What to Watch Tonight: Monday Night Football X2

Today is your lucky day, because there is not only one Monday Night Football game tonight, but two! Well, maybe you don't consider this fact to be good luck, but here is the scoop on tonight's match ups to keep you interested.

• NY Giants vs. Minnesota Vikings: This game was supposed to be played yesterday in Minnesota, but a major snowstorm up in the midwest seriously damaged the Vikings' stadium. Check out the video below. Instead, the game will be played tonight in Detroit at Ford Field. The story line of the night is whether Brett Favre will continue his consecutive starting streak and play tonight, despite a painful shoulder injury. Tune in at 7:20 eastern to find out.
• Baltimore Ravens vs. Houston Texans: The Texans need the win to stay alive in the playoff hunt. Its offense is quite solid, so it needs to maintain its scoring and get its defense to step up against the Ravens. I have both teams' runningbacks on my fantasy football team so for my sake just root for each team to run the ball. Who knows, if my fantasy team wins it all there may be something in it for you - more money for Sportsgirl!

Interesting Sports Moments from the Weekend

• Andre Johnson received the game ball against the Tennessee Titans, despite being ejected for a brawl against Cortland Finnegan. Johnson received the ball for catching 60+ catches in a season for the eighth year in a row.Bad timing for Coach Kubiak - nothing like rewarding a player for beating the crap out of a competitor and risking a suspension in a critical game this week!
• Boise State, after arguing for years that they deserve a chance to play for the BCS title, lost to Nevada in a heartbreaker, ending the team's perfect season. The whole team is to blame for losing a 17 point lead, but the Boise State kicker, Kyle Brotzman, took the heat for missing not only an easy field goal in regulation but another one in overtime! Members of the university felt so bad for the heat the kicker was taking that they even started a facebook group in support of him.
• The only light that the miserable Buffalo Bills have seen this season is through receiver Steve Johnson. Yet, in an unbelievable overtime match up against the tough Pittsburgh Steelers, Johnson was delivered the perfect ball in the endzone and dropped it, subsequently losing the game. Johnson accepted the blame, but later tweeted that he blamed the play on God. Of course he never thanked God for the three touchdowns he caught last week...

Brawl on the Field

The bullying craze is now making its way to the football field. Sure, throughout the league's history players have trash talked and gotten away with petty jabs, but this week the bullying came to a head in the Houston Texans match up against the Tennessee Titans.

Titans cornerback, Cortland Finnegan, had been pestering Texans receiver Andre Johnson all game. Johnson told Finnegan to stop taking out his frustration on him. Yet, Finnegan took the bullying another step by pushing Johnson's facemask. Johnson lost his cool and ripped off Finnegan's helmet, landing two solid punches in Finnegan's face. Finnegan was able to take off Johnson's helmet before refs broke it up. The brawl was intense and would have been a contender for best fight even in the NHL.

The players were ejected from the game and are awaiting a ruling from the league regarding fines and potential suspension for their behavior. Johnson immediately apologized after the game for his actions and accepted full responsibility.

Reminds me of Lindsey Lohan's "Cady Heron," fighting the Plastics in "Mean Girls." But a fine by the NFL will unlikely deter NFLers from trashtalking, like "Ms. Norbury's' (Tina Fey's) fuzzy assembly did for the high school mean girls.

NFL Week 1 Recap

Here is what you need to know about NFL week 1. And read up, because it will be the talk of the week going into week 2. (Yes, the next 6 months will be consumed with NFL news week to week.)

• Upsets Galore Set the Tone for the new Season: First, the glitz and glamour Dallas Cowboys fell to old rival Washington Redskins. The 'Skins defense looked tough and put the C'boys in their place. The Seattle Seahawks tore apart the San Francisco 49ers who were projected to win their division. (I guess Pete Carroll, the Seahawks' new coach, escaped his violations at USC for bigger and better things.) Lastly of note, the Kansas City Chiefs took down QB Phillip Rivers and the San Diego Chargers last night in MNF. The heavy rain that beat down during the game seemed to make the Chargers slip all over the field, while the Chiefs got faster and used their speed to pull out the win.
• Peyton Manning and his Indianapolis Colts fell to the Houston Texans. Not an upset, because the Texans are actually really really good this year, but notable, because Peyton always knows how to take his team to a win and this is the first time he has lost to the Texans.
• The Detroit Lions almost had a win against the not-so-good-looking Chicago Bears, but a last minute touchdown was taken back due to a rule technicality. Maybe a bad rule, but the Lions violated it and therefore lost the game. Yet, the upside is that they looked pretty decent and may actually win some games this season, despite losing their star quarterback to an injury that may last a few weeks.
• Michael Vick, yes that dog fighting machine, is back in the mix. After the Philadelphia Eagles starting QB, Kevin Kolb, suffered a concussion in the game, Vick took over. Despite the loss, Vick looked solid and may just have regained a starting spot.
• Hard Knocks for the NY Jets: The Jets probably enjoyed the Hollywood scene a bit too much during preseason, because their offense was just not up to speed yesterday in their loss against the Baltimore Ravens. Maybe the hard knocks the Ravens defense gave to Jets QB Mark Sanchez, are just what he needs to get his game back.

Career Moves

This weekend several significant NFL contracts were negotiated and signed. Here is the rundown:

• Quarterback Matt Leinhart was cut by the Arizona Cardinals after complaining one to many times. Yet, the Houston Texans signed him as a backup quarterback for one year. Leinhart quickly went from being the likely starter of an NFL team to the backup to a pro-bowler QB. This is like getting fired from your dream job to then go be the assistant to your replacement.
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  Cornerback (that's the defender that guards the guys who make the catches) Darrelle Revis finally signed a new deal with the NY Jets for fours years and $46 million. The Jets finally got this deal to happen, in time for the season to start, knowing that without Revis the Superbowl would likely be out of the cards. Thought to be a win-win for both sides, the Jets still need Revis to perform because they are on the hook for $32 million guaranteed.
• T.J. Houshmandzadeh, a wide receiver, signed a one year contract with the Baltimore Ravens for $855,000. He will also be paid an additional $6.5 million by the Seattle Seahawks this season for money that is still owed on his contract. Houshmandzadeh gets to leave a losing Seattle team to compete for a title with the Ravens, while still getting paid the big bucks by Seattle. Sounds like a good deal for the receiver. I mean, wouldn't you want to get a giant severance package to then go justify a small paycheck at a job you love?