When Tony Romo(notes) looked around his locker room after today's 24-7 win over the Raiders, he saw a lot of guys he could point to and say, "I am thankful for this guy, because he makes my job easier."

If Bruce Gradkowski(notes) said that about anyone in his locker room, he was just being nice.

The Raiders played hard this afternoon, and while it might be a stretch to say that they gave the Cowboys a game, they didn't embarrass themselves, either. The effort was there. What's not there, though, is the same level of talent enjoyed by most other NFL teams. It becomes especially clear when they play a team like the Cowboys who are loaded at the skill positions. It doesn't even look like the two teams are playing the same sport.

When Tony Romo drops back, he's got guys in front of him who can protect him from a pass rush. With the time that gives him, he's usually able to locate a receiver who has been able to get separation from the defense.

When Gradkowski drops back, he's got about two seconds before a defender crushes him. And if, somehow, he's able to get away from the rush, he'll be looking downfield for an inexperienced receiver who probably has not found a way to beat the coverage.

He's playing with such a high degree of difficulty. It's like he and Romo are both carpenters, and when Romo goes to work, he gets a hammer, a screwdriver, a drill, a saw and a tape measure. Gradkowski gets a ball of yarn and a breadstick.

I felt bad for the Raiders today. They're trying. Tom Cable has them playing hard, but they just don't have the horses. It's not Bruce Gradkowski's fault, and it wasn't entirely JaMarcus's Russell's fault, either. It's a bare cupboard. There are haves and have-nots in the NFL right now, and the Raiders demonstrated to all the haves today just how thankful they should be.

Denver Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels made a slight stir on Sunday when he engaged in some pre-game trash-talking with the Chargers defense. He said to a group of Chargers linebackers before the game, "We own you!" There was no word on what the Chargers might have said previously or in response, but mild-mannered choir boys, I'm sure they were not.

I didn't think much of it myself, but it's gotten the attention of a few people around the league. Among them is Pittsburgh Steelers safety Ryan Clark, who sees McDaniels' actions as a punchable offense.

“Honestly, my thought on that is, I would like to petition Mr. (Roger) Goodell and say, if a coach can talk to me like that, I should be able to fight him,” Clark said. “I don’t know where he’s from, but where I’m from, when somebody talks to you like that, they’ve got a problem with you. And we should be able to fight.

“If a player talks that way, you get to hit him. When a coach talks that way, you don’t really get to strike back. Who wants to have verbal jabs with a coach? That’s no fun. Let’s fight.”

I'm going to go ahead and guess that at the next NFL owners' meetings, there will be no "Yeah, let's do something to get players and coaches involved in fistfights" resolution passed. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for it myself, but it would seem to go against the grain for Roger Goodell.

Tennessee Titans linebacker Keith Bulluck(notes) chimed in, too, saying that coaches have no right to say anything to the players.

Sensitive, sensitive. These guys are about to spend the next three hours listening to all types of verbal abuse, not to mention the physical threat of other gigantic men trying to hurt them. But they're worried about a little chirping from a coach? Seems odd.

The league isn't looking into it and won't do anything about it, so any trash-talking to players will remain up to the preference of the individual coach. McDaniels is the only coach I know if engaging in the practice.

As for players, if they don't like it, they'll just have to take it out on that coach's players. My recommendation would be to lay a good 32-3 beating on his team.

When you shoot as much game action and put as many microphones on as many players as NFL Films does, you're going to catch lightning in a bottle once in a while. So it was when Lions rookie quarterback Matthew Stafford(notes) had the mic on when he led his team to a 38-37 win over the Cleveland Browns last Sunday. Of particular note: Stafford's resolve even when the Lions were down 24-3 in the first quarter; his relationship with offensive coordinator Scott Linehan; his wisecracking with Browns defensive tackle Shaun Rogers(notes), and his absolute determination to get back in the game after tackle C.J. Mosely absolutely crushed Stafford, causing a separated left (non-throwing) shoulder, on the pass play in which Hank Poteat's(notes) interference penalty gave the Lions one extra shot with no time left on the clock.

