I have been in travel hell all day, and won't get to Arizona for another four or five hours, depending on the flights out of San Francisco.

In the meantime, I thought I'd forward this link, which says the Cardinals are playing to get back their rhythm rather than resting players' for next week's home playoff game.

Here is the release from New England:

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The New England Patriots placed cornerback Jason Webster on the reserve/injured list today. Webster will miss the remainder of the 2008 season with an ankle injury.

Webster, 31, is a veteran of nine NFL seasons with the San Francisco 49ers (2000-03), Atlanta Falcons (2004-06), Buffalo Bills (2007) and Patriots (2008). He was signed by the Patriots as a free agent on March 3, 2008, and was released by New England on Aug. 26 before being re-signed by the Patriots on Nov. 5.

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Packers wide receiver Ruvell Martin says the most resounding block of his three-year career came in the Seattle playoff game last January. On a reception to James Jones, Martin broke off his route, latched on to to cornerback Kelly Jennings and pancaked him five yards out of bounds among the photographers.

After that game, Martin said Marcus Trufant came up to him and told him he blocked well enough to be a starting fullback.

(On if he envisions the possibility of going to the playoffs) – “I think every new season; every team goes into a new season thinking, obviously, the best. We went into the season thinking the best. We went into the season feeling like we had just as good of a chance to put ourselves in the mix as anyone else did. I don’t know right now whether or not that’s where we are, but I know is that today we wake up and we’re one of 15 teams, or 14 teams right now that have four or five wins in this league. We just kind of threw ourselves into the middle of something here and all we did right now; created an opportunity to have a real big game at home this week.”

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Here is an interesting story on ESPN.com about Niners coach Mike Singletary dropping his shorts during halftime of Sunday's game against Seattle.

Former Niners coach Mike Nolan was on Sirius radio with Adam Schein and John Riggins, explaining his firing and his replacement by Mike Singletary:

“When they had told me I was fired, which Jed York had done, there was a lot of speculation about who did what. But Jed York was the one that told me and he told me in a one-on-one conversation in my office. Anyhow, I said, ‘Who’s the replacement?’ And they had mentioned Mike Singletary and I had said that I felt that was a good choice from the standpoint of keeping the team together. Because, you know, when they have things like this that go on and you pick an offensive or a defensive coordinator, not that either one of those guys even would’ve taken it, because I don’t think any of the coaches, you know, I think I have a very loyal bunch of coaches. I think that sometimes you get a division. All of a sudden players start to say, well, ‘my guy,’ ‘your guy’ and all that. So I thought Mike was a good neutral choice. Obviously, Mike Martz has got tremendous experience and could very well have handled the job. I mean, it’s not a question of handling the job, but they just felt, that’s who they had suggested to me. So I said, ‘Look it, you need to talk to Mike if you haven’t talked to him yet, because to let me go and not have somebody in line, I don’t know how that’s going to fare for you if he says no.’ So, anyhow, they spoke with Mike and I said, ‘Look it, I would imagine Mike’s going to want to come talk to me.’ So Mike did. He came down after they spoke with him and he came to me and we sat down and I said, ‘Well, what’s up?’ And he told me what they all said, and he said, ‘I can’t do it.’ He says, ‘You’re my friend and I can’t do that.’ And I said, ‘Well Mike,’ I said, by choice I chose a table other than my desk to sit down with Mike in my office, and I pointed to the desk and I said ‘Mike, I just want to tell you something,’ I said, ‘You see that desk, there’s no one sitting in it.’ I said, ‘I’m not the coach of the San Francisco 49ers. Right now they don’t have a coach.’ I said, ‘So for you to say you can’t do it because you’re going to take my job, you’re not taking my job.’ I said, ‘That job’s already been vacated.’ I said, ‘Mike, you need to take that job.’ I said, ‘We came in here together. You know how important these players are to us and I think you’d do a hell of a job of keeping them together because right now that’s the most important thing, is just keeping them together.’ It’s not X’s and O’s, it’s not new ideas, everything’s kind of on autopilot as far as the schedule goes. I said, ‘They need somebody to lead them.’ I said, ‘I think you’d do the best job because of your position with this team. You are the assistant head coach.’ I mean, we exchanged a couple more times where he said he didn’t feel right about this and that, but I just told him, I said, ‘Look Mike, they don’t have a coach, alright? You’re not taking Mike Nolan’s job. You’re taking the 49ers job and they don’t have a coach.’ And so one thing led to another and it was emotional and it was not easy, but that’s kind of proof in the pudding, that’s how it went down.”

According to ESPN.com, Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress had his fine cut in half for missing last week's practice, but he still will be suspended for Sunday's game against the Seahawks. Sal Paolantonio's story is right here.

Even though he is not even playing this weekend because of his suspension, Rocky Bernard's effect is still being felt.

Apparently, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Alex Smith re-injured the shoulder that Bernard initially injured when Bernard squashed him last year.

Smith was not starting for San Francisco; that was going to be J.T. O'Sullivan, eh laddie. But given O'Sullivan's history, I was of the mind that Mike Nolan eventually was going to have to go to Smith. Now, the Niners will have to wait to see how serious this injury is. Smith is consulting with Dr. James Andrews -- the same fellow who did the surgery on Deion Branch's knee -- on what to do now.

According to NFL.com, Bills left tackle Jason Peters is ending his holdout and reporting to the Bills. However, and this is a big however, he is not supposed to be playing against the Seahawks on Sunday. Not sure if that is a good or bad thing. On the one hand, you kind of like the idea of having Kerney and Jackson going against second-tier guys. On the other, having Jackson and Tapp going against a guy who would be playing for the first time nine months might be kind of appealing as well.

According to the Buffalo News, linebacker Angelo Crowell will miss the season opener against Seattle because he just had his knee scoped.

First off, Bills starting left tackle Jason Peters is in the midst of an ongoing holdout for a new contract. So the Bills put Langston Walker, normally a right tackle, into Peters' spot at left tackle. Except that Walker just got hurt, banging his left arm in an injury that the Bills are saying might be serious, meaning that the Bills currently have no left tackle. With the regular season only two weeks away, Lawrence Jackson and Darryl Tapp might be licking their chops right now.

When camp kicks off on Friday in Kirkland the Seahawks will begin addressing their issues going into the 2008 season.

Other factors beyond their control – namely, their competition in the NFC West – will have an impact on the success of their season.

The Seahawks have ruled the NFC West division, winning the last four division titles. Although former success does not guarantee future success, the Seahawks have been fortunate to get to play San Francisco, Arizona and St. Louis twice each season.

So here are the questions: Will the Seahawks continue to dominate their division? Which team will be the top competition in 2008?