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Perhaps the best indicator of how big Sunday’s game is between the New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons is Roddy White’s verified Twitter account.

For nearly a week now, it’s gone almost silent. White, who never has been one to hold back what’s on his mind, has weighed in a few times on the Joe Paterno controversy, but he hasn’t written a word about the Saints.

That says a lot about what this NFC South rivalry has become. If White’s staying quiet and the Saints aren’t getting their cameras ready for postgame pictures, you know players from both teams are taking this game very seriously. There also is a very good chance they’re following orders from New Orleans coach Sean Payton and Atlanta coach Mike Smith, who realize you don’t need to throw gas on a fire that’s been burning for about four years, and still may not have reached its peak.

It might not have the historic significance of, let’s say, Green Bay-Chicago or Washington-Dallas, but it’s hard to find a rivalry that’s been more heated the past few years.

"This is one of the most overlooked rivalries in football right now,’’ Atlanta running back Michael Turner said. “We've been playing some great games. We know we don't like each other. We've been fighting each other since 2008 for this division. It's a rivalry game."

The part about not liking each other is about as close as any Saint or Falcon has come to fanning the flames. But that part is pretty well known if you’ve spent any time around either team. It extends even to the fans.

"If you're just kind of walking around town, fans say, 'If you do one thing this year, just beat Atlanta,' " New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees said. "I think that's probably the sentiment of fans that have been longtime Saints fans, I'm sure. Maybe longtime Falcons fans say the same thing to them about beating the Saints, I don't know.’’

It’s pretty safe to say that Atlanta fans -- longtime or not -- do feel the same way about the Saints.

Two incidents from last season demonstrate just how strong this rivalry has become.

One came long before White turned to more tame tweets -- or Smith ordered him to. Before a game with New Orleans last season, White tweeted that the “grace of God’’ was the reason the Saints won their Super Bowl so the "city wouldn’t fall apart."

That caused outrage by New Orleans fans and probably didn’t score much goodwill with the Saints. But this rivalry flows both ways. After New Orleans defeated Atlanta in the Georgia Dome last season, some of the Saints were seen dancing and having their pictures taken on the Falcons’ logo. Former New Orleans defensive tackle Remi Ayodele made a comment that indicated the Saints were intentionally showing the ultimate disrespect to the Falcons.

That caused a stir, but the Saints insisted they had the utmost respect for the Falcons and the pictures were taken to commemorate an important victory.

As word of that scene spread through the Atlanta locker room, defensive end John Abraham, generally one of the more subdued Falcons, grew visibly angry.

“We can never let that happen again,’’ Abraham said.

The Saints and the Falcons weren’t biting this week when the media asked them about that incident. Not even White.

"They came down here and got a W,’’ White said. “They can kind of do whatever they want to do. That's kind of what happens. When we won down there, we kind of went on the field. It happens. We kind of did our thing when we went down there and won the game. They won, so congratulations to them.’’

But don’t let the diplomacy fool you.

"I'm not too familiar with that. I heard about it,’’ said Atlanta linebacker Sean Weatherspoon, who tried to be coy when first asked about the incident.

That didn’t last.

“But at the same time, I don't forget a lot of stuff,’’ Weatherspoon said. “Sometimes you have to have the memory of an elephant."

Although the Saints and Falcons are the oldest of the four NFC South franchises and played together in the NFC West before realignment in 2002, the rivalry hasn’t been this volatile for long. Both teams struggled through much of their early existence. When one team was good, the other wasn’t.

When Carolina entered the league in 1995, the NFL tried to make the Falcons and Panthers a natural rivalry because the cities are less than a four-hour drive apart. But that never really took off because the Panthers and Falcons were seldom good at the same time.

Without any encouragement by the NFL, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Carolina Panthers became the NFC South’s only real rivalry, soon after the division came into existence. In those days, Carolina’s Brentson Buckner and Kris Jenkins and Tampa Bay’s Warren Sapp and Kenyatta Walker, lobbed verbal shots back and forth. Even Carolina punter Todd Sauerbrun and Tampa Bay kicker Martin Gramatica got into the rift and the teams played a series of brutally physical games through the middle of the past decade.

That rivalry has faded. But it’s been replaced by the Falcons and the Saints.

"If you look at the past four years, ever since Mike Smith has been there and Sean has been here, both teams have been up there as far as first or second in the division quite a few times,’’ Brees said. “So I'd say that's part of the reason why it's even more competitive now than maybe it ever has been."

