Defensive injuries mounting for Baltimore

Defensive injuries mounting for Baltimore
The Baltimore Ravens placed Samari Rolle on injured reserve today, ending the cornerback's season with two games remaining according to the Baltimore Sun. Rolle had missed the previous two games because of a shoulder injury and played in just six of 12 games this season as he battled epilepsy.

Rolle joins cornerback Chris McAlister on injured reserve. McAlister's season ended last week because of a strained right knee.

In addition, it appears doubtful linebacker Ray Lewis and tight end Todd Heap will play against the Seattle Seahawks.

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Steelers place Parker on injured reserve
The team announced that two-time Pro Bowl running back Willie Parker has been placed on the Reserve/Injured List with a leg injury and will miss the team’s final regular-season game at Baltimore and the entire NFL playoffs.

Coles, Pennington could go out like they came in ... together
They came into the National Football League together. The�matured in the offense of the New York Jets. And now, as the 2007 season, winds down it is possible�Chad Pennington and Laveranues Coles, close friends, could be leaving together.

If that's how it turns out in the offseason, this weekend could be remembered as the end of the Pennington-Coles era according to the New York Daily News.

Saturday, the Jets placed Coles on injured reserve, shutting him down with a month-old, high-ankle sprain that limited him to one play last week. Sunday, Pennington could make his farewell appearance for the Jets.

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Russell may get first start for Raiders

Oakland Raiders coach Lane Kiffin seems to have soured on bringing No.1 draft choice JaMarcus Russell off the bench for a few series, as he's done the past two home games against the Broncos and Colts.

Russell is going to be the starter or he is going to be the closer Sunday. What he will not be, for once, is the middle reliever. So said�Kiffin, who was vague as ever about his quarterback plans Wednesday as his team prepared for a weekend trip to Jacksonville.

"Uh-huh," Kiffin said when asked if Russell, the reigning No. 1 overall draft pick, could make his first NFL start. "There's a possibility of it. We're still looking at it. There's a bunch of different ways to do it."

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McCown will start for Oakland; Russell will play

Oakland Raiders coach Lane Kiffin insists No.1 draft choice JaMarcus Russell will play against Jacksonville Sunday. He just doesn't know when or how long.

"Josh (McCown) will start and JaMarcus will play, and hopefully, if the scenarios go right, he'll play in the first half,'' Kiffin told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Earlier in the week, Kiffin indicated Russell would start and McCown would finish.

New 49ers stadium project gets infusion of federal cash
With a key vote upcoming at the Santa Clara City Council on whether to help build a new stadium for the 49ers, San Francisco city officials say a new infusion of federal cash is giving a big lift to their alternative plans to keep the team playing in the city at a new stadium at the Hunters Point shipyard.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle,�a federal appropriations bill headed to President Bush to fund the U.S. military for the fiscal year starting next Oct. 1 contains $82 million for Navy cleanup of the polluted former naval shipyard at Hunters Point — a $20 million increase over what the government has committed annually over the past several years, according to Michael Cohen, who is Mayor Gavin Newsom's manager on the project.

Keeping on schedule is vital to the Newsom administration because the 49ers have said they need to be in a new stadium by the 2012 season — and the need to meet that deadline is one reason that the team has given for trying to strike a stadium deal with Santa Clara on city land used as parking lots for Great America amusement park.

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Cowboys not likely to rely on starters vs. Redskins
Brad Johnson, start getting loose. The Dallas Cowboys may finally let you throw a pass.

Does Holt's on-camera rant signal end for Linehan?

In the closing moments of a 41-24�loss to the�Pittsburgh Steelers, St. Lous Rams Torry Holt blew his top and lost his cool , and the NFL Network cameras caught him unleashing a vulgar tirade against coach Scott Linehan.

"It's not a big deal to me," Linehan said. Linehan has to be the only one who doesn't see it that way.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bryan Burwell wrote: "For Holt to go off on an obscenity-laced rant on Linehan after a failed fourth-and-10 play resulted in a 51-yard interception return for Pittsburgh's final score must be considered one of the surest barometers that this two-year-old experiment with Linehan as an NFL head coach deserves a failing grade.''

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Steelers considering artificial turf at Heinz Field

The Pittsburgh Steelers have a choice to make. Do they keep real grass at Heinz Field and risk playing surface horrors�like they've had the past three games? Or do they go to artificial turf and risk injuries like the one Willie Parker suffered Thursday in St. Louis?

Steelers chairman Dan Rooney always has preferred a grass surface at Heinz Field.�The Rams play on an artificial surface at the Edward Jones Dome, and some of the Steelers are not surprised they have 11 players on the season-ending injured reserve list, including offensive tackle Orlando Pace and linebacker Leonard Little.

The Steelers, though, are considering a switch to an artificial surface at Heinz Field because of the wear and tear on the grass surface and the poor conditions that have resulted the past three games.

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