Posts by Bruce Ciskie at FanHouse

Training camps are underway, the NFL season is a month off, and to get you ready for 2008, FanHouse previews all 32 teams, "heat index" style. We'll rate each club in 10 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.

Quarterbacks: Did you hear that Brett Favre retired? Well, don't worry, because he changed his mind. And he did it too late, so the Packers wanted to move on instead of keeping him on board. So they traded him to the Jets. Got it? Aaron Rodgers is the new starter in Green Bay, and while I'm excited for him, I have to admit that this is all a little weird. I was barely 15 years old the first time Favre won a game for the Packers. That means Favre was the starter for more than half my life. Other guys - Rodgers, Mark Brunell, Matt Hasselbeck, Ty Detmer, and T.J. Rubley, among others - have taken snaps for the Packers, but Favre's been the only starter. He didn't even miss a pre-season start for the Packers until Monday night. Rodgers has the physical tools, he appears well-prepared, and he's handled this circus wonderfully. I can't rate him too highly because I just don't know if he can be as good as Favre, but he does appear to be better at reading coverages and making consistently good decisions than Favre was. Favre's improvisational ways were entertaining and often effective, but they also led to mistakes. Rodgers will play a safer style, but won't be nearly as dynamic. Heat Index: 7

The well-chronicled romance of Jarrett Stoll and Rachel Hunter now requires an update.

It seems that Stoll's move from Edmonton to Los Angeles has helped accelerate things. First, there was the talk of babies, and now comes word that the two are engaged.

"She is engaged. She's never been happier," her rep told People Magazine.

"She has been with Jarret for a long time and everyone is thrilled for them. He was recently traded to the L.A. Kings, so it's a really exciting time in their life together. He is an amazing guy and she is an amazing girl – they're truly meant to be."

We couldn't be happier, either.

I'll bet Stoll is pretty thrilled. After all, it's not often that a 26-year-old, relatively anonymous hockey player can claim to be engaged to one of the most well-known models on the planet.

Yes, it's gossip. But it's August. I mean, unless Mats Sundin wakes up tomorrow and actually makes a decision related to his hockey career (or lack thereof), we got nothing around here.

The very least we can do is share in the joy of the future Mr. and Mrs. Stoll. Or, at least we could be supremely jealous of the groom-to-be.

Anyone got any ideas for the bachelor party?

(Thanks, Jes!)

The United States women were beaten out for a gold medal in the team competition by the women girls from China.

While Chellsie Memmel and her teammates didn't get the gold, Memmel may have established herself as the toughest gymnast in the competition.

Why? She was competing with a broken ankle.

Memmel said after the U.S. women won the silver medal in team gymnastics Wednesday that she'd been competing with a broken bone in her right ankle. The 2005 world gymnastics champion hurt the ankle during training Aug. 4, but competed on uneven bars in both the preliminaries and the team finals.

"I have mixed emotions," she said. "I would have loved to compete on four events, but the silver medal for my team is great."

And you thought hockey players were tough!

If you look at the above photo, you can see the heavy tape on her right ankle. Now, I'm not an expert on gymnastics, but it seems that uneven bars would be about the only event she could safely compete in. The feet and legs aren't relied upon as heavily, and she's probably okay if she can handle her dismount.

Memmel certainly held up her end of the bargain, performing well on the uneven bars in the team final Wednesday morning (Tuesday night U.S. time).

There's no doubt that the rivalry between Minnesota and Green Bay is one of the better ones in the NFL. After a few non-descript seasons in the 1980s and 1990s, when one or both teams sucked, things have heated up nicely in recent years.

It probably all started when Randy Moss stomped all over the Packers defense on a Monday night in 1998. Since then, the intensity has been amped up quite a bit.

Since Mike McCarthy took over in Green Bay, the Packers are 4-0 against Minnesota. This is probably not taken well by Vikings fans, players, or coaches.

For evidence of this, I invite you to join me after the jump, as we present the comments of Vikings defensive tackle Pat Williams.

Training camps are underway, the NFL season is a month off, and to get you ready for 2008, FanHouse previews all 32 teams, "heat index" style. We'll rate each club in 10 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.

Quarterback: There is little doubt in my mind that Jay Cutler wasn't the problem last year. In his first full season as a starting quarterback, Cutler hit 64 percent of his throws and threw just 14 picks, which is pretty good for a first-year starter. He was good under pressure, which is also pretty good for a guy who was pretty much a rookie. Moving forward, Cutler needs to work on what many, many young quarterbacks need to work on: Decision-making. It's not at all uncommon for college quarterbacks or even Brett Favre to sometimes trust the ol' arm too much, which can lead a guy to throw a lot of footballs in traffic. As long as you grow out of it, or you're Brett Favre, it's okay. Happens to everyone. I really like Cutler. He shows pretty much every skill I like to see in an NFL quarterback, and he's the kind of kid who will only get better because of his dedication and drive. Ignore the fact that he hasn't had a winning season as a starting quarterback since high school. Heat Index: 7

Bob McGinn has been writing for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as long as I can remember. He's covered the Packers, and he's largely done so fairly and with great passion. He brings with him great insight and a keen sense of how to frame a story so it's interesting to the reader.

