It's been reported that when a new collective bargaining agreement exists, it will include primetime Thursday night football games 16 weeks a year.

With the NFL Network already controlling eight of those, it gives the league a new eight-game package to sell. According to the Sports Business Journal, it's already making sales calls.

The league is shopping the early-season package to interested networks. Sources said the league currently has the rights to take enough games from CBS and Fox's Sunday afternoon schedules to fill the new eight-game package and does not have to wait for those contracts to expire after the 2013 season.

Who are the contenders? Well, the SBJ says there are already two bidders more serious than the others. Turner Broadcasting would love to have it, and could put the package on TBS, TNT or truTV, while Comcast would like to buy it and put it on Versus.

Also in the mix could be FX, Spike TV and ESPN.

TNT's been down this road before. In the '90s, it did Sunday night games for the first half of the season, with ESPN handling them during the second half. I'm not in love with the idea of Thursday night games year-round, but if someone's got to have them, I'm pulling for TNT. Its NBA work, both in the studio and during games, is as good as anything else on TV.

I'm not sure how the NFL can start selling this before the new CBA even exists, but I guess I'll take SBJ's word for it. If nothing else, it seems like it's a pretty solid indication that this is going to happen.

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When you think about the Pittsburgh Steelers, you think about an organization with a large pile of Lombardi trophies, and you think about a solid, family-owned, homespun organization that's fully interwoven into the larger Pittsburgh community.

Depending on which NFL team is your favorite, you might also think some other things, but historically, championships and community have always been the bedrock of what the Steelers are about. They've been an exemplary franchise. Perhaps even the seventh-best in all of sports.

Joe Starkey of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review wonders if that's all gone out the window. The winning is still there, sure, but any kind of moral high ground? Perhaps not. Maybe the Steelers have moved into a seedier neighborhood.

Here's a snippet from Starkey:

Truth is, this franchise has become the modern-day version of the 1970s Oakland Raiders. Outlaws of the NFL. Some might view that as an insult (especially if they grew up in these parts hating those Raiders), others as a compliment.

It is undeniably true.

Now, the Steelers clearly remain the NFL's model team in the most important category: winning. They do that better than anyone. But those still pointing to this franchise as some kind of moral beacon? They're flat-out delusional.

This stems, of course, from pistol-wielding linebacker James Harrison unleashing his big bag of crazy in Men's Journal. But there are other incidents cited by Starkey, too, including Ben Roethlisberger's history, Hines Ward's DUI, Rashard Mendenhall's bin Laden tweets, some of Santonio Holmes' behavior as a Steeler, and numerous Steelers blasting Roger Goodell and the league.

I wouldn't lump all of them into the category of bad guys -- Troy Polamalu, in particular, seems to be an absolute prince of a man -- but when you list everything together like that, it does look bad. And it seems like the Steelers definitely see themselves as the league's outlaws, and they feel like the league is out to get them. That's all pretty Raider-y.

What do you think? Are the Steelers indeed the NFL's new batch of bad guys? Do they still retain their wholesome image? Or are they just like any other team in the league?

Feel free to vote (and Like us) on Shutdown Corner's Facebook page.

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And here you thought the trailer for "The Dark Knight Rises" would be the best movie preview you'd see this week. The video of Tony Romo and Candice Crawford's wedding is apparently so grandiose in scale that it warrants its own teaser.

1. Any fears I had about mocking the wedding video of a happy, newlywed couple were alleviated by the consecutive shots of somebody reading about the wedding in a newspaper, Romo meticulously grooming his stubble and then having his cuffs buttoned by a grown man in a tuxedo.

2. There appeared to be a lot of seats under the tent. Given recent events in Dallas, I pray they were all ready in time.

3. The flowers and drinks are expensive, sure, but what gets you every time is acquiring the rights to a Coldplay song for the trailer to the wedding video.

4. Smiling faces from the bridesmaids, except for the one on the left, who has total bridal envy. Either that or she's disgusted with the fact that she has a Coldplay song stuck in her head.

5. This trailer sets the record for most usage of a Steadicam outside of a Scorsese film. All kidding aside, it's a beautifully shot video.

6. The surprise at the end of the ceremony was excellent. It's good to know Romo got a chance to celebrate with confetti once in his life.

7. In all seriousness, Coldplay?

8. Really, though, it looked like a lovely wedding and I'm not just saying that because of the cigar-rolling station. Congratulations to the happy couple and to the attendees who managed not to have their embarrassing dancing make the final cut of the trailer.

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? The creepiest hockey mask you will ever see

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Every quarterback-deficient team in the league wants Philadelphia Eagles backup Kevin Kolb, and it feels like a foregone conclusion that the Eagles will trade him.

