They can leave Kyle Orton in the gutter for all I care.

The Tim Tebow era should begin in Colorado as soon as the 2010 NFL football season starts. Tebow, the 25th pick in the NFL draft, is ready for the shots, both on the football field and in the locker room.

The two-time national champion from Florida said he couldn’t wait for the hard hits. Tim Tebow is fresh from putting his signature on two contracts, one of them a five-year deal to play for the Denver Broncos and the other a multiyear deal to serve as a pitchman for Jockey underwear.

“A few people have said a few things to me about it,” Tim Tebow said with a hearty chuckle. “Actually, Coach Josh McDaniels was the first one to say something to me. But, you know, I’m sure I’ll get some (more) of it, but it’s all in good fun.”

“I told him they passed on me for him,” McDaniels cracked. “I turned it down.”
Tebow said it felt good to work up a sweat again during the one-hour workout at Dove Valley but what he was really looking forward to was getting hit again. Tebow will get a taste of NFL hitting early on because the coaches are eager to see if they can have him run the ball like he did in college.

“It may be a negative of mine, that I look forward to that and I’m a quarterback, so you kind of have to stay calm,” Tebow said. “But it is fun once Sunday gets out here and everybody is hitting. I’ll get excited too.

If Tebow can do it, the Broncos could use a healthy dose this season of the wildcat, the new version of the old-fashioned single-wing employed by several NFL teams, notably the Miami Dolphins. In Denver, they call it the Wild Horse, and Tebow might even…

I guess they were just too big for FIBA.

The 2010 FIBA World Championships has began and Team USA is in good shape as it posted its fourth straight win over Iran 88-51 to lead Group B. Also known as basketball’s World Cup, the World Championships are also held every four years and share similar qualification and scheduling formats to determine a winner.

The FIBA tournament may only be held once every four years, but coupled with the quadrennial Olympic men’s basketball tournament, an international basketball champion is decided every two years.

The biggest difference between the Olympics and the World Championships is that the United States’ dominance on the basketball court is limited only to the former. The United States has won 13 gold medals in the Olympics; no other country has more than two.

On the other hand, the USA basketball team has won three gold medals at the World Championships, but so have Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, and the U.S. has not won since 1994.

This year’s tournament is hosted by Turkey, it lasts more than two weeks with the gold medal game taking place on Sunday, Sept. 12, or what is better known in the United States as NFL Week 1.

The teams were drawn into four six-team groups. Group play began Saturday with teams playing five games in their group and the top four teams advance to the…

No doubt about it, Kevin Kolb is the biggest story for the Eagles this year.

Kevin Kolb, takes the reigns from Donovan McNabb as starting quarterback for the Eagles in the 2010 NFL football season and it’s not surprising that he already has the support of the Eagles’ skill position players like DeSean Jackson and Brent Celek.

The Eagles recently traded Donovan McNabb, the franchise’s all-time passing leader – not to mention a six-time Pro Bowl selection who led Philly to five NFC championship games and a Super Bowl appearance in his 11 seasons – to the rival Washington Redskins for a pair of draft picks, including a 2010 second-round selection.

As a result, Kevin Kolb, a second-round pick in ’07, inherited the most pressure-packed job in America’s least-forgiving sports town.

After a few years of believing that the Eagles were a good team that wasn’t quite good enough under McNabb, 2010 brings optimism among Philadelphia fans since there’s something exciting about having a new quarterback. Eagles’ fans haven’t seen much of Kolb, but it is evident that he has the potential to be a star. In two starts last year, Kolb piled up great numbers, including in a losing effort to the New Orleans Saints.

Everyone in Philadelphia seems to have no worries about Kolb and the offense putting up points. The concern for the Eagles is on defense, where the team is younger and has concerns in the secondary. Super Bowl talk isn’t as common as it has been in recent offseasons for Philadelphia, but there is a legit amount of excitement as the team gets ready to bring in a new era.

Given the significance of the team’s first quarterback change in…

If only Hollywood had a pro football team.

The Arizona Cardinals have released Matt Leinart with just days before the 2010 NFL football season begins, parting ways with the former Heisman Trophy winner who was supposed to be the team’s franchise quarterback but couldn’t escape the backup role.

