Getty Images

Brett Favre spent most of his career as the most beloved man in Green Bay, but the last time he was there, he was getting booed off the field after his Vikings had lost to an Aaron Rodgers-led Packers team. There was plenty of bad blood then, but Rodgers says now is the time for Favre to come back to Green Bay and be honored for his career with the Packers.

In fact, Rodgers said on the Jim Rome Show that it’s past time.

“I’m excited about it. I really am,” Rodgers said of honoring Favre. “It’s been too long. Our country and the state of Wisconsin, these people are a people of second and third and fourth chances, and I think it’s time to let the healing process begin for those who are still upset about what went down.”

Rodgers said he has no reason to feel any ill will toward Favre, and he hopes the Packers retire Favre’s number before Favre is inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

“I’m very secure with the things I’ve been able to accomplish with the team and individually here in Green Bay, and excited about the chance to see him again and get his number retired here before he goes into Canton,” Rodgers said.

The ceremony to retire Favre’s number will be a great moment at Lambeau Field. And a very different moment than the last time he was there.

AP

It’s good to see that Woody Johnson’s ban on leaks held up so well.

While this one wasn’t the front office variety which was so common before, an unnamed Jets player has already started the Mark Sanchez-ripping which I think we all saw coming.

Come to think of it, Unnamed Jet has been the team’s most consistent performer in recent years.

Mike Freeman of CBSSports.com talked to a Jets player, who didn’t offer his name, who said 80 to 90 percent of the team was ready to see Sanchez replaced as the starting quarterback.

“Everyone on the team likes Mark personally but there’s a general feeling among some of the players that maybe it’s time to give someone else a chance,” the player said.

This comes on the heels of a three-interception practice by Sanchez which coach Rex Ryan deemed “unacceptable.”

This train is only leaving the station, and it’s only going to pick up steam. If not for the horrible contract extension the previous administration gave him, new Jets General Manager John Idzik might have been inclined to start that rebuilding effort with rookie quarterback Geno Smith.

But numbers dictated that they keep Sanchez, and now they’re apparently in for a fun year of back-biting and general mayhem.

AP

Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III said after taking the field at Organized Team Activities that everything is positive with his surgically repaired knee.

“The knee feels great,” Griffin said. “I’m able to do all the stuff out there without any hesitation, so that’s the best part about it. I’m excited about that. It’s all about having that confidence, and if you put the work in you’ll have that confidence when you get back out there on the field. It’s about playing like you were never injured.”

Griffin said he talked to coach Mike Shanahan prior to OTAs and said he wanted to do as much on-field work as he could, and that Shanahan allowed him to join other players who are rehabbing from injuries to do some limited on-field drills. Griffin said he expects to be able to sprint within the next couple of weeks and to cut within a couple weeks after he starts sprinting.

“There’s two phases left, explosive sprinting and cutting. Those are the only two things left. Being at four and a half months out, I am a little bit ahead,” Griffin said. “My goal is to be out there for training camp.”

Griffin hastened to add that he is being smart about not pushing himself so hard that he has any setbacks. But from all indications Griffin will be ready to go before the start of the regular season.

AP

Almost every article that has been published in the 24 hours since Brian Urlacher announced his retirement has included the words “future Hall of Famer.” But one veteran NFL personnel man says he’s not so sure about that.

Former Colts and Giants G.M. Ernie Accorsi said on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Radio that he isn’t convinced Urlacher is a sure-thing lock for Canton.

“I think he’s a borderline Hall of Famer,” Accorsi said. “I don’t know that he’s a definite Hall of Famer. I think there is a host of them, like Willie Lanier, that were dominant players. He was good, but I wouldn’t put him in that level.”

Asked if he’d put the “guaranteed Hall of Famer” label on Urlacher, Accorsi said he wouldn’t. Instead, Accorsi said, Urlacher was a somewhat limited player who doesn’t deserve to be mentioned among the all-time greats.

“I definitely wouldn’t,” Accorsi said. “That’s my opinion. I don’t think he’s a guarantee. I mean, he may get in because he got a lot of publicity and he was a hard player. But his span that he covered was really restricted. Now a lot of those middle linebackers were in those days. They didn’t have three or four wide receivers so they stayed on the field for three downs. They might be off today. But, no, I certainly don’t have him in [Dick] Butkus or Ray Lewis [category]. And I don’t think he should be in there, really with [Joe] Schmidt and [Ray] Nitschke and those guys, either.”

