professional football

So even by the singular authority of those six Super Bowl championships, it appears as though the Pittsburgh Steelers will not be running the table in 2009, but at least they won't be tabling the run.

Not completely.

They say Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones requested the New York Giants as the foe to christen his new stadium Sunday night.

Silly move. Even sillier than the pre-game video that compared JerryWorld to the Pyramids, Parthenon, Great Wall of China, Taj Mahal and Roman Coliseum.

When Jack Lambert retired in 1985 after a Hall of Fame career, he tried a little television work. Channel 4 in Pittsburgh loved having him -- who wouldn't want a legendary player from the Super Steelers of the '70s on staff? -- but the gig lasted less than a week. Lambert had a hard time critiquing his old team. He hated criticizing former teammates.

Capsule previews for Week 2 around the NFL. All times Eastern.

SUNDAY:

Carolina Panthers (0-1) at Atlanta Falcons (1-0), 1 p.m.

Panthers QB Jake Delhomme has committed 11 turnovers in his past seven quarters. That blows away Steelers QB Kordell Stewart's six turnovers in the first two games of the 2002 season.

Prediction: Falcons, 34-14

Minnesota quarterback Brett Favre still remembers the feeling when he started his 117th consecutive game -- an NFL record for quarterbacks -- in November 1999 at Lambeau Field. "They stopped the game and I was kind of like, 'You know, it's not that big of a deal,'" Favre said.

You can't help but like Carolina Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme.

The guy is personable to a fault, and when he comes off a bad game he's willing to suck it up, admit his mistakes and deal with the abuse.

Tom Brady whipped 53 passes Monday night, one for each calendar week elapsed since his last pass of consequence, so it appears the New England Patriots did not have their franchise quarterback on anything approaching a rigid pitch count.

Not hardly.

Brady threw 53 times, Joe Flacco threw 43 times the day before, and Ben Roethlisberger threw 43 times three days before that.

A look back at the opening weekend in the NFL and ahead to this weekend.

TOP THREE

-- RB Adrian Peterson, Vikings

Remember all the terrible things people said and wrote about the Oakland Raiders during their wild, rocky preseason?

Those people (OK, I'm one of them) were way wrong. Or were we?

Are the Raiders really back from the dead, rescued from the abyss of slapstick? Or are they headed for another disastrous season?

This just in: Tom Brady's still Terrific, and the Buffalo Bills still stink.

Talk about snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. Or, in the case of the Bills, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Buffalo had an upset of Niagara Falls proportions all but locked up after taking a 24-13 lead over their perennial nemesis New England with 5:32 remaining Monday night.