2007 NFL Preview
Five Questions for the 2007 NFL season
By Jerry DiPaola

1. Will NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's hard line against the league's criminal element clean up a game that desperately needs a whitewash?

This is the No. 1 burning question of 2007. The NFL is becoming a league of thugs. Even a small percentage of such miscreants gives everyone else a bad name. Maybe Pacman Jones, Chris Henry, Tank Johnson and Michael Vick aren't carrying guns and holding up liquor stores, but the people in their posse certainly belong in jail. Your parents always told you: You are judged by the company you keep. Goodell must get tough, perhaps tougher than what rightfully may be called fair. But this isn't a question of fair. No professional sports league is more conscious of its public image than the NFL, and Jones at a Vegas strip club and Vick body-slamming dogs to death is not what the public expects.

2. Where will be Bill Cowher surface after the 2007 season?

This is the most interesting question of the year, and it will get hotter as the weather gets cooler. Already, the Internet is aflame with reports that Cowher was seen having lunch with Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson. And-if the incredible report is true-Cowher wasn't looking for tickets to the 2008 ACC Basketball Tournament. Cowher says he wants to spend more time with family, and he is telling the truth when he says that. But one year away from the game is all Kaye and the Cowher kids can expect from a man who is a Hall of Fame coach as much as he is a father and husband. Watch the teams that struggle past Halloween. The Cleveland Browns, New York Giants and Washington Redskins pop quickly to mind because they are not going to the Super Bowl and their coaches have seen better days. Cowher will coach in 2008. Write it down.

3. Will the aggressive talent grab in New England get Bill Belichick his fourth Super Bowl?

The Patriots were a 12-4 team before they signed linebacker Adalius Thomas and wide receivers Randy Moss, Donte Stallworth and Wes Welker. If each of those players is worth one victory, that's 16-0. What will a dramatically improved pass-catching corps do for Tom Brady, the league's best quarterback? It's difficult to imagine, and opposing secondaries may not want to think about it. There is no clear path to the Super Bowl in the AFC, with the San Diego Chargers and defending champion Indianapolis Colts standing in the way. But the Patriots know the way from past experience.

4. Are the Cincinnati Bengals destined to collapse from the weight of their own greed?

Bengals coach Marvin Lewis took stewardship of a franchise run for years with an iron fist and careful decision-making by Paul and Mike Brown. All of sudden, the team starts winning some games while leading the league in arrests. Lewis went after outstanding talent, but forgot to check their backgrounds. The result is that a team that could be great looks like it might be merely mediocre for a long time.

5. Will Norv Turner do for the San Diego Chargers what he could not do for the Washington Redskins and Oakland Raiders?

Turner knows how to build quarterbacks, so Phillip Rivers will be better, and the supporting cast of LaDainian Tomlinson, Antonio Gates, Kris Dielman, Shaun Philllips and Shawne Merriman makes it difficult for Turner to fail. Some critics, however, can't get past his 58-82-1 record as a head coach. The problem: In an AFC stocked with great teams, fans will expect nothing less than a Super Bowl championship.