The Browns have released wide receiver Donte' Stallworth. Stallworth was suspended for the 2009 season by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell after he pleaded guilty to killing a pedestrian while driving drunk in Florida. He spent 24 days in jail. Stallworth played one season for the Browns, catching 17 passes for 170 yards and one touchdown in 2008.

Move over Hawkeye, Super Bowl XLIV is now the most-watched television program in history .

The Colts are hoping Sunday's Super Bowl loss will rekindle their passion to win another title. Instead of moping around following the 31-17 loss, the Colts credited the Saints for outplaying them in Miami and then turned their attention to next season. The Colts should look pretty familiar. With new free agency rules expected because of the likelihood of an uncapped season, most Colts players…

Over the last several offseasons there has been a plethora of discussion surrounding Donovan McNabb’s future with the Eagles organization. The long standing marriage has been fruitful while not yet having brought home the proverbial bacon in a fandom obsessed with a championship and passionately divided over the Eagles assignment of quarterbacking duties.

Donovan McNabb’s strengths and weaknesses have been beat to death, but never more than following 2009, one of his best statistical seasons, that was highlighted by a successful and arguably soft schedule and three crucial losses to the Dallas Cowboys.

He wins, but not when it counts. He chokes under pressure, throws balls in the ground, has suspect accuracy, and overall is perceived as having had enough opportunity to win the big show.

That’s one side.

Donovan is also a pro bowl quarterback that has time-in and time-out won big games, had success in the playoffs, earned every Eagles quarterback accolade imaginable, holds the longest consecutive completion streak in NFL history, was the first quarterback ever to pass for 30 touchdowns in a season while throwing less than 10 interceptions and will inevitably win a super bowl if he’s traded to another team like the Cardinals or Vikings.

That’s the other side.

Moving on…

PhiladelphiaEagles.com has reported that the Bills, Browns, and Broncos have all inquired about Donovan McNabb. This is the most indicting press release regarding their serious consideration of dealing him.

Should the Eagles deal McNabb, heir apparent Kevin Kolb will be thrust into the Philadelphia media scrutiny and largely impatient fan base.

Let’s look at Kevin Kolb very closely to see if the Eagles should or shouldn’t put their future in his hands and why the quarterback controversy has attracted national attention.

The Eagles traded up in the second round to draft Kevin Kolb (to the sound of resonating boos) in the 2007 NFL draft (36th overall) after a four year starting stint at the University of Houston where in his senior season, he threw 30 touchdowns and only four interceptions while racking up 12,964 yards passing in his career.

As far as prospects go, Kolb is impressive.

The biggest knock on Kolb has not been his play, but that of his highly rated predecessors, Andre Ware and David Klingler, both of whom are considered among the biggest flops of all time.

That as a superstition is not powerful enough to allow us to overlook the fundamental fact that the school has a system and a schedule that has historically been very productive with quarterbacks at the college level who do not acclimate in the NFL.

That being said, all superstitions are proven wrong and cycles are inevitably broken and a player like Kolb at least deserves and will get an opportunity to start in the NFL.

But who wants to walk under the ladder?

The situation is undoubtedly difficult for Kolb who has been relinquished to watching football on Sunday (from one of the best seats) for the last three seasons after having productively started for consecutive years in high school and college.

The indecision and uncertainty of the Eagles quarterbacking disposition for 2010 compounded with the need to get the University of Houston’s “monkey off his back” and retake the playing field must eat at the core of Kevin Kolb, the football player and the person.

The Eagles clearly have confidence in Kolb, exemplified by their trading up in the draft to acquire him and the fact that he is still on the team and was made the starting quarterback during McNabb’s two-game recovery from broken ribs in 2009 despite the organization having signed Jeff Garcia.

Since Kolb was drafted, he has had a couple shaky preseason performances and training camps, but has demonstrated.composure and an intriguing manner of quarterback conduct on the field to go along with his collegiate success.

Kolb has a had a rocky experience gaining fan support in Philadelphia for all of the aforementioned reasons, but the fans who feel they have been let down by the Eagles decade-long, championship-run shortfalls have grown impatient and demanded change.

Is change you can believe in?

At this point, the most tenacious segment of the Eagles anti-McNabb fan base is willing to cut there nose to spite their face and dismiss McNabb for better or worse, hoping for better.

Is Kevin Kolb better?

