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NFL WEEK ONE LIVE THREAD September 6th 8:30PM EST - NBC @ September 9th 1:00PM EST - CBS @ @ @ @ @ @ 1:00PM EST - FOX @ @ @ 4:15PM EST - FOX @ @ @ 8:15PM EST - NBC @ September 10th 7:00PM EST - ESPN @ 10:15PM EST - ESPN @

Atlanta (7-9) at Minnesota (6-10) - 1:00 PM The Falcons missed the playoffs last year by losing their final three games. And now they've lost noted animal-lover and PETA spokesman Michael Vick for 12 to 60 months due to a self-inflicted injury. Vick will be replaced at QB by the lovable Joey Harrington, who won't throw for many touchdowns, but he won't be flipping off the home crowd/spreading herpes/killing dogs with his bare hands, either. The Falcons are going to need their defense to overachieve and RB Warrick Dunn to rush for 1,500+ yards just to avoid losing double-digit games...

We've received many requests from freepers requesting that other freepers not post to them. There are several problems with this. 1. It's impossible for us to enforce.2. We don't have the time to enforce these requests.3. We don't have the software to keep track of these requests.4. Thick skin helps.5. Ignore the poster, if you don't reply, they won't reply. Free Republic does not need a bozo filter, bozo filters are for wimps. Final note: Trolls, troublemakers, disruptors, forum pests, malcontents, RINOs, liberals, stalkers, et al, would continue posting to (harassing) someone after being asked to stop. Conservative FReepers would...

Chicago Bears linebacker Lance Briggs was charged with leaving the scene of an accident after crashing his Lamborghini and abandoning it alongside an expressway on the city's North Side, Illinois State Police said. After meeting with police Monday afternoon, Briggs was also cited for failure to give immediate notice of an accident and improper lane usage, said Master Sgt. Luis Gutierrez.

American Football Conference East W L T Pct New England (1) 12 4 0 .750 New York 8 8 0 .500 Buffalo 7 9 0 .438 Miami 7 9 0 .438 North W L T Pct Baltimore (3) 12 4 0 .750 Cincinnati 8 8 0 .500 Pittsburgh 8 8 0 .500 Cleveland 4 12 0 .250 South W L T Pct Indianapolis (4) 10 6 0 .750 Houston (6) 9 7 0 .563 Tennessee 7 9 0 .438 Jacksonville 7 9 0 .438 West W L T Pct San Diego (2) 12 4 0 .750 Denver (5) 10...

Open-Air Facility At Meadowlands Set For 2010 Opening (CBS/AP) NEWARK -- The New York Giants and Jets closed deals Thursday for $1.3 billion in financing for a new stadium the NFL clubs are teaming to build. "This represents another step forward in the completion of this exciting project," said Alice McGillion, a spokeswoman for New Meadowlands Stadium Corp. Each team completed separate $650 million financing deals. CitiCorp is financing the Jets' portion, while investment banks Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers are financing the Giants' deal. The teams got financing help earlier this year when NFL owners approved $300 million in...

WASHINGTON, April 19, 2007 – To increase troops' morale, three National Football League players, weighing in at a combined 662 pounds, set aside their football gear for a trip to Iraq to visit with Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers April 16. Army Pfc. Nigel Norvell, with Company A, Division Special Troops Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division, poses for a photograph with, left to right, Israel Idonije, a defensive end with the Chicago Bears, Nick Harper, a cornerback with the Indianapolis Colts, and Chris Harris, a safety with the Chicago Bears, during the football players' visit to Baghdad, April 16, 2007. U.S....

Disgruntled linebacker Lance Briggs will not be moving from the Bears to the Washington Redskins, at least not in the immediate future, because the Bears rejected the Redskins' offer to send their No. 6 overall pick of the NFL draft to the Bears in exchange for Briggs and the 31st pick, a team official said Tuesday. Bears general manager Jerry Angelo has talked with Redskins officials, who said Monday night their offer of the swapped draft choices was final.