Accorsi may be right, but it’s possible to say that Urlacher falls short of the greatness of middle linebackers like Butkus and Lewis, but to still say he belongs in the Hall of Fame. And that’s exactly what I would say: Urlacher doesn’t have a case to be the greatest middle linebacker ever. But he has a strong case for the Hall of Fame.

Getty Images

Giants wide receiver Hakeem Nicks took the Giants by surprise when he failed to show up at the team’s organized team activity on Wednesday.

Coach Tom Coughlin expressed his opinion that Nicks “should” have been at the voluntary workout, although league rules say the exact opposite, and speculation arose that Nicks was firing a preliminary shot in negotiations for a new deal with his contract expiring after the 2013 season. Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports reported as much after speaking to a team source, but that report is now being walked back after a response from Nicks’ agent.

Peter Schaffer has not offered any explanation for why Nicks did not attend the OTA with other Giants, but “strongly denied” that his contract had anything to do with his decision to stay away. In a series of text messages, Schaffer said the wideout “takes his place in the community very seriously and wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize that reputation.” The team source also got in touch to say that he was merely giving his best guess for Nicks’ absence.

“We’ve all talked about our contracts and the things we’ve been through, like what’s going on with [wide receiver Victor] Cruz,” the source said. “When you talk about money and what you think the team is doing right or wrong, sometimes feelings get really hard.”

Whether or not the contract is the issue right now, the Giants are likely to spend a fair amount of time trying to strike a deal with Nicks before the start of free agency next year. If Cruz winds up playing out this year on his restricted free agent tender, things will be even busier as the Giants try to figure out how to hold onto two receivers with just one franchise tag at their disposal.

Getty Images

Robert Griffin III is back on the Redskins’ practice field at Organized Team Activities, four months after reconstructive knee surgery.

Griffin is able to drop back, set his feet and throw passes. Albert Breer of NFL Network posted videos of Griffin at work, and Griffin does not appear to have any difficulty moving around and passing. He’s not doing any full-speed running, but from watching what he is doing, you wouldn’t know he suffered a major knee injury in January.

Obviously, there’s a big difference between non-contact drills and playing in an NFL game, and Griffin appears to be working primarily with other players who are rehabilitating injuries, rather than partaking in the regular team workouts. But the fact that Griffin is on the field has to be taken as a good sign that all the optimistic talk about Griffin’s recovery proceeding ahead of schedule was justified.

If Griffin has progressed this far from January to May, there’s every reason for Washington fans to be optimistic that Griffin will make enough progress from May to September that he’ll be on the field for Week One.

Getty Images

Two future Hall of Fame middle linebackers have retired this offseason, but if they go into the Hall of Fame together when they both become eligible in 2018, Brian Urlacher has no illusions about who the best middle linebacker in their class will be.

In fact, Urlacher says that not only is Ray Lewis the best middle linebacker of his era, but Lewis is the best middle linebacker ever to play the game of football.

“If I am lucky enough to go in with Ray, I will say this about Ray: I think I was pretty good, but Ray is the best of all time,” Urlacher told Andrew Siciliano on NFL Network. “His numbers, to the guys that played with him, you watch him, he did it the right way. He played hard. He is the best middle linebacker of all time. If I get a chance to go into the Hall of Fame with him, that would be awesome. He was great. I am up there I think, but not quite. The longevity he had was crazy, 17 years.”

As great as Urlacher was, he’s right that Lewis’s achievements in the NFL surpass his own. Urlacher was an eight-time Pro Bowler, four-time first-team All-Pro, one-time second-team All-Pro and one-time NFL defensive player of the year. Lewis was a 13-time Pro Bowler, seven-time first-team All-Pro, three-time second-team All-Pro, two-time NFL defensive player of the year and a Super Bowl MVP.

I would tend to agree with Urlacher that Lewis is the best of them all. PFT Planet, tell us what you think.

Getty Images

Tim Tebow doesn’t sleep. He waits.

Tim Tebow has counted to infinity. Twice.

When Tim Tebow does pushups, he isn’t lifting himself. He’s pushing the earth down.

Yes, we can now take Chuck Norris Facts and turn them into Tim Tebow Facts, because the man himself, Chuck Norris, has given Tebow his seal of approval. Norris wrote a column in which he decried Tebow’s current unemployment and said that Tebow is a lot like Norris himself.