The Arizona Cardinals made the announcement on Saturday, shortly before the team had to reach their 53-man roster limit. “In fairness to Matt, I think that it would be a tough position for him to be in a backup role,” coach Ken Whisenhunt said. “Maybe a fresh start for him is what would be a good thing, for all of us.”

The Cardinals tried to trade Matt Leinart but found no acceptable deal. By cutting Leinart, Arizona doesn’t have to pay him the $2.5 million he was due for the coming season, not to mention the $7.4 million, plus a $5.5 million roster bonus, he was scheduled to make next season.

Arizona thought it had a steal when Leinart, who led Southern California to two national championships and a third title game appearance, fell to the Cardinals at the No. 10 overall pick in 2006. Then-coach Dennis Green called it “a gift from heaven.”

He started 11 games as a rookie under Green, then the first five the following season under new coach Ken Whisenhunt. But the big left-hander then went down with a broken collarbone and Kurt Warner took over.

Warner finished his career with two spectacular seasons, leading Arizona to consecutive NFC West titles, an incredible run to the Super Bowl and a 51-45 overtime victory over Green Bay in a playoff thriller last season. Leinart mostly watched.

Even before Leinart was hurt, Warner was being used more and more…

Yep, Brett Favre is having an encore in Minnesota this year.

You read it, Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre is hoping he can lead his team to a shot at the Super Bowl after deciding to return to the Minnesota Vikings to play in the 2010 NFL football season.

The return of the three-time most valuable player, who last season had the Minnesota Vikings one win from an appearance in the Super Bowl, will mark his 20th season and ended months of speculation about whether or not he would retire.

“I was so close to getting these guys to the Super Bowl,” the 40-year-old Brett Favre said in a news conference at the Vikings’ training camp in Minnesota. The NFL’s all-time leading passer, who worked out with the team said he has nothing to prove and that his decision to play another season was all about his team.

Favre said he has been thinking: “You are so close… let’s do it together… let’s finish this together.”

Three of Favre’s teammates flew to his hometown in Mississippi to bring him back for one more season and a few days later, they all boarded a private plane for Minnesota.

In one of the best seasons of his long career, Favre led the Vikings to a 12-4 regular-season record last year before losing in the NFC championship game after a Favre interception halted a Vikings drive late in regulation.

An ankle injury Favre suffered in that game required surgery in May and…

Donovan McNabb will have a fresh start.

No doubt about that as he will be with a new team at the start of the 2010 NFL football season. In case you didn’t know, he was traded to Washington, where he h

as been a welcomed addition. It now begs the question: Are the Eagles better off without him? Are the Redskins better with him? The answer could be yes to both.

You see, Donovan McNabb went to six Pro Bowls and led the Eagles to eight play-off appearances, five NFC championship games and one Super Bowl in 11 seasons. But he did not win the big one, and the organization decided to move on with Kevin Kolb at quarterback.

Though Kolb has started just two games in three seasons, he has received high praise from his coaches, teammates and analysts. He is considered a born leader who is well suited to run Philadelphia’s offense.

While McNabb was the starter in Philadelphia, the Washington Redskins had a revolving door at quarterback. They used 10 different starters in 11 years and only one made a Pro Bowl – Brad Johnson in 1999. Washington won only two playoff games during that time.

So, McNabb brings stability and a strong pedigree to a critical position. “I think it’s more psychological for the team, because everybody knows what he’s done,” Mike Sellers, the Washington full-back, said.

McNabb’s success in Philadelphia is tarnished somewhat by…

More football. That’s what every fan wants.

NFL owners are eager to increase the regular season from 16 to 18 games. The players aren’t so sure. During a five-hour meeting at a posh hotel in downtown Atlanta, the push to add two more games to the regular season picked up steam with the 2010 NFL football season just around the corner.

“I think it’s a win-win all around,” said Bob Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots. The owners also unanimously approved Stan Kroenke’s proposal to purchase majority ownership of the St. Louis Rams, assuming he turns over control of two other teams he owns — the NBA’s Denver Nuggets and the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche — to his son.

Kroenke owns 40 percent of the downtrodden Rams and exercised his right to purchase the rest of the team from the Rosenbloom family for a reported $750 million. “Obviously, all of us know and respect Stan,” commissioner Roger Goodell said. “He’s been a terrific owner in the NFL and we’re confident he will continue to be a great owner.”

