakes, sometimes very big ones.