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GREEN BAY, Wis. -- For the first time this summer, we had all four NFC North teams on the field on the same day. I'm here at Lambeau Field for one more night, so let's breeze through Monday's developments elsewhere with links to the source of the information when appropriate:

Item: The agent for tailback Matt Forte visited the Chicago Bears training camp and spoke with the team's front office, according to Forte.
Comment: It's not uncommon for agents to make training camp visits. So if you're hoping Forte will have a new deal tomorrow, you might be a little optimistic.

Item: Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher said "no one" will be able to replace the leadership void left by the departure of center Olin Kreutz.
Comment: Urlacher should be first in line. He is not a rah-rah type by any means. But if you're a player in the Bears' locker room, wouldn't Urlacher be the first guy you would look to in this situation? Who else if not him?

Item: Detroit Lions rookie defensive tackle Nick Fairley left practice Monday morning because of a sore foot. X-rays were negative.
Comment: The Lions already have three significant names on their training camp injury report: Fairley, left tackle Jeff Backus (pectoral) and cornerback Alphonso Smith (foot). Eek.

Item: Minnesota Vikings left tackle Bryant McKinnie was placed on the non-football injury list to start camp.
Comment: Coach Leslie Frazier wouldn't tell reporters why the move was made but implied that McKinnie's weight was part of the issue and said he would eventually share more information. It's also worth noting that the Vikings signed free agent offensive lineman Charlie Johnson, who can play both tackle and guard positions.

Item: Receiver Bernard Berrian didn't practice Monday.
Comment: Berrian told reporters he has restructured his contract and will be a free agent after the 2012 season. That helped the Vikings' salary cap situation but makes him ineligible to practice before Thursday.

Item: The Vikings held a moment of silence before their first practice of the summer to remember Korey Stringer, who died from complications of heat stroke 10 years ago. The Vikings also painted Stringer's "No. 77" on their field.
Comment: The Vikings organization has almost completely turned over since 2001. They have new ownership, different members of the front office, a new coaching staff and obviously new players. So it's nice to see the next generation pay respect to the darkest day in franchise history.

GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Maybe it's appropriate that I was sitting at Lambeau Field when Randy Moss announced his retirement. No, not because Moss famously pretended to moon the crowd during a playoff game. It's because the Green Bay Packers were the first team to recognize that Moss had fundamentally changed the game.

As a rookie in 1998, Moss caught 13 passes for 343 yards and three touchdowns for the Minnesota Vikings in two games against the Packers.

In 1999, the Packers responded with the most transparent draft strategy imaginable: They selected a cornerback with each of their first three picks. Two of them, Antuan Edwards and Mike McKenzie, were over 6 feet tall. They landed in Green Bay with the specific hope of matching up against Moss, who at 6-foot-4 had dominated smaller cornerbacks throughout his rookie season.

As his career went on, opponents devised new coverages and exotic lineups in an attempt to slow down a unique physical specimen who referred to himself as "The Freak." Vikings offensive coaches often considered it a waste of time to scout their opponents' previous games because they never used traditional schemes against the Vikings when Moss was in the lineup.

These days, it's common to hear football people refer to having a safety "over the top" to cover the deep part of the field in case a receiver runs past the cornerback. It can also be known as a "bracket." These coverages were popularized because of Moss, whose combination of height and 4.35 speed made him uncoverable by one defender.

Rare is the player who can force draft decisions or schematic innovations, and to me that will be Moss’ greatest legacy. I know there are many of you who think Moss will return to the game in the coming months, but I won’t begin to try to guess what’s going on inside his head. He is, however, fully capably of storming away from the game, never to be heard from again.

If Moss’ career is in fact finished, he should go down as one of the best receivers ever to play the game.

As it stands, Moss is tied for second on the NFL's all-time list for touchdown receptions (153). He has the fifth-most receiving yards (14,858) and eight-most receptions (954).

History, of course, will intertwine Moss' football success with his personal failings. He wasn't an enigma, which most people associate with "unique." Moss was a flat-out mystery, and anyone who tried to figure him out was wasting brain cells.

On the 10th anniversary of Korey Stringer's death, I'm reminded of Moss sobbing hysterically at a nationally televised news conference. At the same time, I'm reminded that he once lost his temper in downtown Minneapolis traffic and felt compelled to nudge a traffic officer with his car.