There’s no doubt. When two good teams are going at each other, it makes things more interesting. The Saints are 6-3 and the Falcons are 5-3 and they’ll be playing for first place when they meet Sunday in the Georgia Dome.

Things tend to get heated between the Falcons and Saints these days. But that’s a good thing. It’s the sign of a healthy rivalry. The best rivalry the NFC South has ever had.

Some random thoughts and a couple of notes on a Monday evening.

Watching Roddy White run wild on Twitter makes me wish the technology had been invented back when Todd Sauerbrun was punting for the Carolina Panthers. White’s got a habit of saying way too much. Sauerbrun, who was nicknamed “Stifler’’ after the character in the “American Pie’’ movies by his teammates, had absolutely no filter and would say the first thing that popped into his mind in the exact way he thought it. He would have taken Twitter to a whole different level and the Gramatica brothers should be glad this thing wasn’t around back when Sauerbrun was in the league and relevant.

• Speaking of White and Twitter, I’m going to make a prediction. Most of you know that’s something I generally avoid, but I feel pretty confident in this one. Once the lockout ends, the very first thing Atlanta coach Mike Smith is going to do is call White into his office and somebody will be told to stop tweeting.

• The NFL just sent out its pre-draft release. Nothing newsy in there, just the basic information of when and where the draft will be held and broadcast, the list of compensatory picks and the order for the first round. But the one small item I thought was worth a quick reminder has to do with the time between picks. In the first round, it’s 10 minutes per selection. In the second round, it’s seven minutes. In rounds three through seven, it’s five minutes per pick.

• The deeper I get into draft stuff, the more I wonder why the first name “Cameron’’ was such a big deal roughly 21 years ago. I mean, just look at any list of top prospects and you’re going to see Auburn quarterback Cam Newton, California defensive end Cameron Jordan and Ohio State defensive end Cameron Heyward. Was Kirk Cameron on “Growing Pains,’’ which ended in 1992, really that big a deal?

• For those in Charlotte, I’m scheduled to do a radio interview with 730 AM at approximately 5:15 p.m. Tuesday. Speaking of radio and the Carolinas, I’ll be appearing with our friends on Cat Crave Radio in an edition that’s scheduled to go up Wednesday.

• A reminder that the entire NFL schedule is supposed to be released Tuesday. As soon as we see the complete package, we’ll have analysis on what each of the four NFC South teams will be facing.

NFC South Blog headquarters was going through a rare clean-up session this afternoon when I came across an old copy of The Charlotte Observer sports section.

The date on it is June 3, 2005, and I can’t find a link for it on the Observer’s site. However, I’m going to share some of this story and highlight a few quotes because it’s somewhat relevant as we get ready for Sunday’s game between Tampa Bay and Carolina.

The reason I’m bringing this up is because this rivalry once was as good as it got in the NFC South. Back in the mid 2000s, there were some brutal games between the Buccaneers and Panthers. One of the most brutal games might have been played off the field and that’s the story I’m referring to.

I wrote it, but really it was just a simple case of turning on my recorder and letting Kris Jenkins talk, which from a Panthers’ perspective wasn’t always a good idea, but the big guy sure could fill up a tape recorder.

All I know for sure is that this happened right after a June workout session. I can’t remember what, if anything, prompted Jenkins to go on a tear. But the former Carolina defensive tackle, now on injured reserve with the New York Jets, never needed much in the way of prompting.

On this particular day, Jenkins went after Warren Sapp, who then was with the Oakland Raiders. He previously had been with Tampa Bay and, in fairness to Jenkins, Sapp had taken some shots at the Carolina defensive line a few years earlier.

Anyway, here are some of the quotes that made the hair of Carolina PR director Charlie Dayton turn white even though I think Charlie’s only about 29 now.

“I hate [Sapp],’’ Jenkins said. “Everybody says I’m supposed to be polite when I talk to you all. But I hate him. He talks too much. He doesn’t make any sense. He’s sloppy. He acts like he’s the best thing since sliced bread.

“He’s ugly. He stinks. His mouth stinks. His breath stinks and basically, his soul stinks, too. Too many people like that can’t have personalities like that and survive in life. I don’t know how he does it. I guess because he’s big and he went to [the University of] Miami.’’

By the way, Sapp and Jenkins later made up and each has said he’s cool with the other. But, ah, the good old days when Tampa Bay and Carolina was more than just another game.