Kolb saw his first game action in 2008 during the infamous “benching” of Donovan McNabb against the Ravens. Unfortunately for all parties involved besides the Ravens, Kolb ultimately surrendered a repeat performance of Donovan McNabb’s first half exploits, throwing four interceptions after moving the ball fairly well at times.

It was very easy to throw Kolb under the bus!

The play never to be forgotten was Kolb’s interception to Ed Reed eight yards deep in the end zone to cap-off a strong Eagles drive that netted six points for the Ravens.

In 2009, Kolb made the first two starts of his career, relishing the opportunity. Little did we know then, that Kolb was making his first start against the soon to be crowned kings of the 2009 NFL season—the New Orleans Saints.

Kolb played well and kept the game close in the first half. He racked up some impressive statistics against the Saints, but lost key plays to bad decisions. Kolb threw three interceptions and in the end, the Saints overpowered the Eagles offensively and defensively.

Then came Kansas City. A team and defense built for a young quarterback to rip apart and gain in confidence and notoriety. All of which Kolb did: 327 yards, 2 touchdowns and a 34-14 win later against a lowly rebuilding Chiefs team, Kolb looked like Joe Montana, completed over 70 percent of his passes and hooked up with DeSean Jackson on a well thrown skinny post for a long score. 

Instant quarterback controversy, just add water and stir.

Kolb threw for over 700 yards in his two starts with four touchdowns and three interceptions.

But that is all that we really know about Kevin Kolb. An elite college prospect from a suspect program who has looked rough, but played well at times. He lost to the best team in the league and beat one of the worst while posting intriguing statistics.

And here we are: 2007, 2008 and now 2009 are gone and Kolb enters his fourth season with the Eagles. Kolb’s contract expires at the end of the 2010 season along with both McNabb and Mike Vick.

The Eagles far reaching options include keeping all three quarterbacks in open competition for 2010 and trading as many as two quarterbacks for draft picks and players that fill needs at other positions. Still, the Eagles are approaching terminal velocity while juggling these quarterbacks and the parabolic limit is 2010.

The Eagles face a difficult and critical decision that will impact their draft and free agency plans for the next several years.

I would like to see the Eagles bring McNabb and Kolb into camp, letting them battle for the job and wishing them both good luck. Give the guy who performs the best in 2010 an extension and pay the price. If it’s McNabb, then draft a QB in 2011 or 2012 at the latest. McNabb has staying power for at least three more seasons barring injury.

If it’s Kolb, they will only have lost a good draft pick at best (by not trading McNabb), which is only a 50/50 shot at having any value anyway.

The conclusion of the 2010 season is the de facto deadline for this very difficult decision. Being the procrastinator that I am, I would squeeze every ounce of evaluation opportunity out while I wait until the last available minute to make a decision and hope that I don’t get burned in the process of playing with fire.

The 2010 Eagles may not be a favorite to win the super bowl, but they will contend with either McNabb or Kolb. I’m rooting for McNabb because he has been so close, and I’m rooting for Kolb because he has waited so long already.

Both players really deserve an opportunity to command this high powered and explosive offense as I am sure Kolb, McNabb and any other quarterback would love.

Of course, if the Bills, Broncos, Browns, Rams, or whoever, make the Eagles an offer that they can’t refuse for McNabb or Kolb, they must explore the possibilities as a matter of good business.

As far as the Eagles are concerned, I would think that McNabb must be worth no less than two top prospects at defensive end, safety, cornerback, running back, or offensive line, which could be represented by a young player and a first or second round pick or two draft picks, no less than a second and a third.

That’s the minimum for consideration.

As for Kevin Kolb, he could be the next Aaron Rogers who steps out of the shadow of a legacy quarterback after a long stay as a backup or the next David Klingler, a successor to the flop-throne of the University of Houston’s school of disappointing quarterbacks.

The answer is coming soon to a living room near you!

Read more Philadelphia Eagles news on BleacherReport.com

Here’s a little courtesy nudge for those Indianapolis Colt and Peyton Manning fans still in denial after yet another tortuous ending to the season for both.

Listen to almost every single ex-National Football League player and coach. They’ll tell you the same thing.

Right or wrong, you must win Super Bowls and perform in the postseason to be considered THE greatest quarterback of all time.

Not ONE of the greats, THE greatest.

Stat geeks and faithful fans will argue for this and that qualifier because they have good reason—football is a team game and no single player or coach wins/loses the contest.