I recall him tossing NFL awards in the locker room trash can. I can't avoid the conclusion that he undermined every coach he played for in Minnesota, including Dennis Green -- the man who put his own reputation on the line by drafting him in 1998. Moss' verbal harangue at a group of corporate sponsors on the Vikings' team bus enraged then-owner Red McCombs and played a role in Green's ultimate departure from the organization in 2001.

I will remember some hilarious interview moments, including the time Moss detailed how he taunted then-coach Mike Tice with words from a boyhood bully who once, in Moss' words, "broke Tice's face." In truth, Moss had no respect for authority and resented its existence.

His respect for the game was circumspect as well. Pro Football Hall of Fame voters shouldn't consider his off-field issues when discussing his candidacy, but they absolutely should note how often Moss loafed on plays that weren't designed for him and how, early in his career, he walked off the field before the game's conclusion in several instances.

Moss won't, and shouldn't, be elected to sainthood. There is no way to sweep away his stunning lack of personal decorum. In all ways -- on the field and off -- Moss was one of a kind.

I think he will be elected to the Hall of Fame. But even that day will be wrapped in mystery. I used to joke with colleagues that Moss would probably skip his enshrinement ceremony into the Hall of Fame. I don't actually think he will. But if there is anyone who would ...

Every summer for the past 10 years, I've pulled out a wrinkled copy of the September 2001 edition of Esquire Magazine. The issue contains Jeanne Marie Laskas' posthumous profile of Korey Stringer, and it should be required reading for anyone interested in remembering what he stood for and how tragic it is when a life is cut short mid-blossom.

Ten years ago today, Stringer died from complications of heat stroke. He collapsed in high heat and humidity after the Minnesota Vikings' first full-pads practice of the summer and never regained consciousness.

I was on the Vikings beat at the time, but I will make no claim to having known Stringer well. He had no interest in public life, and as Laskas writes, was incredulous that a national magazine planned a profile on him entitled "The Enlightened Man."

He had a tattoo that read "FTW." I can't spell it out for you, but needless to say, it wasn't a nice suggestion for The World. After he married, had a son and was named to the Pro Bowl, according to Laskas, Stringer re-imagined the tattoo's meaning. It now stood for "Find the Way."

That revelation has always warmed and broken my heart in equal measures. Stringer had fought through a number of obstacles in his life, the least of which was a lifelong battle with his weight, and finally had landed in a place he was proud of.

If there was a positive consequence of his death, it's that it serves as a reminder of the dangers of heat strokes just as training camps are opening for all levels of football. Each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 6,000 people go to the emergency room with heat-related illnesses. We now know that all 6,000 episodes were preventable by taking steps to acclimate to heat, to remain hydrated and to understand warning signs.

(Here is the CDC's full guide to the prevention of heat illness.)

It's easy to forget details after 10 years. But at this time of year, I always hope that football players of all ages recognize that a completely healthy man, one just like them, walked onto a football practice field 10 years ago. Two hours later, he was overwhelmed by heat. About 14 hours later, he died.

So on this sad anniversary, please be aware. And while you're at it, Find The Way.

ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- Greetings from Detroit Lions training camp, where I arrived in time to watch most of the morning practice and collect a notebook's worth of cool information for you. But before I start putting that together, let me say that I was remiss over the weekend in not paying proper respects on the anniversary of perhaps the saddest day in NFL history.

Former Minnesota Vikings right tackle Korey Stringer died nine years ago -- on Aug. 1, 2001 -- of complications from heat stroke. He had collapsed at the end of a training camp practice the day before. Korey, 27, left behind his wife, Kelci, and a son, Kodie -- who by my count is now 11 years old.

I think of Korey every time I step onto a steamy training camp field. I hope you do as well, and I hope that his completely preventable death helped convince the general public that heat stroke is real, that it's dangerous and it is deadly. As high school and college programs open practice this week and next, please don't forget Korey Stringer.

In case you don't know, more people die annually from heat stroke than they do from hurricanes, lightning, tornadoes, floods and earthquakes combined. Here is a primer from the CDC on how to manage the risk of heat stroke.