Making things more interesting, according to ESPN's Sal Paolantonio, the Eagles are looking to get back a player who can contribute right now, not a draft pick.

Put a quarter into the speculation machine, and let's see who it lands on ... Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie of the Arizona Cardinals! Tell us why it makes sense, Darren Urban of azcardinals.com.

The Cards need a QB and most assume Kolb is the most reasonable target. The Eagles need a cornerback. The Eagles won't benefit from a draft pick this season, so maybe a player is a better choice. And there is no doubting that DRC's game ? at this point ? doesn't exactly fit the mentality of new defensive coordinator Ray Horton.

I guess it's a little like trading in used DVDs and video games at a DVD store. You can take store credit (a draft pick, in this case, likely a first-rounder) and get more value, or you can take cash to stuff in your pocket right now (a player who can contribute right away), but the dollar value won't be nearly as high.

That's how we end up with a significantly flawed corner in exchange for someone who could be a starting QB.

Not that Rodgers-Cromartie is some kind of booby prize. He's an excellent cover guy, he's just still working on getting his risk-making decisions under control, and he'll never be what you'd call a physical player. Rodgers-Cromartie is to run support what Kenny Britt is to using social media responsibly. But he's only 25, and depending on what you ask of him, he can absolutely help a defense.

I guess it comes down to what you think of Kolb. If you're sold on the idea that he's a quality starting quarterback in this league -- I would not be of such a mindset -- he's worth way more than any No. 2 corner.

If this one pans out or not, I fully support the idea of trading Kolb for an asset right now, because player-for-player trades never happen in the NFL. Do it, Eagles. Run your real NFL team the same way I run my Madden team.

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Eight hyper-specific predictions for the Mountain West Conference. Part of Mid-Major Week.

? Different conference, same old story for Boise State, which will do to the Mountain West what it did to the WAC: Dominate it. Quarterback Kellen Moore is on pace to break the FBS career mark in wins ? he's 38-2 in his three seasons ? and returns the bulk of the offensive line and running game that has made the Broncos such a consistent offensive threat. Look for Boise to take down the MWC's reigning power, TCU, on Nov. 12, with a little nod to the conference bigwigs who moved the game to the blue turf.

? TCU's 25-game regular season winning streak will come to an end before its visit to Boise in November. The defense will be alright despite heavy attrition, but with a new quarterback (sophomore Casey Pachall) and four new starters on the offensive line, the Frogs will go down at some point in the first eight games with less than 17 points on the board.

? After snapping a seven-year drought in 2010, Air Force will take the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy as the top service academy for the second year in a row. Prior to last year, the Falcons last held the trophy for six consecutive seasons from 1997-2002. But since 2003, the honor had belonged exclusively to Navy, which ripped off 15 straight wins over it Commander-in-Chief rivals until Air Force snapped the streak last October.

? Colorado State will improve its rushing output by 50 yards per game on and finish in the top half of the conference on the ground. That's a bold statement, considering the Rams finished near the bottom of the league on the ground in 2010 and don't have any of the MWC's four returning 1,000-yard rushers. But they do return backs Raymond Carter and Chris Nwoke, four of the five starters from last year's young offensive line and a sophomore quarterback, Pete Thomas, who has the arm and now the chops to open up defenses after taking more than his share of lumps as a true freshman.

? San Diego State's scoring average will fall back below 30 points per game despite the return of prolific quarterback Ryan Lindley and running back Ronnie Hillman, the MWC's leading returning rusher. The Aztecs put up 35 points per game in 2010, easily their highest mark since 1996, but will sorely miss Michigan-bound offensive coordinator Al Borges and NFL-bound targets Vincent Brown and DeMarco Sampson, the two most productive receivers in the conference by a very wide margin.

? Wyoming will win more games over the first half of 2011 than it did in all of 2010, when it finished 3-9. True, the Cowboys will be forced to start a true freshman quarterback after watching four veterans ride into the sunset since the end of last season, but they also get Weber State, Texas State, Bowling Green, Utah State and UNLV before a mid-October bye week. The Pokes should be favored to win at least four of those before the going gets much tougher down the stretch.

? UNLV will win exactly as many games this year as it did a year ago ? two. It's not that UNLV didn't get better during the offseason or even as the season progressed a year ago. It's that the Rebels still aren't where a lot of the other Mountain West teams are in terms of confidence, and a non-conference slate that includes games at Wisconsin, at Washington State and against Hawaii probably won't do too much to boost that swagger. (Though that Washington State game just might.) Coach Bobby Hauck knew he'd have a rebuilding project when he took over a year ago, but with just nine returning starters, the turnaround is probably not going to happen this year.

