Pure Steel
Doc's NFL Notebook
By James Santelli

Who Loves L.A.?

The NFL's long-awaited return to the Los Angeles area is growing ever closer. On October 22, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his signing of an environmental exemption bill to allow a 75,000-seat stadium to be built in Industry, Calif., located about 15 miles east of Los Angeles. Billionaire Ed Roski, who owns part of the LA Kings and Lakers, is the main force behind the stadium development. The Los Angeles Stadium would be built mostly with private funds, except for a $150 billion bond measure to pay for infrastructure improvements, which would be repaid by the stadium's owners. Construction won't take place until an NFL team agrees to move to LA. Possibilities include the Jaguars, Bills, Vikings and Chargers.

Across the Pond

The City of Angels isn't the only new market the NFL is pursuing. London's Wembley Stadium hosted the Patriots and Bucs in its third annual regular season game last month in England, and if talk around the league offices is any indication, more could be on the way. Commissioner Roger Goodell told reporters in London that "every indicator" is showing that Britain could support more regular season games, with stadiums in Manchester, England, and Glasgow, Scotland under consideration. Rumors of a Super Bowl in London have been floating around for years. Goodell also stated that there is "tremendous interest" in adding an NFL franchise in England sometime in the next decade. The league is certainly prime to adding more international games than simply in London and Toronto, especially if a 17th or 18th regular season game is added. Mexico City hosted what was at the time the most-attended NFL regular season game ever in 2005, and the now-disbanded NFL Europe had, at one time, five of its six teams located in Germany.

Rocky Mountain Way

Prior to the 2009 season, few expected the Denver Broncos, who had traded away Pro Bowl quarterback Jay Cutler and angered Pro Bowl receiver Brandon Marshall in the process, to make much noise in the AFC West. Yet the Broncos rolled into their Week 7 bye with a 6-0 record, and the strong possibility of remaining undefeated for their Monday Night home matchup with the Steelers November 9. Denver is getting the job done with a much improved defense (29th in the NFL last season; 2nd through six games in '09), and strong, balanced offensive attack. QB Kyle Orton has been surprisingly consistent with the previously disgruntled Marshall as his top target. Two new faces in the backfield, Correll Buckhalter and rookie Knowshon Moreno, led the ground game charge for what may be the most surprisingly dynamic offense in the AFC heading down the stretch.

Know When to Hold 'Em

The annual NFL trade deadline is notorious for having a lot of talk involving players being dealt, and then ultimately coming and going without many impactful trades. Even last year's deadline, though, had a Pro Bowl receiver in Roy Williams sent from Detroit to Dallas. This season's big swaps involved Will Witherspoon and Tank Tyler, not exactly front-page names. Of course, there were many well-known players whose names were being whispered, or in some cases, shouted. When Browns QB Brady Quinn put his Cleveland house on the market, plenty of analysts suggested Cleveland was developing a trade for the former first-rounder. But the deadline came and went, and Quinn, as well as other players like Terrell Owens, Josh Cribbs, Shawne Merriman and Dwayne Bowe stayed put, despite rampant speculation.

D.C. Politics

Midseason coaching changes are bound to happen in today's "what have you done for me lately" NFL landscape. One coach who is apparently staying put for the rest of the season is Jim Zorn of the Washington Redskins. For much of October, the second-year head coach had the hottest seat in the league, with rumors of coaching changes coming on a near-daily basis. However, despite stripping Zorn of his play-calling duties, Redskins VP of Football Operations Vinny Cerrato gave his head coach a vote of confidence. Cerrato told a local radio station that Zorn would remain the coach "for the rest of this season, and hopefully into the future," after a loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.

Bad Luck along the Lake

The Chicago Bears lost their second linebacker to a season-ending injury, with the news that Pisa Tinoisamoa would need surgery on his right knee. Tinoisamoa started two games in his first season with the Bears after coming over from St. Louis before injuring his knee in Week 6. The loss makes Chicago's linebacker unit even more shallow on starting talent, with All-Pro Brian Urlacher also out for the year.