The Giants spent all summer insisting they are not a fluke! To my recollection, the 49ers, Cowboys and Steelers never had to do this.

Nothing notable at all happened in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia or Seattle. I'd keep my eye on those guys, just in case.

Ricky Williams won back his starting job in Miami, and earned a contract extension from a team run by noted hard-ass Bill Parcells. This comeback has no proper analogy. It's Rick Ankiel, combined with Dara Torres, rolled into a nice Rocky Bleier tortilla of a meal. Good for him.

The Buffalo Bills were allowed to sell one of their precious 8 home games north of the border to Toronto. Nobody complained. Damn you NAFTA! Damn you to hell!

"Inside the NFL" was sacked on HBO. Bryant Gumbel was sacked on the NFL Network. Sean Salisbury was sacked on ESPN. All that, and Joe Theismann is still out of work on TV. I'm pretty certain it's killing him.

Fox hired Michael Strahan to be the mouthy, loosely informed and quasi-articulate counterpart to Shannon Sharpe on CBS. Yea, nonsense!

Mike Shanahan spent all summer hoping nobody would notice that he a.) remains head coach of the Broncos and b.) hasn't done squat since Terrell Davis retired. Shhhh. Genius at work.

The Oakland Raiders spent enough money on totally questionable free agents that Hollywood produces are looking at scripts for "Ishtar 2" and saying: "It might be worth a shot."

Steve Smith punched another teammate and was suspended voluntarily by the team for two games. Are they idiots? The Panthers should carry one guy on their 53-man roster that shall be the "Steve Smith Punching Bag" whenever this totally awesome wide receiver gets a little frustrated. Job pays the veteran minimum. Applications are in John Fox's office.

Nobody in Arizona or Detroit got real mouthy about how "this is going to be our year." Look. It will never be your year. Ever. Both of you. Thanks for picking up on this theme.

Shaun Alexander is still waiting for his phone to ring. In 2005 he ran for an ungodly 1,880 yards and 27 touchdowns. That was like, um, yesterday! Cruel league, man. Cruel.

But, we sure did miss it. Welcome back, Lord Football.