? New Mexico coach Mike Locksley will make it through the season without being accused of punching anyone on his own sideline, but he won't survive into 2012 as the Lobos' head coach. Locksley avoided the ax last year thanks to a $1.5 million obligation to the state to buy out the rest of his contract, and his third team in Albuquerque should be better than his first two. But that's not saying quite enough: As embarrassing as the Lobos were in 2009-10, even dramatic improvement leaves them well behind the pack.

- - -
Some predictions contributed by Graham Watson.
Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

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Eight hyper-specific predictions for the Mountain West Conference. Part of Mid-Major Week.

? Different conference, same old story for Boise State, which will do to the Mountain West what it did to the WAC: Dominate it. Quarterback Kellen Moore is on pace to break the FBS career mark in wins ? he's 38-2 in his three seasons ? and returns the bulk of the offensive line and running game that has made the Broncos such a consistent offensive threat. Look for Boise to take down the MWC's reigning power, TCU, on Nov. 12, with a little nod to the conference bigwigs who moved the game to the blue turf.

? TCU's 25-game regular season winning streak will come to an end before its visit to Boise in November. The defense will be alright despite heavy attrition, but with a new quarterback (sophomore Casey Pachall) and four new starters on the offensive line, the Frogs will go down at some point in the first eight games with less than 17 points on the board.

? After snapping a seven-year drought in 2010, Air Force will take the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy as the top service academy for the second year in a row. Prior to last year, the Falcons last held the trophy for six consecutive seasons from 1997-2002. But since 2003, the honor had belonged exclusively to Navy, which ripped off 15 straight wins over it Commander-in-Chief rivals until Air Force snapped the streak last October.

? Colorado State will improve its rushing output by 50 yards per game on and finish in the top half of the conference on the ground. That's a bold statement, considering the Rams finished near the bottom of the league on the ground in 2010 and don't have any of the MWC's four returning 1,000-yard rushers. But they do return backs Raymond Carter and Chris Nwoke, four of the five starters from last year's young offensive line and a sophomore quarterback, Pete Thomas, who has the arm and now the chops to open up defenses after taking more than his share of lumps as a true freshman.

? San Diego State's scoring average will fall back below 30 points per game despite the return of prolific quarterback Ryan Lindley and running back Ronnie Hillman, the MWC's leading returning rusher. The Aztecs put up 35 points per game in 2010, easily their highest mark since 1996, but will sorely miss Michigan-bound offensive coordinator Al Borges and NFL-bound targets Vincent Brown and DeMarco Sampson, the two most productive receivers in the conference by a very wide margin.

? Wyoming will win more games over the first half of 2011 than it did in all of 2010, when it finished 3-9. True, the Cowboys will be forced to start a true freshman quarterback after watching four veterans ride into the sunset since the end of last season, but they also get Weber State, Texas State, Bowling Green, Utah State and UNLV before a mid-October bye week. The Pokes should be favored to win at least four of those before the going gets much tougher down the stretch.

? UNLV will win exactly as many games this year as it did a year ago ? two. It's not that UNLV didn't get better during the offseason or even as the season progressed a year ago. It's that the Rebels still aren't where a lot of the other Mountain West teams are in terms of confidence, and a non-conference slate that includes games at Wisconsin, at Washington State and against Hawaii probably won't do too much to boost that swagger. (Though that Washington State game just might.) Coach Bobby Hauck knew he'd have a rebuilding project when he took over a year ago, but with just nine returning starters, the turnaround is probably not going to happen this year.

? New Mexico coach Mike Locksley will make it through the season without being accused of punching anyone on his own sideline, but he won't survive into 2012 as the Lobos' head coach. Locksley avoided the ax last year thanks to a $1.5 million obligation to the state to buy out the rest of his contract, and his third team in Albuquerque should be better than his first two. But that's not saying quite enough: As embarrassing as the Lobos were in 2009-10, even dramatic improvement leaves them well behind the pack.

- - -
Some predictions contributed by Graham Watson.
Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

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Mike Vrabel (in black) and former college roommate/new boss Luke Fickell (far right) spelling O-H-I-O with ex-Buckeyes Mike Pechac and Ryan Miller at a youth football camp.

Under most circumstances, an old player beginning his second career as a position coach at his alma mater doesn't make for much of a headline. Then again, under most circumstances, the fledgling assistant in question doesn't happen to be an active NFL player with three Super Bowl rings. Citing "sources close to the program," the Columbus Dispatch has confirmed rumors that ex-Ohio State All-American and 14-year NFL vet Mike Vrabel is returning to OSU as linebackers coach. The official announcement is expected on Monday.

