well, they won the division last year without sweeping the bears, without their top linebacker ej henderson who will make the pro bowl this year, and with a career back up quarterback.

this year (quartberback play aside) their defense and running game, alone, will get them to the playoffs and they made a nice improvement to the receiving core with percy harvin.

they didn't sign brett cause they needed him to win the division or make the playoffs. they signed him to win the super bowl. they know he's not in his prime but he offers the savvy and the playoff/superbowl experience that that they are missing without him. and after two practices they are saying that the playbook has alreday been opened up 50 percent from what they were able to run with the other qb's.

I hear what you're saying, james, but i don't agree they will need to sweep the bears to get to the playoffs nor would they need home field advantage to do any damage when they get there since they are well suited for road games with their deadly defense and running game. that is the worst case scenario. i wouldn't be stunned if they won the division with home field advantage the whole way through either nor would i be stunned if they did sweep the bears for they are not your usual dome team.

as far as the schedule i suggest you set up a way for us to make our picks. or is that already something you do????

im sure there are a couple of games on those schedules i see differently then you and it would be a lot of fun!!!

initially that's what i thought when he announced he would stay retired but...............

after hearing his press conference his story seemed believable and included tidbits of his daughter.

if he was lying the whole time to avoid training camp he lied about his daughter without having to do so.

I just think he was ready to let go forever and this is the best and last shot he's gonna get.

james, you were picking the vikes a while back and now you're thinking the bears stand in their way.

to me, the vikes won the division last year and improved in the off season, more so, than the bears.

i don't think axl was afraid of vince and vince is the one that ran off after the incident with izzy. after that it is all speculation. we know both of them challenged the other in the media and neither one of them showed up but that means virtually nothing for it would have been a circus with security or police following closely behind so nothing would have came of it any ways. they both knew that. they were doing image control at that point. if either one of them still wanted to fight they would have called them on the phone.

as far as tommy, what i read is that tommy slapped axl and axl had a wide open chance to retaliate before people stepped in and did not. maturity happens to the best of us. no way axl was afraid for he had already taken hilfiger's best shot.

they were also claiming at one point in '06 (i think) that the plan was to have three albums ready so that they could release - tour - release - tour - release - tour in a span of 6 years. between that and the trilogy release it seems safe to bet that the material is there. plus with all money invested in paying the musicians to spend all of their down time in the studio for a decade there should be hundreds of songs (lyrics or not). my opinion is that the other material was held back for a later release by the label for whatever reason. i don't know that best buy ever intended on three different discs in '08. I think it was the covers the whole time that was being messed with and this was loosely confirmed by axl. the songs played for the best buy execs at that seminar were all off of the chinese democracy we got. had there been three albums that best buy was supposed to push we would have heard gnr songs on that phone recording that aren't on the cd we have today.

the latest push for a trilogy may have been management's/label's idea, knowing that the only way they could get axl to agree to a reunion was to get all of his "new gnr" work released first.