Posted by Andy Benoit

Larry Holder provided an excellent Saints-Vikings preview to CBSSports.com earlier today . Holder focused primarily on the war of words between players and coaches regarding how the Saints went after Brett Favre in the NFC Championship. This was a hot issue earlier in the offseason when Darren Sharper and Visanthe Shiancoe exchanged jabs via Twitter. The issue recently gained more steam when Vikings coach Brad Childress reached into Phil Jackson’s bag of tricks and decided to publicly gripe about the officiating before the game was even played.

Now, you can add another battle to this war of words. Jeff Duncan of the New Orleans Times Picayune wrote a story Thursday, revealing what Saints head coach Sean Payton said to his players about Favre before facing Favre in the NFC Championship:

"When you get older in life, you tend to get very careful, and a little more fearful," Payton said, according to players and staffers who were there. "You start thinking about your own mortality. If it rains outside you might not go to the store, especially at night. You figure you'll just wait it out. You might have somewhere to go and you tell yourself I don't want to go there. You don't want to get in a wreck.

"If you keep hitting him (on Sunday) he'll make a mistake. If we keep putting pressure on him (Sunday night) he'll start being careful, he'll start doing anything he can to avoid getting hit and he'll make a mistake. I promise you, if we hit him for four quarters, he'll turn into that old man who's scared of the rain."

It should be noted that Favre and Payton are friends (they spoke a few days after that epic NFC Title Game).

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Posted by Will Brinson

I'll just assume that Brett Favre read the inaugural "Givin' 'Em the Business" piece I fired out today and got cheesed off that he ended up at No. 2 on the list. Because that's the only way to explain why he would say what he said on Sirius Radio while chatting with Adam Schein, Rich Gannon and John Madden (via Michael David Smith at Pro Football Talk ).

"It's a media frenzy world," Favre said. "Nothing goes untouched or un-talked about. I quietly -- I thought quietly -- tried to make my decision. I had surgery about a month before camp and the media started camping out at the gate. I never asked them to come. I never asked them to talk about it."

Technically, he's correct ... he never asked anyone to come down to Mississippi and harass him. And yeah, we do live in a media frenzy type of world where (guilty as charged, by the way) we all go b-a-n-a-n-a-s over every single storyline.

Having said that, though, if Favre really believes he's innocent in terms of attention-hogging, he's clearly more delusional than any of us could have thought.

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Posted by Will Brinson

Givin Em the Business recognizes all the people that annoyed us from the week that was in football. Feel free to provide nominations either in the comments or by yelling at us on Twitter (@CBSSportsNFL) .