McGinn recently conducted a lengthy interview with Green Bay Packers general manager Ted Thompson. Naturally, Thompson has been a hot topic of discussion among Packer fans for his recent decision to trade future Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre to the New York Jets for only a conditional draft pick. Since McGinn isn't an idiot, he had to ask a question or two about the move and how tough it was to pull the trigger.

I've been involved in journalism since 1996, and spent much of the last decade getting paid to cover sports. I spent seven years hosting a sports talk show, and I have conducted literally hundreds of interviews, chatting with athletes, coaches, front-office people, reporters, analysts, and even agents.

One of my general rules of conducting interviews is that I don't feel it's right to let opinion dictate the questioning. Just because I think a certain way doesn't mean everyone else has to, and interjecting my opinion in hopes of generating agreement is not how to conduct an interview. I feel that's a tactic that makes the interviewer seem more important than the interviewee.

And in this case, I feel McGinn - no matter how much respect I have for the man - crossed the line.

It's not looking good for Packers running back Ryan Grant.

A balky hamstring has taken Grant off the field in the last few days. Despite his long contract dispute costing him significant on-field work during the off-season and training camp, head coach Mike McCarthy has to seriously consider holding Grant out of Monday's pre-season opener against Cincinnati.

When Grant signed, I mentioned that second-year pro Brandon Jackson was looking good in camp after a strong finish to his rookie season.

Saturday, McCarthy sounded like a coach who was a bit frustrated. He's dealing with bumps and bruises all over the field, and the last thing the Packers need is for another starter to be dinged. In Grant's case, though, discretion is certainly called for.

"He needs to practice, obviously with the time he has missed with his contract (holdout) and now with his injury. He definitely needs reps," said McCarthy.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, we should know more about Grant's status later Sunday. Obviously, they're going to be careful with a hamstring, as Grant could be out for weeks if he does something to make it worse.

If Grant misses Monday night, it's a great opportunity for Jackson, who has gotten the bulk of the camp work with the first team. If Grant somehow can't go Saturday night in San Francisco, and Jackson plays well, don't be surprised to see Jackson in serious contention to start the regular-season opener September 8.

Oh, and Aaron Rodgers will start a game at quarterback Monday for the first time since college. That might generate some media hype.

Stephanie Stradley already chronicled the story of kids telling Aaron Rodgers that he sucks. That's bad enough, but I'm sure any pro athlete out there can handle a kid saying "You suck".

Unfortunately, the kids aren't stopping there, and one has to assume they aren't getting their mouths washed out with soap, either.

Rodgers said he's been handling the boos with no problem, but some of the personal attacks have bothered him. Probably every practice there's one or two pro-Brett Favre people who are yelling things loud enough for the players to hear them.

But Rodgers said he hears things off the field, too.

"I understand it to some point if I put myself into a Favre fanatic's shoes," Rodgers said of getting booed. "The things I can't understand, the things I really take personally, is when I'm driving up to the (parking lot) gate and punching in my punch code and somebody says 'F.U.' to me. That kind of bothers me. Or when a little kid is yelling swear words at me. That kind of gets to me. The boos, they expect a high level of play and they miss Brett Favre. I understand that. But the 'F.U.' and the little kids saying swear words to me, I don't understand that."

Are we for real here? Kids swearing at a totally innocent bystander in the Brett Favre drama?

There is a wonderful website that lists the coverage maps for the NFL's regional coverage every week. I highly encourage you to bookmark the site so you can check it every week and see what you're getting.

According to the site archives, the New York Jets were only televised in all of Wisconsin three times in 2007. Additionally, eastern Wisconsin got the Pittsburgh game in Week 11, and western Wisconsin got the New England game in Week 15.

I can virtually assure you that number will increase this year, even without factoring in the Jets' presence on national television.

Something about Brett Favre getting traded there has suddenly made the Jets quite popular among Wisconsin sports fans. Even die-hard Packer fans are hoping to follow Favre's new team, and they're making their feelings known to local CBS affiliates.

As of this writing, Brett Favre is still a member of the Green Bay Packers.

However, that's only the "official" way of describing it. At this point, it can be safely said that Favre is done with the Packers, and they're done with him. Right now, it's a messy divorce, but hopefully the air will clear at some point, so all is well when Favre returns to Green Bay for the inevitable jersey retirement ceremony.

(He will retire for real at some point, won't he?)

Finally, after a month of this stuff, we have some movement on the trade front. Favre has finally okayed trade talks, and he's indicated that he's willing to be traded to either Tampa Bay or the New York Jets. Indications are that Favre's top choice here is Tampa, but there's a monkey wrench in the deal.

The Jets appear to have made the best offer.