Tennessee Titans quarterback Vince Young(notes) has had some kind of weird season. After being benched for most of last season, he got to watch his team suffer through six straight losses to start the season behind quarterback Kerry Collins(notes). Supposedly, after much pressure from owner Bud Adams head coach Jeff Fisher finally said that he would put Young in as the starter. Fisher must be burning inside right now because Young has led the Titans to four straight victories.

The most improbable win came Monday night when the Titans were underdogs to the Houston Texans and came out with a 20-17 victory. There's a photo now circulating that appears to show "impartial" NFL ref Jerome Boger high-fiving Young after the game, according to the New York Post.

The NFL is denying it, of course. Here's the statement from the league: "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."

Source: New York Post

Pretty soon you will be able to think of Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco(notes) when you're having sex, according to the New York Daily News.

The five-time Pro Bowler has done a whole lot of goofy stuff in his time in the NFL. Most recently he got a $20,000 fine for trying to bribe a ref with a buck. Of course, the whole name-change thing from Chad Johnson to Chad Ochocinco ranks right up there, too. And there was the race on foot versus a thoroughbred horse that he won back in 2007. (So he was given a 110-yard head start.)

But this one takes the cake on pure self-promotion. Ochocinco has recently tweeted an actual mockup of the box his condoms would come in.

This all apparently stems from Ochocinco joking about creating condoms under his name earlier this year on HBO.

Source: New York Daily News

The news came yesterday via the Chicago Tribune that the Chicago Bears are on the list for former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher. The idea of taking over the Bears or the Houston Texans supposedly "would excite" Cowher.

But current Bears coach Lovie Smith has another two years on his contract and the team supposedly doesn't want to pay two coaches simultaneously, especially if Cowher wants around $10 million annually.

And today the word is that some Bears exec is starting to look for a replacement for Smith and general manager Jerry Angelo, according to the Tribune. Former Denver Broncos coach Mike Shanahan, who has spent a lot of time with current Bears quarterback is on the list. The Buffalo Bills are supposedly talking to Shanahan this week about taking over there. Other folks on the list are reportedly Cowher and former Buccaneers and Raiders coach Jon Gruden.

The Bears are officially saying there is nothing to the rumor. Nada.

Source: Chicago Tribune

New York Jets free safety Kerry Rhodes(notes) signed a contract extension two years ago that would pay him $33.5 million and even though he's making that kind of dough, coach Rex Ryan is going to go ahead and bench the fellow, according to FOXSports.

Jets players are apparently telling FOX that Eric Smith(notes) will get the start over Rhodes. Unfortunately for Smith, the benching will likely be a short one. It's believed that this is a benching that is meant to send a message: nobody is expendable and everybody needs to work harder.

Rhodes hasn't had a very good year. He hasn't had one interception or forced one fumble and he's only broken up five passes. Even so, a much bigger problem for the Jets is the fact that the offense keeps turning over the ball and the passing game that looked so good very early in the season is now ranked near the bottom for the whole league.

Source: New York Daily News

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger(notes) took a nasty blow to the helmet from an errant knee during overtime of Sunday's loss to the Kansas City Chiefs 27-24.

Some say he had a concussion, but a team source is saying its tests are showing that it wasn't a concussion, just a good old-fashioned bell-ringing. Either way, it appears that Roethlisberger will be back next weekend for the Steelers game against the Baltimore Ravens, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Backup Charlie Batch(notes) is likely done for the season, though, after he supposedly broke his wrist on the one offensive series in which he replaced Roethlisberger.

It appears that the Steelers will sign Tyler Palko(notes), who quarterbacked for Pitt, to the practice squad and just go with two quarterbacks on the roster; third-stringer Dennis Dixon(notes) will move up to the backup role.

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Buffalo Bills owner Bills owner Ralph C. Wilson Jr. is going against his own tradition, it seems. A guy who has always not paid a lot of dough for coaching appears to be going high-end this time around. Wilson is supposedly ready to fork over $10 million a season for the right coach, according to the Buffalo News.

Former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher was apparently contacted by the Bills to see if he had any interest in taking over the team.

He reportedly told the team that he's didn't want to interview for the gig "at this time."

Cowher is supposedly happy to wait till season's end to see what other jobs come available. It's not likely that the Bills will wait till the end of the season to hire a new coach. The team supposedly wants someone to be signed on before then. The team is supposedly meeting with former Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Shanahan sometime in the next seven days.

Source: Buffalo News

The word on the street is that the San Francisco 49ers will drop the tampering charges it filed against the New York Jets over rookie wide receiver Michael Crabtree(notes), according to the San Jose Mercury News.

The 49ers were negotiating with first-round pick/contract holdout Crabtree in September and former player Deion Sanders disrupted the ship when he said publicly that the Jets (and another unnamed team) would pay Crabtree the sum he was desiring. The 49ers filed a complaint pretty quickly after that.

Jets coach Rex Ryan denied the charges at the time and the world will never know exactly what went down since the 49ers are apparently set to drop the charges. Guess they finally are feeling confident in the six-year deal the team signed with Crabtree, who has had 22 catches for 292 yards since early October.

Source: San Jose Mercury News

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers got pretty hammered the other day by the New Orleans Saints 38-7. The next day, the Bucs apparently demoted defensive coordinator Jim Bates, according to the Tampa Tribune.

Head coach Raheem Morris will apparently start calling the defensive plays during the game. Earlier this year - just 10 days before the season got started -- Tampa Bay sent offensive coordinator Jeff Jagodzinski packing and named quarterbacks coach Greg Olson to call plays.

Both of these demoted or fired guys were just hired this past off-season by general manager Mark Dominik, who is in his first year on the job.

Source: Tampa Tribune

You gotta think Denver Broncos Josh McDaniels was second-guessing himself after his team got trashed 32-3 by the San Diego Chargers yesterday, particularly for one incident that supposedly occurred before the game even got started, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

When McDaniels was walking past the Chargers' linebackers before the game, he supposedly said, "We own you." And that didn't sit very well with the folks in San Diego, as you can imagine.

Outside linebacker Shaun Phillips(notes) told the paper, "I'm not surprised. He's a little cocky (rear end)... To say he owns us? I mean, you beat us one time. What has he really done in this league? He had a team 6-0 and now he's looking up at us from second place."

After the game, McDaniels had the response of a six-year-old when asked about the incident: "(They) talked to me first."

Source: San Diego Union-Tribune

Ben Roethlisberger(notes) had his bell rung pretty loudly on Sunday when he suffered a concussion during the Pittsburgh Steelers' overtime loss against the Kansas City Chiefs.

The hit came from Chiefs linebacker Derrick Johnson who kneed him in the helmet but it's looking like Roethlisberger is recovering pretty well. According to ProFootballTalk, the quarterback was allowed to fly home with the team, remembers everything, and doesn't have any nauseau.

The Steelers take on a division rival, the Baltimore Ravens, next week and it's believed that Roethlisberger is likely to be back for the matchup.

He'll get medical tests today that will determine the true likelihood of that happening, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune Review.

Source: ProFootballTalkPittsburgh Tribune Review