Rank	Who	Why
1	Albert Haynesworth	If Haynesworth's offseason performance were judged on the same merits that we judge actual play on the actual football field, he would absolutely justify his $100 million salary. Instead, he's simply the most obnoxious figure in the NFL since we last left real football. Think about: he gets paid 9 (NINE!) figures and yet he still whined about the fact that he had to change positions in a new defense, he still couldn't pass a physical that every other TV reporter in the D.C. area could and he even tried to pretend like he was sick of the 'B.S.' and just wanted to play football. To top it all off: he's still  on the trading block.
2	Brett Favre	Were we to do a retroactive "Givin' 'Em the Business" column for the past five or so offseasons, Favre would probably rank No. 1 every time. He managed to lock the entire world in for a full day of rehashing "Favre's Greatest Hits" even when he didn't retire, he made us watch helicopter cams follow an SUV down the highway O.J. Simpson style, and he forced several of his teammates to travel from Minnesota to Mississippi just to get a commitment from him. In fact, it's a testament to just how horrible Haynesworth has been that Favre, even though he forced us to suffer yet another wishy-washy media nightmare this season, somehow didn't win this "award."
3	Darrelle Revis	Somehow, someway, Revis managed to eclipse all the crap that the Jets have produced during the offseason (and it's a lot) en route to holding out up until the very last minute for a deal that wasn't really what he wanted. Look, I get that as a young superstar someone would want to get paid now and not worry about injury derailing a serious boatload of cash from being delivered to his house, but you signed a contract when you became a working professional/adult. Deal with it like you were one.
4	T.Ocho	Terrell Owens and Chad Ochocinco have complained recently that they don't get fair treatment from the media, because they're vilified even though they've done nothing wrong. That's actually a very salient point, but that doesn't excuse the two of them having three reality television shows between them. The Versus one, which will debut in October, actually might end up being awesome, but at that point in time, we'll have seen enough insanity flowing out Cincinnati that it's all but certain the whole "zany wideout" thing will be played out. And if the Bengals are actually winning, it'll only get worse. On the bright side, we're less than a week away from one of them getting fined for a hysterical touchdown celebration.
5	Looming Lockout	Really, this should be first overall: remember that we're discussing a large group of really rich men fighting with a smaller group of even richer men about who will be getting more richer in the future. All of this comes directly from the pocket of the fan, and if the lockout happens (as it certainly appears it will), the only people that will be really  harmed are fans. And that's fairly criminal. The only good news is that it seems pretty likely (at least I think so) that this could end like Revis' deal where we see a last-minute cave. Unfortunately, that will probably mean no preseason.
6	Tony Dungy	Yup, that's right. I'm gonna be the guy ripping Tony Dungy, who just happens to seem like one of the nicest human beings on the planet. My beef? Him sticking his nose where it doesn't necessarily belong. Look, it's swell that he's an "ambassador" for the league and everything, but that doesn't mean that every single one of his beliefs are correct. For instance, if Rex Ryan wants to tell his players to get a &#%$%$ snack on their $%$^ing time away from the field, in my opinion he can sure as $%^@ do so.
7	Tim Tebow	My reaction to Tebow is quite similar to my reaction to the preseason: "I don't hate it, but, MAN, does it get old quickly." Tebow was all we talked about this offseason in terms of rookies, even though he pretty clearly won't be the "guy" in Denver for some time. I'm actually optimistic that he'll eventually be good, but that doesn't mean I want to sit in the stands in Jacksonville on Sunday amid a ton of people wearing Gator jerseys while they (as Andy pointed out) wonder when Tebow will get in the dang game!
8	Matt Leinart	Honestly, Leinart's situation is more humorous than anything else. Imagine being really bad at your job (and overpaid, to boot) and then imagine walking into your boss' office and demanding that you -- yes, you of the awful performance thus far in multiple years on the job -- get a promotion. Your boss would laugh in your face and probably fire you. Oh, wait. That's what the Cardinals did with Leinart.
9	The Jets	Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Jets are kind of on here twice. I wasn't going to include them as a team (mainly because "Hard Knocks" has been so freaking awesome) until Antonio Cromartie decided the Jets were the "Miami Heat of football." And Mark Sanchez (who's like totally my podcast BFF) decided to add that they're building a "dream team." Come on, people. Look, their coach is brash, angry, loud and hysterical. And he inspires confidence. That's swell. But this team shouldn't have even made the playoffs last year! DO NOT CROWN THEM. THEY WILL BE WHO WE DID NOT REALIZE THAT THEY WOULD BE. Or something.
10	Vincent Jackson	And by extension, "holdouts in general," although that kind of got covered in Revis' section. Basically, this is annoying because I'm a Philip Rivers fan and there's nothing more annoying than seeing him possibly lose a huge window to make a run at a title because the CBA got blown up, Jackson lost some time in free agency, the Chargers decided to play hardball, and then even maybe/possibly refuse to trade him. It's impossible to find one side where you can say "alright, this is absolutely so-and-so's fault" because both sides have a reasonable case to be made, but seeing every single contract and holdout and discussion of anything football-related circle back to the fact that it might be gone in a year makes me want to pull a Spewell on someone. On the bright side, it's here now!

Posted by Will Brinson

The NFL released its first injury report of the season today (all together now: YEEEEEEEEEEEAAH !) and while there's not a ton of surprising news, per se, there is something that we should get used to seeing -- "Brett Favre (ankle)."

Favre was listed despite having full participation in practice and given his state of health, it's unlikely he won't be on that list most every week that he plays (which would, given his track record, seem like about 16 times, not counting the postseason).

Also listed for the Vikings are Toby Gerhart (knee), Cedric Griffin (knee), Jamarca Sanford (ankle) and John Sullivan (calf), who all had limited participation in practice, and Chris Cook (knee) and Jimmy Kennedy (knee) who didn't practice.

The Saints included Marques Colston (kidney), Jimmy Graham (ankle) and Pierson Prioleau (knee) as those who had full participation, Tracy Porter (knee), Zach Strief (knee) and Jonathan Vilma (groin) as limited and Stanley Arnoux (ankle) and Chris Ivory (knee) as those that didn't practice.

So, yeah, the point being is that Favre's listed, but he's probably fine and we know that football is truly here when Favre is listed on an injury report.

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Posted by Josh Katzowitz

Brett Favre’s return to the Vikings sealed the fate of one of Minnesota’s backup quarterbacks. Somebody has to go.

Coach Brad Childress has said Tarvaris Jackson will be the No. 2 quarterback , meaning Sage Rosenfels and Joe Webb will battle for the final job.

