Nfl

Deciding how to split up $9 billion in revenues is the biggest obstacle in gaining a new collective bargaining agreement for the NFL, but not the only one. These are the two other contentious issues: Expanded, 18-game regular season: Owners want to convert two unattractive — but full-priced — preseason games into regular-season paydays. Among the concessions they'll have to consider are increasing the roster, reducing the amount of contact players are allowed in practice, and enhancing the post-career healthcare package.

Because doing a full, 32-team list of power rankings is too much work for a Monday afternoon, I will rank the top 11 teams in the NFL after each exciting football Sunday (that's where the "first and 10" comes in). Here's how I rank them after a wild divisional round weekend that knocked out two of the top trophy contenders. 1. New England: The Patriots haven't lost since Nov. 6, averaging 37.3 points during a nine-game win streak. 2. New York: Eli Manning has become an elite, top-six quarterback.

The NFL will hold its annual supplemental draft on Thursday . Eight players are eligible to be selected. The draft will be conducted electronically, with NFL teams essentially submitting bids for any players they covet. The team that offers the highest pick gets the player, and they surrender a corresponding pick in the 2013 draft. Quarterback Bernie Kosar, linebacker Brian Bosworth and wide receiver Chris Carter are three of the most noteworthy players to have been selected in the supplemental draft.

In seven seasons with the Buffalo Bills, wide receiver Lee Evans never got to experience postseason play. He has made it there in his first season in Baltimore, and he is excited for the AFC Divisional Round game on Jan. 15. “To be able to be on this journey with these men here who have been there, done it before, and really there's only one thing left to conquer,” Evans said. “I can't even put it into words. It's a special experience for me. It's kind of like being a rookie all over again going into the playoffs because it's somewhere I've never been, but I'm looking forward to it and I've been preparing for it since I came into the league.

Maryland offensive tackle Bruce Campbell has told the school he intends to come out early and enter the NFL draft. Campbell, a 6-foot-7, 310-pound junior, was limited this season by knee and turf toe injuries.

First with the museum, now with the hotel rooms. What is the deal with NFL commissioners and their dismissive 'tude toward Baltimore? Remember the former commish, Paul Tagliabue, denying Baltimore a football team in 1993, and suggesting that the city build a museum instead? (Yes, that sound you hear is the Cone sisters and William and Henry Walters banging their heads against a celestial wall.) Now his successor, Roger Goodell, has put us in our place as well, albeit more diplomatically.

It's no improvement Dan Pompei Chicago Tribune Expanding the playoff field is a better idea than expanding the regular season to 18 games, but why does the NFL have to do either? The league needs to start thinking more about what makes the best product rather than what makes the most money. More playoff teams will diminish the postseason. It should mean something to make the playoffs. Does the league really want multiple .500 teams in the postseason? If there were 16 teams in the playoffs one year ago, we would have added the Bears, Cardinals, Titans and Chargers to the playoff mix. The Titans were the only team of the four to finish with a winning record.

Every Monday morning, the day after my favorite day of the week but still hours before that week's slate of games officially wraps up with “Monday Night Football,” I will bring you my weekly premature NFL power rankings. Why Monday? Because who wants to wait until Tuesday or Wednesday for power rankings? Why 11 teams? I don't really have a good answer for that one. I've always liked odd numbers. What am I basing them on? Who my gut tells me are the toughest teams to beat that week.