First off, Ravens fans can’t blame the referees for losing this game.  Yes, the referees missed two huge calls: the roughing the kicker call after Mitch Berger fell on his butt when Edgar Jones just happened to be lying on the ground next to him and Ryan Clark‘s helmet-to-helmet hit on Willis McGahee.  More on the second one later.  But a blind monkey could have made that first call.  The ridiculousness of that call is unspeakable.  So for once I will side with the Ravens fans.  But your team didn’t lose because the referees and the NFL are out to get you.  Take some solace and go cry in your Natty Boh over that one.

Troy Polamalu and Ed Reed are two of the top safeties in the NFL today, but Polamalu showed on Sunday why he should be considered the premier safety in the NFL.  Polamalu outplayed Reed, bad calf and all.  The Steelers schemed against Reed perfectly, and his name was only called by Jim Nantz a few times.  The Ravens schemed against Polamalu, but he still found ways to get himself involved in the play of the game, notably in the fourth quarter when he read Joe Flacco‘s eyes perfectly and stepped in for the pick, and made a very Reed-like return for the touchdown to seal the game for Pittsburgh.  After seeing Reed v. Polamalu in the AFC and Brian Dawkins v. Adrian Wilson in the NFC, we get Polamalu v. Wilson in the Super Bowl, which promises to be another great safety matchup.

I love the Pittsburgh wide receivers.  Starting with Hines Ward, and right down through Limas Sweed.  They play the game the way it is supposed to be played.  They can catch.  They can run.  And most of all, they can block.  The attitude comes straight from Ward who isn’t afraid to hit somebody.  I don’t call his play dirty at all.  He does his job for his teammates and plays until the whistle is blown.  When defensive players complain about the way he plays the game, it just sounds like they don’t want to get hit.  Those defensive players can dish the pain, they just can’t take it.  Sweed is a notable example.  After having a sure touchdown catch bounce off his fingertips, Sweed came back a few plays later and delivered an absolutely crushing block on Corey Ivy to help spring tight end Heath Miller for extra yardage.  My friend & I DVR’d that play at least five times.  It was a clean block and that’s what coaches want their wide receivers to be doing.  You can’t complain with the way they play.  Santonio Holmes is a speedster.  His early touchdown catch was an absolute thing of beauty.  He shows great instincts on the run after the catch and on punt returns.  He fits the mold of the Eagles’ DeSean Jackson, although he was better size than Jackson.  The Steelers wide receivers are probably one of the most underrated crews in the league.

My hat goes off to Joe Flacco.  At the beginning of the season, I did not think they would be able to get anywhere with him at quarterback.  Well I was wrong.  He showed maturity and poise beyond his years this whole season in dealing with a city still smarting from the Kyle Boller debacle.  Flacco said all the right things and did all the right things this whole season and showed that he is indeed a good guy.  I don’t chalk up his loss to the Steelers as a rookie choking on the big stage; I see it as a quarterback running into a tough defense that schemed against him perfectly.  Kerry Collins or Phillip Rivers would not have been that successful against the defense that Dick LeBeau put out there.  Flacco gives the Ravens security at quarterback they have never had before.  All they have to do is add a big play wide receiver and they’re good to go on offense for years to come with Flacco, Le’Ron McClain, Ray Rice, and the emerging Mark Clayton.

I mentioned Ryan Clark’s hit on Willis McGahee earlier and I come back to it here.  I have to say that was one of the scariest things I have ever seen on a football field.  I immediately froze after that hit.  It was great to see the response from the medical staff and the players on both sides.  McGahee is in my prayers and it was great to hear that he was talking and moving around late last night.  That being said, there definitely should have been a flag thrown on that play for a helmet-to-helmet collision.  The NFL said they were going crack down on helmet-to-helmet hits recently, but I have not seen that happen one bit.  With the way the players are playing now, it’s getting way too dangerous not to call those penalties.  Football is football.  Guys are going to get hurt.  Guys are going to lead with their helmets.  They won’t always be able to remember that they aren’t supposed to lead with their helmets.  But if it is in the rule book, it should be enforced.  The hit on McGahee was especially brutal, with the way his head snapped back after the impact.  It looked more like he got hit by a car than another player.

I was impressed by the way the Steelers played against a tough Ravens team Sunday night; but I’m still rooting for the Cardinals.

Presumably, the Packers don’t really want Favre back after all that’s happened. Essentially, their message is they aren’t going to free him to sign with any of the league’s other 31 teams — especially not NFC North division rivals Minnesota, Chicago or Detroit — and he won’t be given his starting job back if he returns to Green Bay.