Minnesota had planned to insert Webb – a college quarterback at UAB who was drafted in the sixth round – into the receiving corps, but he surprised the coaching staff with his abilities at QB. And why not? After all, he’s the only player in NCAA history to pass for 2,000 yards and rush for 1,000 yards in consecutive seasons.

He’s been pretty good in the preseason as well, completing 12 of 21 passes for 91 yards, two TDs and zero INTs while rushing for 78 yards.

Plus, you know, Webb can jump really high (see video below). Which is pretty cool.



The St. Paul Pioneer Press writes Webb is pretty confident he has a future with the club, but he also realizes the team’s preseason game against the Broncos on Thursday is kind of a big deal.

"You can't get comfortable," Webb told the paper. "You have to continue to play your best game."

Rosenfels actually has looked very impressive this preseason, going 30 of 47 for 392 yards, four touchdowns, zero interceptions and a monster 118.4 QB rating. But let’s face it, he’s an eight-year veteran with only 32 games played and with only 12 games started, and he’s nothing more than a below-average starting quarterback. 

I expect the Vikings to release Rosenfels (or try to trade him, I suppose), but they could keep Rosenfels and try to slip Webb onto the practice squad. I wouldn’t expect him to pass through waivers, though, and then, he’d be lost to Minnesota.

And honestly, who would you rather have? Rosenfels or a guy who can jump over seven bags?

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Sorry these are so late (I know, I know, you've had more cups of coffee than Matt Leinart's had trade rumors this morning), but in the interest of NOT making them about Leinart, I tried to dig up some funkier links. Enjoy.

Also, if we do these every morning, you know, so feel free to follow us on twitter (@CBSSportsNFL) and send us links. Either there or via email .

• John Clayton, whom I actually like quite a lot, has ranked the NFL quarterbacks before we start the season (in eight days - OMFG). He has 14 "elite" quarterbacks (yes, having FOURTEEN does destroy the meaning of the word), 8 members of the "Chad Pennington Division" and 11 in the "Hit/Miss Division." Now, Matt Ryan isn't elite (yet), Brett Favre isn't better than Aaron Rodgers and/or Philip Rivers (right now), and if Matt Moore has a 5 percent chance of being elite, how is he ranked one spot lower than Trent Edwards? There are LOTS of questions on this list.

• Speaking of elite quarterbacks, Jay Cutler has some more 'splaining to do about his relationship with Kristin Cavallari. (Sean Jensen of the Sun-Times seems just thrilled to be working this story, by the by.)

• Josh Wilson, the newest Raven after yesterday's trade from the Seahawks, says he "couldn't be happier." Duh -- he's a former  Terp so he's closer to home, and while Jim Harbaugh isn't as enthusiastic as Pete Carroll, his team certainly is better.

• The Denver Post appears to be having some fun with their new toy, Tim Tebow, page/DEN">Broncos)&utm_content=Google+Reader" target="_blank">using the phrase "rise to top backup" in a headline about the depth chart. Or maybe I'm reading too deeply into it -- let's just say that when he "resurrects the Broncos red zone efforts" then it's officially awkward.

• LOOK OUT, DALLAS! Here comes Houston, who has sold page/HOU">Texans+Football)&utm_content=Google+Reader" target="_blank">a record number of season tickets . Also, Gary Kubiak thinks that it's their time to win the AFC South .

• There may be a Jaguars-related war brewing between Sports Illustrated and First Coast News (in Jax) anchor Dan Hicken over this Jags preview . No offense to Hicken, but I'm fairly biased towards the city of Jacksonville and I still know who's winning this little media kurfluffle . Yes, I used this "news" just to say "kerfluffle," thanks for asking.

• Wade Phillips thinks Tony Romo is "ready." Well, that's good. Actually, I think he may means Romo is ready to "win this division, have a monster statistical year, take us to the Super Bowl and keep my job alive."

• It's Clinton Portis' birthday today ! I actually didn't realize that until Jamie Mottram pointed out that he has the same bday as Portis which, considering Mottram is a Redskins' fan, is mildly awesome. My "athlete matchups" are Michael Vick, Chad Pennington and Derek Jeter. Lame. Who you got?

• Mental Floss (one of the greatest websites ever, for those that haven't visited), breaks down the origins of all 32 NFL nicknames . Jake Delhomme defines "powerful, sleek and strong" doesn't he?

• Thomas George of FanHouse gets an exclusive little sit-down with Brett Favre who somehow understands that it's "now or never" when it comes to winning. Nice to see he's so self-aware.

• Matt Miselis of B/R and NFLTouchdown.com lists five teams that could use Matt Leinart, and he's getting it linked simply because he tweeted them at us. See? Follow on us on Twitter and we'll name drop you. Maybe.