Stafford was aware enough to know that there was a time-out called by Browns coach Eric Mangini, and that he could go back in the game. From there, it was just about displaying his toughness, telling the trainers to "get the **** off me!"and throwing the game-winning touchdown pass to fellow rookie Brandon Pettigrew(notes) from the one-yard line. Stafford's "I can throw if you need me to throw" moment was special in a Kirk Gibson sense -- the kind of thing that can help a team get back on track after years of dismal results.

But enough of my yakkin' -- here it is. Six minutes of Matthew Stafford.

He was taken out of Toledo in the sixth round of the 2006 draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he's played for several teams, and he was once released by the St. Louis Rams. Bruce Gradkowski(notes) is an unlikely name to take over for the first-overall pick in 2007, but that's exactly what he did when even the Oakland Raiders couldn't take JaMarcus Russell's(notes) abysmal play anymore. What did Gradkowski do with the opportunity of his first Oakland start last Sunday? He simply led the Raiders to a shocking 20-17 upset over the AFC North-leading Cincinnati Bengals. His feature moment was an 80-yard touchdown drive late in the game, in which he showed the kind of mobility and leadership completely foreign to Russell since he game into the league. 17 of 34 for 184 yards and two touchdowns doesn't sound like anything but an average performance, but you have to consider the team -- for the Raiders, these stats signify significant improvement over what came before.

Gradkowski spent his last few days accepting congratulations from the likes of ex-Raiders quarterback Jeff Garcia(notes) (who he basically replaced at Russell's backup) and former coach Jon Gruden (who mentored Gradkowski in Tampa Bay and who, we're quite sure, gave him a snappy nickname at some point). Now, he faces another test in the Dallas Cowboys, who the Raiders will face today in the "middle child" of the NFL's Thanksgiving Triple Play. The strategy for Gradskowki is pretty simple -- roll out of the pocket to create throwing lanes and avoid the batted passes that come with his 6'1" frame, read Dallas' blitz concepts, and simply move on when Darrius Heyward-Bey(notes) drops five or more passes. Oakland's first-round pick this year continued to be a huge liability to the Raiders' offense -- he was targeted six times against the Bengals and caught only one pass.

The Cowboys can match Oakland in high-priced, underachieving receivers; Roy Williams has now mastered the art of smiling after his drops. In their last two games, the supposedly explosive Dallas offense has scored a grand total of 14 points. The most exciting aspect of this game might be the exploits of Oakland punter Shane Lechler(notes), who is channeling the preseason exploits of Titans punter A.J. Trepasso, the guy who hit the big screen at Cowboys Stadium when the Tennessee Titans played there.

"If that guy in Tennessee can hit it, I can hit it," Lechler said this week.

It's no secret that Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers(notes) is taking sacks at a historic rate -- his 43 through 10 games puts him on pace for 69 for the season, and an outside shot at the all-time single-season record of 76, suffered by Houston's David Carr(notes) in 2002. The surprise is that with all those takedowns, Rodgers is still an efficient quarterback. Going into today's game with the Detroit Lions, Rodgers ranks fourth in the NFL with a 102.6 passer rating, and 15th in Football Outsiders' quarterback efficiency rankings. What's most amazing is that he's only given up two fumbles all season, and the Packers didn't lose either one of them.

Last time the Packers and Lions faced off, Green Bay came up on the top end of a 26-0 score on October 18. Rodgers took five sacks and still completed 29 passes in 37 attempts for 358 yards and two touchdowns. The Lions are trying to gain some measure of consistent competitiveness, but you have to wonder what Rodgers can do in the encore to a defense that made Brady Quinn(notes) look like Peyton Manning last week. Rodgers has gone sackless in a game only once this season -- against the Browns in Week 7, but the Packers made some adjustments to their pass protection last week against the 49ers (giving up only two sacks), and that could benefit Rodgers going forward. Gone were the repeated examples of Rodgers and head coach Mike McCarthy beating their heads against the same old seven-step drops, replaced by more short drops and quick strikes. The Packers have the personnel and the formation diversity to make an easier spread-style offense appealing, and that's an offense that Rodgers can run skillfully.