We've discussed the possibility of Chicago adding a veteran backup quarterback behind Jay Cutler and floated the name of free agent Marc Bulger, who has extensive experience playing under new Bears offensive coordinator Mike Martz. Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune reports the Bears are likely also to have interest in veteran Josh McCown, who spent last season on injured reserve with Carolina.

(Not to be confused with Cade McNown, of course.)

McCown worked under Martz in 2006 when both were with Detroit. He didn't throw a pass that season, however, after Jon Kitna won the starting job. His primary attribute would be experience, something current backup Caleb Hanie can't boast of.

Continuing around the NFC North with the NFL's 2010 schedule announcement about 12 hours away:

• Is Minnesota tempted to draft Florida quarterback Tim Tebow? Chip Scoggins of the Star Tribune considers the possibilities.
• The NFL and the University of Connecticut have partnered with the widow of former Vikings offensive tackle Korey Stringer to open the Korey Stringer Institute at UConn's Neag School of Education, according to Barry Wilner of The Associated Press.
• Rob Demovsky of the Green Bay Press-Gazette: "[I]t's safe to say [Clay] Matthews made perhaps the biggest immediate impact of any Packers' first-round draft pick in the last two decades."
• Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Projecting players to a new position long has been the bane of National Football League personnel people, but for those employed by the 14 teams using the 3-4 defense it has become a way of life."
• That task is easier for Texas' Sergio Kindle, writes Jason Wilde of ESPNMilwaukee.com, as Kindle played both defensive end and linebacker in college.
• Speaking to fans chanting for Detroit to draft Nebraska defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, Lions coach Jim Schwartz said: "There are a lot of different ways we can go, but you won't be disappointed." Tim Twentyman of the Detroit News has more.
• Lions defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham appears to have supreme confidence in second-year player Zack Follett as a potential replacement for the traded Ernie Sims, writes Nicholas J. Cotsonika of the Detroit Free Press.
• The Lions claimed guard Trevor Canfield off waivers Monday, according to Tom Kowalski of Mlive.com.

Here’s a Mike Tice story that will tell Chicago fans all they need to know, for better and worse, about their new offensive line coach.

In the final month of the 2003 season, Tice’s second as Minnesota’s head coach, the Vikings were in the midst of a 3-7 collapse that would ultimately keep them out of the playoffs. Searching for a way to stabilize his team for a Soldier Field matchup with the Bears at Soldier Field, Tice decided to rely on the emerging skills of rookie tailback Onterrio Smith.

His message to players that week emphasized the need to toughen up and push through their struggles by getting back to the fundamentals of football. That’s what they needed, Tice said, to win a game in Chicago. Tice repeated that message in every media interview he did, famously calling Chicago a “tough-guy town” that needed to be met strength-on-strength. He made no secret of his intention to run the ball down the throat of the Bears’ defense.

Tice is 6-foot-8, has a deep voice and once told me that his “size-14 foot” would play a big role in player discipline. He always advocated the power running game, but it wasn’t clear if his gameplan was based on a schematic philosophy or the otherwise irrelevant history of the city his team was scheduled to play in. Smith ran for 148 yards in the game, but the Bears still won, 13-10 -- in part because the approach shortened the game for the Vikings’ mistake-prone offense, leaving them fewer possessions to score.

Tice soon realized the irrational nature of his game plan, however, and admitted it through a self-deprecating set of appearances on the Vikings’ radio flagship. He recorded himself saying the names of most cities in Minnesota, and the station edited those names in front of his “tough-guy” quote. Throughout the offseason and the following summer, you could hear Tice saying:

“Minneapolis? Tough-guy town.”

Or:

“St. Cloud? Tough-guy town.”

Or:

“Stillwater? Tough-guy town.”

To be clear, Tice was an emotional, tough-nosed advocate of power running who was always willing to admit and laugh at his mistakes. But make no mistake about this: He is a perfect offensive line coach for the Bears under Lovie Smith.

Before he was the Vikings’ head coach, Tice was their excellent offensive line coach. He played a big role in the Pro Bowl status of center Matt Birk and right tackle Korey Stringer. Have you ever seen a center wave one of his hands to make a last-second line call? Tice developed that approach, and it’s now copied around the league.

I have no doubt he’ll continue Chris Williams’ development and that he’ll find a position and approach that will make Frank Omiyale a serviceable player. Although the Bears still don’t have an offensive coordinator, they got better Friday by adding Tice.