The most likely scenario would have Favre petitioning the league for reinstatement and the Packers trading him to an AFC team, or at least an NFC team outside the division. Among the teams that fit that profile are the Miami Dolphins, Baltimore Ravens, Kansas City Chiefs, New York Jets, Carolina Panthers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Washington Redskins.

The Packers’ best-case scenario, in which Favre would’ve simply stayed retired, almost certainly won’t happen. The Packers went so far as to send an intermediary down to Mississippi last week to try to talk Favre into staying retired, but their attempt failed.

The Wisconsin State Journal’s article puts serious contenders for Favre out there for the first time in a while. But would these really help Brett Favre? He obviously wants to go to a contender and the Minnesota Vikings are rumored to be his top choice (which means he’s looking to follow Darren Sharper and Ryan Longwell), but Minnesota most likely isn’t going to happen. Do these really give Favre a chance to be a winner though?

The Miami Dolphins were 1-15 last year and are starting from the ground up. They have a new coach in Tony Sparano and a new head man in Bill Parcells. If Favre wants to win, Miami would probably not be the best option. Parcells and Sparano are getting reputations as strictly business, given their run-in with superstar-turned-wanna-be-actor Jason Taylor. A Taylor-for-Favre swap is pretty intriguing, but I don’t think that’s what Taylor wants and Favre wants a winner, but I don’t see the Dolphins turning into playoff contenders right away. Right now, John Beck, Chad Henne, and Josh McCown are the quarterbacks on the roster for the Dolphins. Beck started last year and had a lot of trouble adjusting to the pro-game. He could have been Cam Cameron‘s quarterback of the future, but with Parcells coming in, his future is up in the air. Parcells used a high draft pick on Henne, who could be Parcells’ “guy” while McCown is the veteran in the mix. McCown also happens to be a friend of the Packers family, along with Nathan Poole, for knocking the Vikings out and Packers into the playoffs in (I think) 2003. God, I love opening old wounds. So the Dolphins do not look that likely if Favre wants to win. If he wants to play and end up on MediCare, he can go for it.

The Baltimore Ravens would be the worst situation for me besides an NFC North team. I may be in the Baltimore area, but I do not like the Ravens. Besides the personal anguish this would cost me, the Ravens cannot quite afford Favre. Right now the Packers have 2008 first round pick Joe Flacco, 2006 Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith, and bust Kyle Boller. The Ravens are also reeling from the Steve McNair-era where they were at the mercy of an aging quarterback on the downside of his career. I have read many columnists in the Baltimore-area newspapers, and it’s clear they do not want Favre. They know that on the heels of a 5-11 season that they need to rebuild and devote time and confidence to either Flacco or Smith, something they did not do with Boller. The only way to get their quarterbacks better and to put themselves in a position to win in the future would be to let Flacco and Smith play and become experienced.

I pretty much covered the Chiefs, one of the most inept franchises in history. But they can still have fantasies. Like this one. And this one. And finally this one.

The Jets are intriguing. Favre is older than head coach Eric Mangini. Kellen Clemens looks like he could be a good quarterback if he is given time to play, which wouldn’t happen if Favre joined the team. Chad Pennington is still on the team and he has had some pretty good moments in his time in the Big Apple. I’m no Jets expert, but this scenario is pretty mysterious. Who knows here. I just don’t know whether Favre would want to play for a team coming off a losing season.

It seems like every year Sports Illustrated picks the Panthers to win the Super Bowl. But it doesn’t happen. They are mired in the .500-ball heave that is the NFC South. The team does not have many offensive weapons outside of Steve Smith and at times last year, it seemed like they could not do anything right. Sure, they played in Super Bowl XXXVIII. But that feels like ancient history.  Also, the Panthers seems set with Jake Delhomme as their signal caller.

Tampa Bay is quarterback heaven. Jon Gruden is apparently tight with Favre because of the days of the Holmgren regime.  But seriously, how many quarterbacks on the roster?  Jeff Garcia, Brian Griese, Luke McCown, Chris Simms, and rookie Josh Johnson.  They’ve got about every type in there.  Let’s add aging-gunslinger to that category.  The Bucs won the division in 2007, but the fact that they won it at 9-7 leaves no guarantee for them to be a winner in 2008.  Not seeing Favre here.

The Redskins are another interesting possibility.  They’ve got plenty of money (aka Dan Snyder) and a young quarterback in Jason Campbell.  The Redskins know what they are doing with Campbell by letting him play last year.  The only reason a player can get better is by playing.  And he got better as the season went on before he got hurt and Todd Collins led the team to the playoffs.  The Skins have been down this road before with Mark Brunell.  I don’t think that worked too well.

So there we have it.  I’d say Favre doesn’t have any really good options out there.  Anywhere he went (Minnesota included) he would get in the way of the development of a team.