As for the Lions, they're just hoping to have NFC Offensive Player of the Week Matthew Stafford(notes) and Megatron of the Year Calvin Johnson(notes) in this game to match Green Bay's firepower, but as posting time, Stafford is doubtful and Johnson is questionable with what Eric Mangini would call "faked injuries" (a claim he has since redacted). Whoever plays quarterback for the Lions -- Stafford or backup Daunte Culpepper(notes) -- might be able to take advantage of a depleted Packers secondary, looking to replace cornerback Al Harris(notes) and sackmaster Aaron Kampman(notes). (UPDATE: Reports now indicate that Stafford will start). The odds still favor a Packers win at a sold-out Ford Field, but perhaps the Lions can build on their winning performance against Cleveland last week and give their long-suffering fans reason for thanks.

This is an update of a post that first appeared on Shutdown Corner in 2008.

The Detroit Lions playing on Thanksgiving is every bit the holiday tradition as the Macy's Day Parade, awkward dinner-time conversations and endless turkey leftovers. But the team's ineptitude has led to a growing call that  Detroit should have the Thanksgiving game stripped from its schedule in favor of a better matchup for the television-viewing audience. With the Lions entering this year's game sporting a 2-8 record on the heels of a winless 2008, the chorus has grown louder than ever. The NFL needs to ignore it. Detroit is the home of Thanksgiving football. Changing that would rob the league of one of it's best traditions.

Maybe it's my inner-Tevye, but tradition matters. There's something to be said for the fact that the Lions began the NFL Thanksgiving game in 1934. (The Cowboys didn't jump into the fray for another 32 years.) It started off as a promotional gimmick to draw interest to professional football which, at the time, lagged in popularity behind the college game. Since then, Thanksgiving football has been synonymous (for better or worse) with the Detroit Lions.

The game is still vastly popular in Detroit, selling out every year since 1992 in spite of the fact that the Lions have been pretty bad since then. They've had just seven winning seasons since 1973 and have only won one playoff win over that same stretch. (They are two games over .500 on Thanksgiving.) Even with all the football misery fans in Detroit have been subjected to, they still continue to support the Thanksgiving game. One gets the impression that Lions fans are very protective of this tradition and taking it away would cause a mini-revolt. Why alienate one loyal fan base just so you might get a better game?

And that's the reason the NFL would dump the Lions: to get a better match-up. But what are the odds that a match-up that looks good in April will be interesting come late-November? The Monday Night and Sunday Night schedules, which are supposed to feature marquee games, are littered with stinkers because teams under-perform from the previous year. It's impossible to gauge what will be a good game seven months out. (Although it wasn't hard to predict back then that putting the Raiders in a Thanksgiving game was going to be a disaster.)

Let's say Detroit had been booted from Thanksgiving this year, maybe the NFL would have put on Panthers-Jets instead; a contest which looked much better when the schedule was released. If the NFL could flex a game into the Thanksgiving spot, then maybe there'd be something to the argument of booting Detroit. But breaking a 75-year old tradition based on the hope that there might be a better game is senseless. Keep Thanksgiving football in Detroit, where it belongs.

Photo: Getty Images

NFL referee Jerome Boger may have given Vince Young(notes) a high-five Monday night, but it doesn't mean he liked it.

The league released a statement today clarifying that the veteran official did not intend to celebrate with Titans QB at the end of the team's 20-17 victory over the Houston Texans. Young had walked past Boger and gave him a high-five after kneeling down to preserve the victory. It was funny and spontaneous, the sort of feel-good moment that's becoming all too rare in an increasingly humorless NFL. And then the league had to go and ruin it by releasing this statement:

Said an NFL spokesman (via The Houston Chronicle):

"It was not Jerome Boger's intent to exchange a high-five with the player. It began with the referee making the proper administrative signal and resulted in the appearance of an inappropriate action.

"As Vince Young took a knee on the game's final play, Jerome Boger jogged in with his right arm in the air to signify the play was over. That is the proper administrative signal for the referee.