“Tebow is a player who rises to the occasion and delivers big in critical game moments,” Norris wrote. “He reminds me of myself when I used to compete in martial arts. I would spar with my black belts in class, and sometimes they would outscore me. Yet in the tournaments, I would defeat them. My students used to ask me, ‘Why can we contend equally against you in class, but we can’t beat you in the tournaments?’ My answer was always the same, ‘When it counts, I rise to the occasion.’ The same is true of the former Heisman Trophy winner: When pressure mounts and the game is on the line, Tim’s turbo turns on!”

Truthfully, Norris should probably stick with the roundhouse kicks and leave the football analysis to others, because his analysis of Tebow leaves a lot to be desired. If it’s true that when it counts, Tebow (like Norris) rises to the occasion, how are we to explain Tebow’s last game as a starter? That was in the playoffs following the 2011 season, and Tebow went 9-for-26 for 136 yards as the Broncos lost to the Patriots, 45-10.

Norris refers to Tebow as the “ultimate clutch player,” but this NFL season, Tebow is probably going to be missing in action.

AP

Lions running back Reggie Bush is setting the bar high with his new team.

Bush said at the Lions’ Organized Team Activities on Wednesday that while he may have lived in more glamorous places than Detroit in the past (having played his college football in Los Angeles and his pro football in New Orleans and Miami), that doesn’t matter because he’s all business with the Lions. And he thinks the Lions are ready to get down to business.

“I came here to work,” Bush said, via the Detroit News. “I didn’t come here to vacation. I came here to win championships, to win football games, and that’s what I look forward to doing.”

Bush hinted that he’s happier with the Lions than he had been with the Saints and Dolphins.

“Some guys have been asking me, ‘How was Miami? How was South Beach,’” he said. “I tell them, you know, it’s nice but if the football isn’t right, it doesn’t matter where you are at. If your work isn’t right, you are not going to be happy. As long as we take care of business here, this can be an amazing place. I think it has a lot to offer. I look forward to getting into that stadium and hearing those fans be as loud as ever.”

If Bush really can help the Lions become a championship-caliber team, Lions fans will be louder than ever.

AP

Despite a roll back in the amount of offseason work and the amount of contact allowed during OTAs as dictated by the new collective bargaining agreement, the past couple weeks have already produced a handful of serious injuries.

The San Francisco 49ers lost wide receiver Michael Crabtree to a torn Achilles on Tuesday. Seattle Seahawks defensive tackle Greg Scruggs tore his ACL during routine drills prior to the NFL Draft and San Diego Chargers linebacker Melvin Ingram tore his ACL as well.. Now New York Giants fullback Henry Hynoski is the next up to be dealt a potentially serious blow.

According to Dave Hutchinson of the Newark Star-Ledger, Hynoski injured his left knee during the Giants first OTA workout on Wednesday and will undergo an MRI to determine the extent of the injury.

Hynoski collided with running back Andre Brown and fell to the turf during a full team drill before being carted off the field.

“He kind of got (his leg rolled up on) and so we are taking a look at that,” head coach Tom Coughlin said. “I said a few prayers and I’ll continue until I hear what it is.”

Hynoski appeared in all 16 games for the Giants last season. He carried the ball five times for 20 yards and caught 11 passes for 50 yards and a touchdown. Tight end Bear Pascoe will likely pick up the duty in the backfield if Hynoski is going to miss a significant portion of time.

Getty Images

Back in February, the thought of wide receiver Ramses Barden remaining with the New York Giants appeared to be a long-shot. Barden, a third-round pick of the Giants in 2009, was vocal about his desire to find a different opportunity after four years in New York and still struggling to find a role.

However, the open market appears to have not been as kind to Barden as he may have hoped.

According to Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News, Barden is scheduled to undergo a physical with the Giants on Thursday. If all goes the plan, he could re-sign with the team by the end of the day.

Barden said “it’s probably best for me to start looking other places” during an interview with Sirius XM Radio in late-February. After limited interest, discussions with the Giants picked up again within the last week, per Vacchiano. Barden has struggled to find playing time with the Giants. He’s managed to catch just 29 passes for 394 yards in four seasons with the team.

AP

With receiver Michael Crabtree out indefinitely due to a ruptured Achilles tendon suffered on Tuesday, the 49ers now must decide how to replace him.

Coach Jim Harbaugh has opted not to disclose whether they team will consider adding players not currently on the team.

“We don’t comment on anybody but the players that we have here on this team,” Harbaugh told reporters on Wednesday, via quotes distributed by the 49ers.