Everybody thinks Indianapolis Colts coach and Super Bowl XLI champion Tony Dungy is a great guy. Including me. His calm, considerate approach to the violent game of football is a refreshing departure from the manic, brutal skill set of so many other coaches. Yet there is a part of Dungy's philosophy that troubles me -- and, I believe, many others -- and that is his insistence upon making proper coaching not just a matter of good heart but of religious zeal, even dogma. God, he said, was responsible for the Colts' 29-17 victory against the Bears. Indeed, in the relatively...

INDIANAPOLIS COLTS VS CHICAGO BEARS Sunday February 4, 2007 At Dolphin Stadium, Miami, FL 6:25PM ET TV Network: CBS

I have neither started nor maintained a thread for football commercials in the past...

Watching the NFL playoff games, I heard the announcer discussing the possibility of the first black coach going to the Super Bowl. A black coach has never made it to the Super Bowl. Really? I was surprised. Surely someone had done that, I thought, but no, no one had. Race will always matter whether we want it to or not. Milestones like this will be noticed less and less, though, as we become a more accepting place for people of all colors. I asked NewsOK users if it is significant that two black coaches - Lovie Smith of the Bears...

Since Sully is late today...I took the honors of starting this thing off... Da Bears VS. The Colts

LOGISTICS SUPPORT AREA ANACONDA, Iraq, Feb. 1, 2007 – Many soldiers from the 1744th Transportation Company weren't alive the last time the Chicago Bears won the Super Bowl, in 1986. Soldiers from the 1744th Transportation Company celebrate as Chicago Bear Bernard Berrian catches a touchdown pass from quarterback Rex Grossman in the Chicago Bears’ victory over the New Orleans Saints in the National Football Conference Championship game, Jan. 21. Pictured are: Spc Daniel Barsi (front left raising his fist in the air), Staff Sgt. Joseph Geymayel (back left), Spc. Kyle Hollingsworth (in the doorway), Spc. Annette Uriostegui (back right),...

MIAMI. -- Even if they win this Super Bowl, the '06 Chicago Bears will never measure up to the '85 Bears -- and don't they know it. I'm not talking about on-field accomplishments; I'm talking about off-field escapades. I'm not talking about the number of future Hall of Famers on the roster; I'm talking about number of Absolute Wild Men on the roster. In those two departments, the '85 Bears would whip the current edition about 73-0. The game would be over before Prince cleared his throat. The club Lovie Smith and general manager Jerry Angelo have assembled is as...

In most NFL observers' minds, the Eagles and Raiders vie for supremacy atop the list of knucklehead fans. So it is with irony that we note the behavior of Chicago Bears die-hards. Remember when Hurricane Katrina hit? The Saints played their next exhibition game in Oakland, and emotion -- and donations -- flowed. Yeah. Not so much in Chicago. The Biloxi (Miss.) Sun Herald talked with several Saints fans about their experiences at the NFC championship, which included: • Signs reading ``Bears Finish What Katrina Started'' and ``Ride your boat back to New Orleans, Katrina victims.'' (The newspaper has a...

Indianapolis 38, New England 34

Michael Vick is embroiled in a scandal after airline screeners have seized a water bottle the superstar quarterback tried to get through security checkpoints. One problem, it wasn't just a water bottle. There was a "concealed compartment" in the bottle that contained a small amount of pot. Vick was said to be, "reluctant to turn over his water bottle during the screening process" but eventually did. TSA officials are aware of a new tactic by drug handlers, creating a hidden compartment in Aquafina bottles like Vick had so they investigated further.

GO COLTS !!!!!!! Jim Irsay and Coach Dungy gave the glory to God !!!!!

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -A comeback, a drive, a legacy. And yes - finally - Peyton Manning gets his Super Bowl trip, too. Football's most prolific quarterback put on a show for the ages Sunday, rallying the Indianapolis Colts from 18 points down and driving them 80 yards for the winning score in a wildly entertaining 38-34 victory over the New England Patriots.