Kroenke must turn over operational and financial control of the Nuggets and Avalanche to his 30-year-old son, Josh, by the end of the year. He must give up his majority stake in the teams by December 2014 to meet NFL rules against cross-ownership of franchises in other NFL cities.

But talks on the expanded season dominated most of the…

Of course, he needs to save the Raiders first.

It took two preseason games for Jason Campbell to stop feeling like the deposed quarterback of the Washington Redskins and to begin feeling like the rightful quarterback of the Oakland Raiders for the 2010 NFL football season.

The Oakland Raiders acquired quarterback Jason Campbell from the Washington Redskins for a 4th round draft pick in 2012. An while Campbell may be an upgrade for the struggling Raiders franchise, the expectations and hopes should be kept under control in Oakland because Jason Campbell is far from the savior that will save the bay area franchise.

“It was weird when I first got here,” Jason Campbell said late Saturday night, standing in a rapidly emptying visitor’s locker room at Soldier Field after he made his second preseason start for the Raiders. “But as months have gone by, it’s kind of like getting farther away now. Last week, the first time being in a different uniform playing a game just felt different. But this week, it was like, ‘Okay, you got that first game out of the way. Now let’s turn to the second game”.

Campbell’s five-year tenure with the Redskins was all about change. He endured new head coaches, offensive coordinators and offensive systems. When the Redskins – under another new coach, Mike Shanahan, and a new general manager, Bruce Allen – stopped believing that the former first-round draft choice was the answer for them at quarterback, the biggest change of all came when Campbell was traded to the Raiders in April.

The Redskins’ new regime had traded for Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb, making Campbell’s…

It seems the city of Denver is more excited about an unproven young quarterback than somebody who has established himself to be their legitimate starter.

Every day, Denver Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton hums passes across the team’s practice fields with a precision he’s never quite had before. His receivers marvel that he is so accurate they don’t have to break stride or reach to catch the ball. They say he is as good as they have seen him. One, Brandon Lloyd, says the ball “just sticks in your hands.”

If the Broncos can escape mediocrity in the 2010 NFL football season, Orton will probably be a major reason why. And yet the better he looks, the more the fans who visit training camp refuse to care. They don’t shout his name. They don’t wear his jersey. And when practice ends nobody screams or begs for him, or even shows him a whit of loyalty.

Such is life in the summer of Tim Tebow, where the third-string quarterback is the most popular man on the field. “It’s been an interesting summer,” Orton says with a small laugh. He then waves his hand dismissively.

“I don’t care about the glare at all,” Orton elaborates. “Listen, I live to play football. I don’t want to be anything other than a football player in regards to all the fanfare. I just want to play football.”

It is not an indictment of Tebow that the team’s first-round draft pick is not ready yet for the NFL. He was always going to be a project that would take two or three years before he develops into a starter. But maybe no one understood just how good Orton was about to become. And while it is still only the preseason and…

You read it, there’s dissension within the Cardinals camp.

Quarterbacks Matt Leinart and Derek Anderson know something about the issue more than anyone else in Arizona, especially after last Thursday, when Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt announced that Anderson was replacing Leinart as the starter in Saturday’s preseason game against the Bears in Chicago.

“I don’t think we’ve performed the way we’ve needed to perform on offense in the preseason,” Whisenhunt said after practice at Vanderbilt University. “And we’re just looking at different players at different spots, trying to find a little groove. It’s a great opportunity to look at combinations of different personnel.”

Whisenhunt insisted that Saturday’s game is not a “dress rehearsal” for the 2010 NFL football season, even though his players will be dressed and rehearsing. But the competition at quarterback has obviously tightened, and Whisenhunt is curious about how both players will react in different roles.

Matt Leinart declined any comment until Friday after Whisenhunt announced the decision. Derek Anderson chose not to say much. “I think the last couple weeks have been good, and I just want to keep building on that,” he said.

There are other changes in the starting lineup. Greg Toler will replace Trumaine McBride at left cornerback. Rookie Daryl Washington will start at inside linebacker for Pago Togafau, and other reserves, such as guard Deuce Lutui, could get some time with the starting units.

But those are honky-tonk acts compared with the…