It sounds like the 49ers initially will hope that players currently on the roster will step up.

“You look at the young receivers on our team that will emerge, because they have to emerge,” Harbaugh said.  “So, [I'm] excited to watch them compete for that spot.”

Asked specifically whether Randy Moss could return to the team, Harbaugh reiterated his non-response response.

“We’re excited for the young receivers that we have,” Harbaugh said.  “Really feel that somebody’s going to emerge there because they have to.  And competition will create that.  And we’ll look forward to watching that.”

At least Harbaugh used more than a few words to evade the question.  Asked about the possible return of Moss, quarterback Colin Kaepernick simply said, “That’s not my decision.”

Harbaugh explained how the injury happened, and he emphasized that the 49ers don’t anticipate the injury will end Crabtree’s season.

“He was coming in motion and just was planted and started a route,” Harbaugh said.  “And [it] felt like somebody kicked him in the Achilles, which sometimes people say it feels like.  But, good news is he woke up from the surgery and first thing he asked [the doctor] how it went.  So, he talked about the success of the surgery and that didn’t anticipate that he’d be out for the year.  And his comment to that was he’s got no choice but to be back.  So, every day now is a healing day.  And that starts today.”

The effort to find an internal replacement starts today, too.  And possibly the effort to find an external replacement.

AP

Jets coach Rex Ryan says quarterback Mark Sanchez made too many mistakes at today’s Organized Team Activities, and he simply must improve.

Sanchez threw three interceptions in his 11 passes during today’s OTAs, and Ryan told reporters afterward that he considers that “unacceptable.” Ryan said Sanchez also made some good throws, but that Ryan feels the need to be candid enough to tell Sanchez when his mistakes are glaring.

“This is OTAs and things, but yeah, that’s going to be the pressure that we’re putting on him,” Ryan said. “He did a lot of great things. It’s not that you try to cover up the fact you had some bad plays — no, no, no you flat tell him. We can’t have these and all that type of stuff. He knows.”

Ryan liked the way his defense played, but he’d prefer not to see his quarterback throwing that many passes to the guys in the different colored jerseys.

“It’s a good thing defense makes the plays, but no, I’d rather him not turn the ball over once,” Ryan said. “He did a lot of great things, and then those negative things, at the end of the day, that’s what gets you beat. And so we’ve got to to do a better job of eliminating those turnovers.”

If Sanchez doesn’t do a better job of eliminating those turnovers, Geno Smith will be starting in Week One.

Reuters

Charles Woodson’s return to Oakland has excited plenty of Raiders fans and it sounds like coach Dennis Allen is pretty excited about the chance to coach the team’s 1998 first-round pick.

Allen told Jerry McDonald of the Bay Area News Group that he enjoyed seeing fans lined up outside the facility waiting for confirmation that Woodson would be returning to Oakland and that he likes what Woodson brings to the table as a leader for the defense. He also sees Woodson as a player whose experience in the league can bring something of value to the offensive side of the ball as well.

It’s not a return to playing wide receiver, something did on the way to a Heisman Trophy while playing for the University of Michigan.

“You want to play this game with a swagger, with a little bit of an air of confidence,” Allen said. “Charles . . . he’s got that swagger and I think he can bring some of that to our team – not just defensively, but to the whole team in general.”

Confidence can’t take the place of a roster stuffed with talent, but it isn’t a bad thing to bring into a team trying to break a long string of years without a winning season. That streak may not end in 2013, but the Raiders obviously hope Woodson can help grow the Raiders team that finally finds itself back on happier ground come the final standings.

Getty Images

Just hours after news broke that 49ers receiver Michael Crabtree tore his Achilles tendon on Tuesday, Crabtree has already had surgery.

Crabtree had his surgery today, Chris Mortensen of ESPN reports.

According to multiple reports, doctors believe Crabtree will be out about six months. That would put his return in late November, around Week 12 of the regular season.

For the 49ers, losing Crabtree for that long is a major blow to the offense. Last season Crabtree was by far the 49ers’ top weapon in the passing game, with 85 catches for 1,105 yards. No one else on the 49ers had even half that many catches or receiving yards.

With Crabtree out for most of the season, the 49ers will need the newly acquired Anquan Boldin and last year’s No. 2 receiver, Mario Manningham, to step up. They’ll also need some production out of last year’s first-round draft pick, A.J. Jenkins, who did nothing as a rookie, and from this year’s fourth-round draft pick, Quinton Patton.