You knew John Madden wouldn't be able to stay away from the game for long, but this is a rather quick move. Madden is now Roger Goodell's "special advisor", and will aide the Commish on things like player safety, and coaching development. Via ESPN....

John Madden is back in the NFL as an unpaid "special advisor" to commissioner Roger Goodell.

The league announced Thursday that Madden, who retired as a broadcaster earlier this year, would advise Goodell on "matters pertaining to the game, including competitive issues, coaching and personnel development, technological innovations, player safety, and the Pro Football Hall of Fame."

"When I retired from broadcasting, I didn't retire from my passion and interest in the game," Madden said in a statement. "This position enables me to continue that."

Madden will chair the Coaches Subcommittee to the Competition Committee, which reports in prior to the league's annual meetings. He will also participate in meetings of the General Managers Advisory Committee and talk weekly with Goodell or someone else on Goodell's staff.

"It was an offer we couldn't refuse," Goodell said in a statement.

The guy is really a Football genius, so as Goodell said, it was a no-brainer. Now we just wait until he officially changes the term Touchdowns, to Favredowns.

Madden joins NFL in advisory job (ESPN)

Chad Johnson was on my list of people not to mention this site for most of the season, but I have to break my rule to post this story from Pro Football Talk. Johnson said on both Monday Night Football, and Sports Center the following day, that he had some things planned.

I ignored both interviews and figured it was just more costumes and/or props for his cheesy TD celebrations. Boy was I wrong. Chad Johnson has taken the first steps to officially change his name to "Ocho Cinco". Seriously....

Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson was fined $5,000 for wearing “Ocho Cinco” on the back of his jersey before a game in 2006.

To avoid getting fined, Johnson hasn’t done it since then. But Johnson now has a plan for how he can get away with having “Ocho Cinco” spelled out over the “85″ on his back.

We’ve learned that Johnson has taken the first steps in the state of Florida toward legally changing his last name to Ocho Cinco.

If Johnson follows through on this, his actual, legal name will be Chad Ocho Cinco, and the NFL would then (we assume) allow him to put his new last name on the back of his jersey.

On the surface it seems like yet another cheesy Chad Johnson stunt, but when you think about it, anything to make the "No Fun League" squirm is kind of entertaining. Obviously this is still a rumor, but imagine how many jerseys he would sell. It wouldn't approach Favre territory, but it would be quite a few.

Johnson Wants To Be Ocho Cinco Legally (Pro Football Talk)

The Boston Herald writer who broke the (false) news that the Patriots taped a Rams walkthrough before Super Bowl XXXVI has issued an apology. John Tomase basically claims that he published a rumor because he heard it from "various" people and solidified it when he heard that Walsh's assertion of skeletons in the Pats' closet. Here's a snippet....

Late in the 2006 season, I was having a casual conversation about the Patriots [team stats] when someone I trust threw out the following tidbit.

“I heard the Patriots filmed the Rams’ final walkthrough before Super Bowl XXXVI,” he said.

It was just a rumor, and certainly not actionable intelligence, as they say. He had heard it from a friend of a friend. I filed it away, and then forgot about it. Reporters hear stuff like that all the time.

Little did I know that comment would resurface from a much stronger source in the days after the Patriots had been caught filming the Jets’ defensive signals in September 2007.

Turns out I could not have been more wrong. I regret it, and that’s something I’m going to have to live with for the rest of my life.

He probably should have just ended it there, but he keeps going for another two pages of back story and standing by his original source. I really had never heard of John Tomase until this whole Rams walkthrough thing, and the guy seems genuinely sorry for the story, but seriously.....come on. I really just can't believe that a newspaper published a story based on one unsubstantiated rumor. Especially an allegation this huge. It blows my actually. You are not only gambling with your own career by going ahead with a piece like this, but you're gambling with the whole Newspaper's validity.

If you read the over three hundred comments attached to the apology I think you can find how Bostonians really feel, and as Robert Kraft has explained over the past few days, this is almost unforgivable from the team's standpoint. To lose the trust of a team in the most winning town in the Country is a death sentence, and who's to say the Celtics and Sox are going to trust them either?

There's no way the Pats will give the access back to Tomase he once had, and I'm extremely surprised he still has a job. Everyone deserves a second chance, but some people need a long break to think about what they've done before they get it.

The story behind Herald walkthrough article (Boston Herald)