The tough-guy coach finally landed in the tough-guy town. Just don’t tell him that.

Posted by ESPN.com's Kevin Seifert

I broke away from the blog Monday afternoon to write this news story about the latest twist in the legal cases following the 2001 death of Minnesota offensive lineman Korey Stringer.

Stringer

In all of the legal wrangling that has occurred since Stringer succumbed to complications from heatstroke, Monday's might have been the most significant. An Ohio judge wrote that Riddell Inc. -- manufacturer of the NFL's shoulder pads and helmets -- should have issued a formal warning that using its equipment in excessive heat could lead to heatstroke. U.S. District Judge John D. Holschuh set a Nov. 2 trial date to determine whether Riddell's failure to warn contributed legally to Stringer's death.

To be sure, this represents a small part of the legal path Stringer's widow has followed since Korey Stringer died Aug. 1, 2001. It's only a slice of the broad explanation for why Stringer died. But to me, the timing of this news is fortuitous in the big picture of heatstroke awareness.

At all levels of the game, preparations are under way for training camps across the country. Hopefully people will see the name "Stringer" and remember that a healthy, star player died as the result of practicing football on two consecutive steamy days.

Stringer collapsed after a full-pads practice on the second full day of Vikings training camp. His core temperature was 108.8 degrees by the time he got to the hospital and he died early the next morning. It happened that fast.

The Vikings claimed in court documents that they found products containing the since-banned stimulant ephedrine in Stringer's training camp locker. The Blue Earth (Minn.) County coroner did not test for ephedrine in his autopsy, and so we'll never know for sure if it also played a role in Stringer's death.

But from the big picture, I hope that players and coaches of all ages and levels will continue to use the Stringer tragedy to understand how serious heatstroke can be -- utilize every risk control at their disposal. If you need help, start here with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Posted by ESPN.com's Kevin Seifert

You might be surprised to know that nearly 7 1/2 years after his death, Korey Stringer's family is still fighting a legal battle with no end in sight.

	Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images
	On Monday, the NFL settled its portion of a lawsuit with the family of Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman Korey Stringer, who died in 2001.

Nevertheless, an important milestone occurred Monday when the NFL settled its portion of the family's lawsuit and agreed to support the creation of a heat illness prevention program for athletes of all ages. While there has indisputably been a financial element of the long-standing litigation, Stringer's widow has always maintained that her primary goal was to enact permanent change on the way organized sports deals with excessive temperatures.

Stringer died on Aug. 1, 2001 from complications of heat stroke after two hot and humid days in Minnesota's training camp. Kelci Stringer, his widow, has sued the Vikings, their medical staff, the NFL and even the makers of his shoulder pads and helmet in the ensuing years. All but a federal lawsuit against equipment manager Riddell Inc. have now either been settled or thrown out of court.

There has long been an undercurrent of ephdera use in connection with Korey Stringer's death. Team officials found bottles of several supplements that contained the since-banned ingredient, but no tests conclusively proved that Stringer had ephedra in his system at the time of death. Independent of that element, Kelci Stringer believes there was a series of missed signs and mistakes that contributed to the tragedy.

I visited Kelci and her son, Kodie, at their Atlanta home a few years ago and the phrase she kept using was this: "Somebody dropped the ball." She didn't believe that anyone had intentionally caused harm to her husband, but as she learned more about heat illness, she grew convinced that his death was preventable. She doubted whether she would see anywhere close to the figures thrown around by her attorneys -- whose initial lawsuit asked the Vikings for more than $100 million -- and professed not to care.

Instead, she considered the lawsuits a legal way to pressure sports leagues to adopt stricter heat standards and ditch their old-school approaches to practicing and playing in heat. In that context, Monday's news is as important a victory as she has gained over the years: The nation's most successful sports league will support that effort.

Stringer's legal fight is also bringing to light important studies on ways that football padding can contribute to heat illness. Check out this study by a professor at the University of Connecticut, who determined that athletes wearing standard 2001 helmets and shoulder pads experienced core temperature increases three times faster than those who did not wear them during similar activities.

Whether or not anyone was legally responsible for Stringer's death, this series of lawsuits has at least kept the pressure on the NFL and its suppliers to re-examine and improve their practices. Monday's news was a small victory in that endeavor.