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We're Black and Blue All Over: Now that we've dissected Brian Urlacher's retirement and assessed his chances at enshrinement in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, we should ask the next question: Will the Bears retire his No. 54? That issue might b...

Another in a periodic series examining the roles of NFC North newcomers: We have all debated the potential for Ziggy Ansah's immediate impact as a Detroit Lions defensive end in 2013. Ansah was a late arrival to football, a late bloomer on the NFL...

Breakdown: The Detroit Lions' 4-12 season last year apparently has reduced their national appeal. Their schedule includes only one prime-time game, a home date on "Monday Night Football" in Week 15 against the Baltimore Ravens. Frankly, with the n...

As you might have heard, three of the four Pro Football Hall of Fame finalists with NFC North ties were elected Saturday to the class of 2013. Minnesota Vikings receiver Cris Carter and senior nominees Dave Robinson (Green Bay Packers) and Curley Cul...

The Pro Football Hall of Fame selection committee has included a player with NFC North ties in every class dating back to the inception of this blog. We had Minnesota Vikings guard Randall McDaniel in 2009. In 2010, Vikings defensive lineman John ...

Former Minnesota Vikings receiver Cris Carter is among the 15 finalists for the 2013 class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. At some point, voters will relieve the three-way logjam at receiver between Carter, Tim Brown and Andre Reed. Will it be this...

Two years ago, we re-introduced you to former Minnesota Vikings linebacker Fred McNeil, whose descent into memory loss and depression was artfully told by Jeanne Marie Laskas in GQ magazine. The implication was that McNeil's years playing football ha...

MINNEAPOLIS -- A few thoughts from one of the best NFC North football games we've seen in recent memory: What it means: The Minnesota Vikings qualified for the playoffs by winning their fourth consecutive regular-season game. They beat the Green B...

Here in the NFC North, we are half way to a feat that hasn't occurred in 80 years of football record-keeping. Saturday night, Detroit Lions receiver Calvin Johnson broke the NFL's single-season record for receiving yards. Johnson has 1,892 receivi...

About six weeks ago, I referred to Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe as a "fortunate NFL employee." You don't have to spend much time around football coaches to know that many resent when players draw off-field attention to themselves. Fair or not...

It's never not draft time for ESPN analyst Todd McShay, who has spent the fall scouting college football prospects and has -- in Week 15 of the NFL regular season -- submitted his first mock draft in anticipation of the 2013 event. The entire file r...

My general approach to fantasy football is to leave the analysis and recommendations to the experts, of which ESPN has an entire staff. Occasionally, however, I'll try to pass along information that might be of use to you and your team. In checkin...

My general rule in covering football is to trust what I see. Sometimes this game can be made more complicated than it is. So if you're like me, you walked away from Sunday's game at the Metrodome convinced that Detroit Lions defensive tackle Ndamukon...

We're Black and Blue All Over: GREEN BAY, Wis. -- All told, Week 9 was pretty good to the NFC North. We won three of four games, and the one loss wasn't exactly unpredicted. As @jc74 noted late Sunday, we are the only division in football with all...

OK, gang. You saw the fight last night between the Minnesota Vikings' Jared Allen and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' Donald Penn. You saw what happens in football when one combatant's helmet is removed. Allen needed stitches on the bridge of his nose afte...

The psycho babblers call it "inductive reasoning." I consider it a chance to write about ducks on a football blog. We'll call it the Duck Test, and here goes: If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a du...