But perception can (and should) become reality if it endures for enough time.

In the NFL, for as long as I can remember, the perception has been that the team rides or dies with its signal-caller. There are most certainly exceptions, but they are rare.

That’s why QBs are taken No. 1 overall in the draft so frequently. That’s why most teams at the bottom of the pack are desperately looking for the elusive “franchise quarterback.”

It’s also why Peyton Manning will never go down as THE greatest quarterback in the NFL’s history until he rights his postseason wrongs.

A list that’s now 74 yards and six points longer thanks to Tracy Porter.

As always is true of a professional football game, there is plenty of credit to spread around the New Orleans Saints’ locker room as there is blame to spread on the Indianapolis Colts’ side of the ball.

However, the history books tell us that’s the lesser part of the story.

If you want proof, just check the pre-Super Bowl XLIV hype—here , here , here , here , here , here , here , or here . You get the picture; this was Manning’s game to win even if the Colts did it as a team.

You know that, had Indy won, it would be No. 18 surrounded by microphones, cameras, and the unabashed adulation of the country. Just look at what’s now happening to Drew Brees and rightly so.

Still, there were other invaluable contributions from Saints on the gridiron Sunday.

Brees got excellent protection, timely contributions from a savage defense (when they made the play, which wasn’t always), a great game from his place kicker, and typically unappreciated work from the wrecking ball otherwise known as Pierre Thomas.

Yet the Most Valuable Player of the game was a foregone conclusion due to the record-tying blinder authored by the Saints’ quarterback.

Going forward, the details will fall away for the majority of fans and Brees will stand alone. Quick—tell me something remarkable about Super Bowl XXIX other than Steve Young’s liberating day.

I’ll wait.

Sadly, the same will be true of Manning on the other end of the spectrum.

Yes, Pierre Garcon and Reggie Wayne had brutal drops (so did Marques Colston). Yes, head coach Jim Caldwell got thumped by his New Orleans Saint counterpart, Sean Payton. Yes, Matt Stover pulled the 51-yard kick to the left. Yes, Hank Baskett triggered the onsides debacle.

Yes, you can point to a thousand other details that help explain one of the larger upsets in recent memory and none of them feature the word “Peyton” or “Manning.”

But that’s partially the point—assessing THE Greatest of All Time doesn’t take a fine-toothed comb, insider info, or a degree in sabermetrics (or whatever you’d call the football equivalent).

When you’re THE best to ever play a game, you resonate with casual fans and experts alike.

And you do it on all levels—not just statistically and during the regular season.

If you take a numerical magnifying glass to the National Basketball Association, you can find more names eligible for THE greatest of all time than just Michael Jordan and Bill Russell. Take the same to Major League Baseball, and you can also open the discussion beyond the usual suspects (Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, etc.).

These are the top fraction of a percent of the athletes to compete on their chosen field; the gaps between the top and the bottom pro just aren’t that big in an absolute sense. Consequently, you look closely enough at any elite player in any sport and you can probably make an argument that he is THE best to ever play based on contextual deficiencies.

That’s not to dismiss intricate, complex analysis in all or even the majority of situations—just this one.

Because THE greatest of all time is a title earned from the experts and the bumbling, drunken masses—not one or the other.

Manning’s latest postseason failure and his most excruciating (even for some of us who don’t fancy ourselves fans of his) will be yet another brick in the wall preventing most observers from seeing him as THE greatest of all time.

The pick-six can never really be washed away; it’s gotta be a QB’s worst nightmare.

Porter deserves credit for the interception because it was a cerebral move and an athletic feat. Perhaps more impressively, he turned Manning’s most dangerous weapons—that slant/stick route, Reggie Wayne, and excessive film study—against the future Hall-of-Famer.

But Manning still threw the pigskin.

More importantly, it’s another indelible image on the wrong side of the scale against which the New Orleans’ native has little of postseason substance to counter.

Think about Manning’s most memorable games in the playoffs—you’ve got the comeback he engineered against the New England Patriots in the American Football Conference Championship in 2006-07, a bunch of early round burners, and the Super Bowl MVP that he won for the comeback against the Pats.

Not much depth or weight to go against even the Porter pick-six.

Forget about the one-and-dones, the precipitous drops in performance (both actual and statistical), and the 9-9 record.