"As Young turned around, he saw Boger approaching the line of scrimmage with his arm raised. As Boger moved toward the line of scrimmage, he started to bring his arm down. However, before he lowered his arm, Young, moving towards the referee, raised his own arm and the two exchanged what appeared to be a quick high-five."

I'm not sure the Zapruder film was analyzed as much as this high-five apparently was. Did anybody really think Boger initiated the contact? And did we really need three paragraphs containing the phrases "appearance of an inappropriate action" and "proper administrative signal" to indicate that he didn't? (It's a good thing there isn't an administrative signal that makes a referee puff out his torso, lest any player try to come over and give a celebratory chest bump.)

The NFL is hyper-sensitive when it comes to the mere appearance of impropriety by refs (no matter how ridiculous), which is why you get $20,000 fines for obvious jokes and detailed statements clarifying intent of skin-slapping. The league needs to lighten up.

Frankly, the fact that Young and Boger high-fived makes it less likely that there's anything nefarious going on. I mean, Benedict Arnold wasn't going around giving dap to the British, you know? 

Thanks, Fanhouse

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7. Thanksgiving football. No disrespect to the Pilgrims and Native Americans who sat down back in the day to share roasted turnips, but let's not kid ourselves: For all practical purposes, modern-day Thanksgiving is more about professional football than it is any symbolic gesture of shared face-stuffing. The NFL has claimed Thanksgiving as its own.

What this means, NFL fans, is that not only is Super Bowl Sunday a holiday in itself, but we've also pretty much taken over Thanksgiving, so we've got two major national holidays where we are actually expected to watch football. Yeah. Be jealous, fans of any other sport in the world.

6. "The League" on FX. From what I understand, "The League" is being drubbed in the ratings by infomercials for giant cupcake makers, and that's a shame. It's a funny show. It's not re-writing television history or anything, but it's funny, it's filthy and it revolves around fantasy football. What more could you ask for in a TV show?

Do me a favor, and go watch an episode or two for free on Hulu. At the very least, check out this 79-second clip (a naughty language warning applies for either link) demonstrating how a child's birthday party can actually be useful for fantasy football purposes.

5. Twitter. I know a lot of you hate Twitter. You think it's part of the dumbing down of America. You think it's for 13-year-old girls telling each other that they just saw Zac Efron in a magazine with his shirt off. You are wrong, and you are missing out.

Open up a Twitter account, and you can get updates from NFL writers, bloggers, reporters, rumor guys, beat reporters, players, official team websites, NFL employees and John Stamos. If you're ignoring it as a possible supplement to your NFL information stream, you're cheating only yourself.

4. Movin' the Chains. The entire SIRIUS NFL Radio channel is awesome, but this show in particular, every weekday from 3 pm - 7 pm ET, raises the bar for sports radio. I don't know if other guys just don't know as much, or they aren't willing to share as much, but Tim Ryan and Pat Kirwan bring the X's and O's like no one else. Listen to one show -- even one hour of one show -- and I promise you that when you're done, you'll know more about the game and the players who play it than you did before you started.

3. The quarterback play in '09. Good quarterback play is what makes the difference between okay games and great games, and the quarterback position right now is better and deeper today than it's ever been in NFL history. There's no doubt in my mind about that.

There are five guys right now with QB ratings over 100, and if that holds, it would be an NFL record. There are seven other guys with ratings over 90. Let's take a look at how that's progressed over the last 30 years. Ten years ago, we had one guy over 100 (Kurt Warner(notes)), and four others at 90 or better (Steve Beuerlein, Jeff George(notes), Peyton Manning(notes) and Brad Johnson(notes)). Twenty years ago, we had one guy over 100 (Joe Montana) and just two others over 90 (Boomer Esiason and Jim Everett). Thirty years ago, we had just one guy over 90 (Roger Staubach) and no one close to 100. Forty years ago, no one got out of the 80s.

We are witnessing the golden age of quarterbacking, right now. Breathe it in. It's the best time in history to be an NFL fan.

