Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009

Dolphins head coach Tony Sparano, quoted in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel regarding the defensive timeout he called with five seconds remaining in the first half Sunday that helped the Saints decide to go for the touchdown from one yard out instead of taking the three points: "I want my players to do this; I need to do it myself. I have to take ownership of the situation that happened at the end of the [first] half. I always have the power of trump and I did not do that. Should have lived with what was out on the field in that situation. So that was a poor decision on my part."

Titans head coach Jeff Fisher, not saying who will be his starting quarterback Sunday against the Jaguars, as quoted by The Associated Press: "Both quarterbacks had a good week, but (Collins) had an especially good week last week. I'm not going to go into details about the lineup changes. Those are competitive issues."

Bears head coach Lovie Smith, quoted in the Chicago Sun-Times explaining his decision not to play Tommie Harris Sunday in Cincinnati: "There isn't anything wrong with Tommie. Tommie didn't play this week. It was more a coach's decision as much as anything. He has had some soreness. He didn't practice all week. I thought we had better options. All player decisions on who's going to dress [are] game-day decisions, who gives us the best opportunity to win." Smith added: "Could Tommie have played if I wanted him to? Yes, but I thought we could get a better Tommie if we let him rest this past week and get [him] ready for this week. Tommie should be good to go this week."

Agent Pat Dye, who represents OLB DeMarcus Ware, quoted on Amarillo.com describing the negotiations that took place before the two sides settled on a six-year, $78 million deal with $40 million guaranteed: "Going into this negotiation, how do you ask for too much money for DeMarcus Ware given what he's accomplished. We were asking for a lot more money than we ended up settling on. … Ultimately they convinced us they were not going to pay DeMarcus like an elite quarterback, and certainly we understood that."

Redskins DT Albert Haynesworth feels his team is lacking dedication, as quoted by The Associated Press: "Urgency, heart, 'want-to,' whatever. I don't know. We're lacking a lot of stuff right now. The fans are losing interest. The more games we play, the fewer fans come. It's getting bad."

Monday, Oct. 26, 2009

Raiders DE Richard Seymour, quoted on Newsday.com after Sunday's 38-0 loss to the Jets: "I don't think we could have beaten an Oakland high school team today."

Panthers QB Jake Delhomme doesn't know what to say about his Week Seven performance that included three more interceptions in a 20-9 defeat against the Bills, as quoted by The Associated Press: "Usually I'm not too much at a loss for words. I'm kind of almost numb. I don't know." Delhomme continued when asked if he thought he'd be the starter next week: "In my heart, yeah, but I mean let's be honest, I don't think I'm a dummy. When you're not playing well offensively you always have to look at the quarterback."

Patriots S Brandon Meriweather, quoted on patriots.com on his favorite part of playing in London: "To be honest, I think my favorite part besides the win was going to see the palace and Big Ben. Actually, I take that back. We went to a haunted house that was over by Big Ben yesterday and just to see some of my teammates act like little kids, happened to be probably the best part of my weekend."

Steelers S Ryan Clark, joking about LB LaMarr Woodley's 77-yard fumble return for a touchdown Sunday, as quoted in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: "We don't have any Adrian Petersons on our defense. We're not going to make 11 guys miss when we run one back. We have to block for each other. Being that LaMarr weighs 370 pounds, he needed a little more help to get to the endzone."

Cardinals DT Bryan Robinson, quoted on azcardinals.com after his team's huge win Sunday night over the Giants: "People laughed at us when were 9-7 and limping into the playoffs. People laughed and said Pittsburgh was going to kill us in the Super Bowl. People are still laughing.  But it's OK. We're still winning. We're that team that's under the radar. Take notice. You see us, it's going to be a fight."