Worse, would THE greatest of all time get outplayed on the biggest stage by another quarterback? No matter how excellent.

Joe Montana didn’t.

Tom Brady didn’t—he was at least as good as Eli Manning in defeat.

Those are the two names I’ve got clearly ahead of Manning. Though the distance between Peyton and Brady closed considerably this year—in fact, absent the INT, I’d have vaulted the Manning Face over Tom Terrific.

Furthermore, would THE greatest leader of all time in THE most team-oriented game share the blame?

Says here “no” because, even though he did have a culpable defense, special teams, and receiving corps, it was Manning’s gaffe that put the game out of reach.

Yet during his press conference, Manning did just that.

He wasn’t wrong and he wasn’t overly critical, but it sounded eerily similar to when he dumped his offensive line under the bus following the 2005-06 AFC Divisional Playoff loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

A quarterback who revels in the attention when things go well can’t suddenly start deflecting the spotlight when it goes wrong. If you’re gonna take all those interviews, all those endorsements, all those television spots, all those cameos, all that money, and all the other perks that accompany “The Man” honors, you must also take the flip to its coin.

That means swallowing your pride and taking your lumps for the team, even if they’re unwarranted.

Because all the positive individual attention is unwarranted, too.

Even in the wake of Super Bowl XLIV, his apologists are flopping down Manning’s statistical dominance and regular season exploits as proof of his claim to the throne.

Conveniently, they make the opposite side’s argument almost perfectly—that the middle Manning is the greatest regular season QB of all time is beyond doubt.

You can point to his four Most Valuable Player awards and take the argument in one swoop. Or you can mix in his per-game statistical brilliance, consistency, winning percentage, fourth quarter comebacks, and severely beat the dead horse.

Nevertheless, the brighter the shine on the quarterback’s regular season, the darker his postseason numbers look by comparison.

This was true before the big game and it’s truer in the aftermath.

Which means Super Bowl XLIV doesn’t cast a pall over his legacy, it just deepens the  shadow already there.

Happily, there’s still plenty of time for Peyton Manning to bring out the Sun.

**www.pva.org**

Read more Indianapolis Colts news on BleacherReport.com

Peyton Manning didn't shake hands with New Orleans Saints players after his Indianapolis Colts lost 31-17 in…

A total of 106.5 million viewers watched Sunday's Super Bowl between the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans…

The Super Bowl was watched by more than 106 million people, surpassing the 1983 finale of "M-A-S-H" to become the most-watched program in television history. The Nielsen Co. estimated Monday that 106.5 million people watched the New Orleans Saints upset the Indianapolis Colts. That beats the "M-A-S-H" finale, which had 105.97 million viewers in an era when there were fewer…

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Drew Brees turned to his wife when he woke up and asked: "Did yesterday really happen?"

In a move that should really surprise no one, the Bears promoted defensive line coach Rod Marinelli to their open defensive coordinator position. With the move, the Bears have now completed filling the missing parts of their coaching staff and are set for the rest of the offseason. How much does the Bears’ elevation of Marinelli mean to the Bears? Will their defense improve?

Marinelli has pretty much the same philosophy as head coach Lovie Smith when it comes to defense. He will continue to use the cover two defense (or variations of it) and follow Smith’s philosophy. The biggest problem with that is the cover two has not worked well for the Bears the past two seasons and bigger defensive changes could be needed before this team sees a lot of success there.

The Bears touted the hiring of Marinelli last year as being a huge upgrade on their team and a “savior” of sorts for the defensive line as he was supposed to help Chicago’s line get more sacks. However, whatever he did didn’t work that well and the Bears only had two-and-a-half more sacks than they did the previous season. Was Marinelli the best acquisition of last offseason?

Bears fans will hope that with Smith no longer calling the shots on defense the team will be that much better now that he can focus on the whole team and not just the defense.  So in perspective, this move is a good one. Marinelli also knows the Bears defense so there won’t be any kind of learning curve involved in it either. However, there may not be any changes to the defense despite the fact that they need some changes there.

It will be interesting to see if there is anything new that happens with the Bears defense now that Marinelli is in charge of the defense and to see how he uses the current group of personnel that Chicago has on defense. Will he be able to get the most out of linebacker Brian Urlacher? Will he still get the same kind of production out of linebacker Lance Briggs? 

Time will tell.  

Read more Chicago Bears news on BleacherReport.com