Vrabel's retirement won't come as a surprise to anyone with an eye on the buzz out of Columbus last week. Still, it might seem rather abrupt to his current employers, the Kansas City Chiefs, who (as of Sunday morning) still list him as a starter at outside linebacker and apparently expected him to return for his 15th NFL season this fall ? you know, if there is an NFL season this fall.

Vrabel has spent the past two years in K.C. after eight wildly successful seasons in New England, where he was one of the cornerstones of the Patriot teams that took three Super Bowl titles in four years from 2001-04 and delivered the most dominant campaign in league history in 2007 prior to being upset by the Giants in Super Bowl XLII. He was rewarded that season with his first and only All-Pro nod and two years later with a spot on Sports Illustrated's All-Decade team.

At Ohio State, Vrabel was a two-time All-American in 1995 and 1996, when he helped anchor a pair of nasty defenses on teams that combined to go 22-3 and seemed headed for perfect seasons if not for back-to-back losses to Michigan at the end of the schedule. Another defensive anchor on those teams: Defensive tackle Luke Fickell, who found himself just as abruptly thrust into the head coaching job last month when his boss, Jim Tressel, was tossed overboard as part of the Buckeyes' ongoing penance for multiple, major NCAA violations on Tressel's watch. As linebackers coach, Vrabel will be filling the vacancy left by Fickell's promotion from co-defensive coordinator, where he worked primarily with the linebackers. Oh, and he roomed with his new boss in their campus days, too.

Vrabel, 35, brings as much formal experience to his new job as Fickell brings to his ? he has never coached any position on any level, just as Fickell, 37, has never been a head coach ? but he's got more going for him than in-the-trenches chops and nostalgia. With recruiting grinding to a virtual halt in the face of Tressel's exit, Fickell's tenuous future and pending NCAA sanctions, Vrabel is a name prospects will recognize with rings they will respect. In the long run, his second stint in Columbus may be tied to Fickell's, which ? depending on how the upcoming season goes and how attractive the job is to bigger names after the NCAA is done with the Buckeyes ? may expire before the end of the year. But if he can staunch the bleeding on the recruiting trail even a little, he can claim mission accomplished.

- - -
Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

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Every British Open course seems to have a bunker you want to avoid at all costs. "Hell" bunker and the "Road Hole" bunker at St. Andrews are two of the most notable in the history of the game. Another would have to be the treacherous fourth-hole bunker at Royal St. George's that, surprisingly, doesn't have a nickname for how scary it is.

However, even without a menacing nickname, players will want to avoid this bunker at all costs when the Open Championship tees off on Thursday.

At first glance you have to do a double-take when you see it from the tee box. At more than 40-feet deep, it's the deepest trap in championship golf, with a bunker face that appears to be reaching towards the heavens, ready to swallow up any ball headed its direction.

While it sits just 235 yards from the tee, which would certainly be an easy carry for every player in the field, the wind is expected to be a factor in the opening round, and that could put it in play.

If the golf gods have a sense of humor, they'll make sure we get a chance to see a couple players blast their way out of this crater during the tournament.

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[Make the British Open more social with the into_now app from Yahoo!]

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Derek Jeter and Joe Mauer, together on the Phoenix light rail system. Ah, the perils of having to wrap your public transportation months ahead of the actual event.

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Did you miss a day or two in June here at The Marbles? No sweat, we've got you covered. These were the big stories that dominated June 2011 around these parts:

? Kyle Busch, involved in altercation. Not exactly news. Kyle Busch, involved in altercation with Grandpa Richard Childress? Hell yes, that's news!

? In one of the best stunts ever, Brian Vickers skydove into Daytona Speedway. Unfortunately, his sponsor's future in NASCAR apparently followed the same arc.

? You won't believe all the bizarre things that have found their way onto Pocono's track. Scott Speed doesn't even make the top 10.

? At Tony Stewart's Prelude to the Dream dirt race, Clint Bowyer reigned supreme.

? Jamie McMurray took a sobering trip back to his tornado-wracked hometown of Joplin, Missouri.

? Best headline of the month: "Trying to prove race car drivers are athletes, driver tears ACL."

? We kicked around whether fuel-mileage wins are any good despite their thrilling finishes.

? Check these Le Mans wrecks!

? Darrell Waltrip and Cale Yarborough headlined this year's Hall of Fame class. In related news, is Dale Earnhardt Jr. a future Hall of Famer?

? Secret fines. Why NASCAR thinks this is a good idea is beyond us.

? And in other grand ideas: Fox may move some Cup races to SPEED.

? This stunt at Atlanta Motor Speedway hurt. A lot.

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