The most expensive city in America is looking for free help. Good luck with that. According to Peggy McGlone of the Newark Star-Ledger, the Super Bowl XLVIII host committee wants 15,000 to 25,000 volunteers to help put on the event.  Workers must attend a training session, submit to a background check, and serve at least…

[Editor's note:  Every Tuesday morning, we'll post a consensus ranking based on an average of the five rankings from the five PFT writers.  So if you disagree with any of these, don't blame me.  Who am I kidding?  You'd blame me even if I didn't cast a ballot at all.] 1. Patriots (1-0; No. 2…

We hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend, including some time with your family, some time eating some hamburgers and/or the pink missile-shaped packages of ground-up pig or cow parts that can’t otherwise be sold (but that are nevertheless delicious), and most importantly some time reflecting on the millions of young men and women…

Not that it’s a race to get back on the field, but of the Giants’ two tight ends who suffered torn ACLs in the Super Bowl, Travis Beckum is way ahead of Jake Ballard. Beckum is hopeful that he can fully recover in seven months and play in Week One. Ballard, who needed microfracture surgery,…

Every Monday during the regular season, I stay up late and/or get up early and bang out a 2,000-or-so-word item that offers up 10 takes on the Sunday that was. It’s been more than two months since I’ve had one of those late nights/early mornings, and with the free agency frenzy ramping up and the…

1.  Packers (No. 1; 15-1):  Biggest concern for the defending champs?  They finished the regular season with the worst total defense in the league, and the worst pass defense. 2. Patriots (No. 2; 13-3):  Four years since their last playoff win and seven since their last Super Bowl victory, the Patriots seem primed for another…

The Colts entered Sunday’s game needing to lose in order to win.  And they did. With a 19-13 defeat in Jacksonville, the Colts have locked up the first overall pick in the 2012 draft, via a 2-14 record.  Which means that they’ll have dibs on Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck. The victory for the Jaguars, which…

Since 2006, the league has been using a flexible schedule on Sunday nights to ensure that a competitive and interesting game always will occupy the prime-time slot.  In most weeks of flex scheduling, the decision comes at least 12 days before the games are played.  For Week 17, the decision usually is made after the…

Though it would be fitting for a kid named “Luck” to play for a team with a horseshoe on its helmet, the Colts are experiencing an unlikely late-season surge that could cost the team that had presumably locked up the first overall pick a clear shot at their franchise quarterback of the future. Thanks to…

As if there was any doubt, Andrew Luck says he’s ready to leave college after Stanford plays in the Fiesta Bowl. Luck said on ESPN that he considers himself “absolutely” prepared to leave college and enter the NFL draft. Luck does have one remaining season of NCAA eligibility and could play at Stanford in 2012…

Once upon a time, there was a perception that the Indianapolis media kowtowed to the Colts. Not anymore. Bob Kravitz of the Indianapolis Star, whose recent critique of the father-son exercise in front-office nepotism prompted Bill Polian to indirectly call Kravitz a rat (and Bob adjusted his Twitter avatar accordingly), has now called for owner…

The bad news is that I gained no ground on Rosenthal last week in the picks contest. The good news?  I lost no ground, either. We matched our records in Week 11 with 10-4 efforts; he picked the Dolphins when I foolishly trusted the Bills.  Fortunately, Rosenthal sided with the Jaguars while a scored a…

It’s a nice, feel-good Thanksgiving week story.  Bears quarterback Jay Cutler breaks a thumb.  The Broncos have cut a former Bears quarterback who’d like to play in Chicago again.  And there’s nothing more natural than a homecoming on the fourth Thursday in November. The only problem?  At least 22 teams can provide the flight delay…

Bills LB Andra Davis has been selected as the team’s Ed Block Courage Award winner. Now that the Dolphins look like they won’t Suck for Luck, the question is raised in Miami: Should they be planning for Manning? Asked about a report that he made a profane comment to his son after the Jets game,…

At a time when it appears that the Colts’ formula for winning the “Suck of Luck” contest entails doing nothing to significantly improve a struggling franchise, the Colts can’t be accused of complete inaction. On Tuesday, the team made some roster-churning moves. Specifically, the Colts signed cornerback Morgan Trent.  They also signed tight end Anthony…