2. Rich Eisen and the NFL crew. The gold standard in sports is still Ernie Johnson and the TNT NBA crew, but if there's one group that comes close, it's Rich Eisen and the NFL Network gang. That's the best way I know how to compliment them.

They've got strong personalities in Michael Irvin, Deion Sanders and Warren Sapp(notes), and Eisen just knows how to pull it all together. He knows when to step into the background, when to rein in a conversation, and how to make the set feel like a group of knowledgeable cats just sitting around and talking about something they love. Of all the studio shows, the NFL Network's has the least ego, mugging for the cameras and artificial laughter. It's a breath of fresh air compared to the rest.

1. Today's mobile phone technology. I don't want to pimp for any particular phone company, and obviously, a lot of the phones today do a lot of the same things. But this is my first NFL season with an iPhone, and I'm finding it to be magical. I can do things from my phone that I wouldn't have thought possible even four or five years ago. It's truly baffling, and I'm not sure it's something that we, as a society, even deserve.

I can do all of the following: get constant live updates on my fantasy team, make last-minute lineup changes if I'm already at the bar and Chris Mortensen has some last-minute news, wager small amounts of candy on the outcomes of games, get any stat at any time, listen to radio broadcasts of games, actually watch games at a very acceptable level of quality with the DirecTV app, play Madden, and read the Twitter updates of dozens and dozens of NFL people I like and respect.

I made that list without even thinking about it. There has to be a dozen other useful NFL-related things you can do, too, many I probably don't even know about. I find it incredibly useful when I'm at a bar and sitting in front of eight televisions. Should I happen to get stranded away from televisions on some Sunday, I can't even imagine how useful I'd find it.

Owner Ralph Wilson is looking for someone to coach his Buffalo Bills, and he's not being shy about the fact that he's willing to pay someone a lot of money. NFL.com's Vic Carucci passes along this tidbit about the huge price tag that might be attached to Mike Shanahan, who may be the top target at this point.

"You're probably talking about $50 million over five years and maybe even a piece of the team," said a source close to Shanahan. "And by all indications, Wilson is ready to have that conversation."

I like Mike Shanahan and all, but $50 million? Yeah, he won two Super Bowls, but that wasn't yesterday. That was back when Eddie George, Jamal Anderson, Ricky Watters and Garrison Hearst were among the league's best running backs. That was back when Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck saved the world by drilling into a moving meteor. That was back when R. Kelly was just some guy who made enjoyable records.

The point is that the '97 and '98 Shanahan magic might not be there anymore. In fact, in the ten years he coached since then, he's won in the playoffs just once. Now, I'm not one of those people who believe Shanahan only won because he had John Elway under center, but I do happen to believe that the ten years since then matter, too.

When we last left Mike Shanahan, he'd lost half of his last 48 games, and missed the playoffs three straight years. He had made some brutal personnel decisions, particularly on the defensive side of the ball. He had even lost his magical ability to make a 1,000-yard runner out of anyone with two legs.

The Broncos replaced Shanahan as a head coach and as a personnel man, downgraded significantly at quarterback, and then they rattled off six wins in a row.

I'm not saying any of this makes Mike Shanahan a bad coach. A clean break may have been exactly what the Broncos needed, and exactly what he needed. I am saying, though, that if I were in Ralph Wilson's shoes, I'd be extremely, extremely nervous about handing over $50 million in guaranteed money, as well as a piece of the franchise, to a guy who had, over the last ten years, won one more playoff game than Brian Boitano.

A couple of boys in the Pittsburgh area were involved in a friendly game of backyard football when the pigskin got away from them. It rolled down near a wooded area, and when one lad went to retrieve it, some grumpy, child-hating deer attacked him in a Joey Porter(notes)-like fit of rage.

Here's the news report from KDKA in Pittsburgh.

The kid only suffered a little bruising, and, as the video notes, he's fine now. In fact, I'd argue that he's even better than he was before, because now he knows he's got a friend that has his back.

Seriously, a nine-year-old boy picks up a stick and starts clubbing a crazed deer? That kid is awesome. He can be on my team any day. Bring the stick, young man. We've got a defensive line to get through.

Gracias, Second-String Fullback.

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