By JEFF LEGWOLD, Scripps Howard News Service

At first blush, it will be young and old, youth and experience, the traditional tale of then and now.
Ah, but there is vindication waiting.
It always will be fuel for debate whether Ben Roethlisberger or Kurt Warner really needs such vindication, but it is there Sunday when two Super Bowl winners try to take the big step toward a legacy.

With most of the league's football minds gathered in Mobile, Ala., this week for Senior Bowl practices, there were more than a few raised eyebrows at the comings and goings around the league already this offseason.

Talk about the old yin and yang.
In the same place where, roughly two weeks earlier, Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen had tried to hold back tears as he announced he fired Mike Shanahan and where Shanahan had tried to hold back tears when he announced he understood why Bowlen had fired him, there was Josh McDaniels.

The grizzled souls of professional football, those who believe the forward pass is some kind of three-eyed monster from Venus, will often say the best offense is a good defense.
They can't help themselves, it seems. It is one of those thoughts passed down through the game's generations.

Just for a moment, tip your head back and imagine ...
You're young. Well, young in the world of National Football League coaches. You have a growing resume that is coming together nicely.

In their quest to repeat as the NFL's champion, the New York Giants might have taken things just a little too far.
Last season, just before they emerged from their yearlong cocoon as the surprise of the ages postseason butterfly, the Giants went 3-2 in December, having lost the two home games in that pile and having won the three on the road.

That getting a football from Point A to Point B, from quarterback to receiver, just became a different deal. Not some 50-50 kind of proposition, or even 60-40.No, quarterbacks around the National Football League have completed 61.4 percent of their passes overall through Week 11 this season. That would be a record.

There are times when hiring a football coach that professional football teams forget the actual football part.They cave in to all the warm air expended in the talk universe about hiring a "name" guy.They give in to the urge to "make a splash" in their marketplace.They jump into what should be a long-term decision with short-term goals in mind.

There are times when hiring a football coach that professional football teams forget the actual football part.They cave in to all the warm air expended in the talk universe about hiring a "name" guy.They give in to the urge to "make a splash" in their marketplace.They jump into what should be a long-term decision with short-term goals in mind.