NFL Jabber 3/27/07

Marshall Faulk concedes that his body just can't do it anymore and officially retires. Heck of a career, huh?

"A very good friend of mind told me, 'There's not that many 34-year-old running backs that come back to play,''' Faulk recalled Monday. "I started thinking about it. It's a tough position to play."

"The (competitive) instinct, it never goes away," Faulk said. "That fire never dies. But in my training — where I wanted to be, how I wanted to feel — those things weren't coming around as fast as I wanted them to."

"If I felt like there was any doubt that I could finish a season, then I shouldn't go out," Faulk said. "Because I would not only be cheating myself, I'd be cheating other guys on that team that were depending on me to do a job. If I couldn't accomplish the task, why even start it?"

Vegas police asked the D.A. to file three charges on Pacman Jones for the Vegas strip club fiasco (hard to keep track of which fiasco).

Browns G.M. Phil Savage says they will take a pass on all the vet QB's available.

"I think we're content with what we're doing, to stay with the direction we're going," Savage said. "We've got six weeks of off-season conditioning and [organized] programs. Chud's putting the offense in, meeting with the quarterbacks, along with [assistant head coach] Rip Scherer. So I think we'll have a pretty good gauge of the two primary competitors, Charlie and Derek, by the time we get to the draft."

The Saints and the Colts will open the 2007 season in Indy on Thursday night.

"The Colts are the Super Bowl champions and New Orleans obviously was a terrific story on and off the field for the league," commissioner Roger Goodell said Monday at the NFL meetings. "We felt it's a great game to highlight during the 2007 season."

The Cardinals and 49'ers will play the second game of a MFL double header to open the season.

Bengals and Ravens will play in the early game.

The Lions DT Shaun Rogers decided to show up for work.

The Redskins are expected to make a move for Bears LB Lance Briggs.

The Eagles got LB Takeo Spikes and Kelly Holcomb from the Bills for DT Darwin Walker and a draft pick next year.

Green Bay Coach, Mike McCarthy doesn't understand all the negative talk around Aaron Rodgers.

"I don't understand and really care, because I don't know where it's being generated from, but the negativity toward Aaron Rodgers . . . usually your backup quarterback is on scholarship for a couple years and everyone loves him," McCarthy said. "For whatever reason, he's had a couple situations where people are trying to get after him. I've been in the position before with young quarterbacks. I'm very pleased where he's at right now. He's getting better."

Jon Gruden is happy with the Bucs offseason and is throwing out the smokescreen that they may move up and select a QB in the draft.

"Our offseason is just beginning, really,’’ said Gruden, coming off a 4-12 season that saw the Bucs tumble from first to last in the NFC South. ‘’We’ve still got the draft and some unattended business, but we’ve got some players in here that we know can play. It’s exciting to have a Jeff Garcia here. Luke Petitgout is a guy who has played left tackle and Cato June is a good football player. Kevin Carter can play a lot of positions and B.J. Askew is an interesting guy. It was nice to sit in quarterback school last week with a healthy Chris Simms, a Bruce Gradkowski, who has played 13 games in this league, plus a veteran guy we like. We’re excited about our quarterback situation, plus we’ve got Jake Plummer to talk about. We’ll see what happens there.’’

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tag: nfl, draft, free agency, trade, football, sports, bucs, packers, eagles, bengals, ravens, lions, redskins, bears, cardinals, 49'ers, saints, rams, colts, browns, titans, marshall faulk, pacman jones, phil savage, rodger goodell, takeo spikes, kelly holcomb, shaun rogers, mike mcCarthy, aaron rodgers, jon grudenjeff garcia, chris simms, jake plummer