Next time I do some cleaning, I’ll see if I can find some of the stuff former Carolina punter Todd Sauerbrun had to say about the Gramatica brothers. Come to think of it, somewhere in that office, I’m pretty sure there is a tape of Sauerbrun, who made Jenkins seem as smooth as a diplomat, with a bunch of Gramatica quotes that never made it to print, because they weren’t fit for print.

It started as a suggestion from loyal reader Mark H. in Greensboro, N.C., and it quickly has grown into what I think could be one of the more interesting projects we’ve ever attempted on the NFC South blog.

Mark’s basic suggestion was to pick the most disliked person for every NFC South team.

We’ve kicked around parameters for this and you have been phenomenal about providing input to make this work. While on the basketball court, which is where I do some of my best thinking, Sunday afternoon, I thought of a whole other layer for this project. I thought of also including a vote to see who is the most beloved figure for each NFC South franchise and we’re going to do that.

I’ve also settled on the parameters and here they are:

• Send votes for the figure you dislike most from your team and the most beloved figure from your team to my mailbag. Some of you have already voted, but that was before we set the rules or added the beloved category. So those votes won’t count. Fire away with your new ones and specify the team and the disliked and beloved figures clearly.
• By “figure,’’ I mean anyone associated with your favorite team. That means players, coaches, general managers and owners. For the beloved category, I’d even nominate Carolina equipment manager Jackie Miles, a legend in his own right, and Jill Hobbs, who started working as a secretary for the Buccaneers back in 1976 when she was something like 4 years old.
• After a lot of debate, we’re going to open the time frame up on this to the entire history of each franchise. There was some debate about limiting it to current figures or starting the clock when the NFC South officially became a division in 2002. But the narrow consensus was to make it for the entire history of each franchise. In other words, figures such as Hugh Culverhouse, Doug Williams, Derrick Brooks, Warren Sapp, Kerry Collins, Sam Mills, George Seifert, Archie Manning, Mike Ditka, Jeff George and Tommy Nobis are as eligible as figures like Drew Brees, the Glazer family, Matt Ryan and Sean Payton are. I’m not implying disliked or beloved for any of those figures. I’m just using their names to illustrate the time frame. Let’s please avoid the votes for guys who only had a cup of coffee in the NFC South – Reggie White, Brett Favre, etc.
• I can’t ask this one strongly enough: Please limit your votes only for your favorite team. If we let Atlanta fans list Brees as a disliked figure or allowed former Carolina punter Todd Sauerbrun to vote for Martin Gramatica, we’d turn this thing into a shouting match and that’s not the goal of this project.
• If you only want to vote for a beloved figure or only want to vote for a disliked figure from your team, that’s fine. Your vote will still count.
• With each of your votes, feel free to include a little of your reasoning. We’ll use some samples when we post the results, so keep them clean and at least try to make the grammar reasonable.
• Carolina fans, I’m going to impose one special rule on you. Do not vote for Rae Carruth. He’s ineligible and any votes for him will not be counted. I understand the venom for Carruth. What he was convicted of was beyond terrible, but it went way beyond the scope of football. So let’s just leave that one alone.
• Other guys who have had off-field troubles for any of the four teams are eligible.
• To ensure the integrity and the accuracy of the voting results, I’ve gone out and hired a prestigious accounting firm to tabulate the votes. Well, wait, I wasn’t able to afford that. But I’ve done something even better. I’ve turned to my alma mater, Saint Leo University, and enlisted the help of Kevin Little, who I’ve been doing some career mentoring with. Kevin is a Sports Business major with a keen interest in the NFL and numbers. Kevin’s agreed to help me tabulate the results.
• I haven’t set an official date for the closing of the polls or when we’ll run separate posts on the winners in both categories for each franchise. We’ll just kind of play that by ear, but I’m hoping to have it ready for sometime right around the start of the regular season.

I just took one more pass through the mailbag before I cleaned it out in preparation for a coming onslaught. Very shortly, I’ll be making an announcement about how we’re going to handle an idea we’ve been kicking around: Selecting the most disliked figure for each NFC South team.

I’ve set the parameters and we’ll be announcing them as well as one other twist to this project in just a bit. Stay tuned for that. But in the meantime I wanted to answer a few more questions from the mailbag.

Al in Washington, D.C., writes: I'm surprised that you have Everette Brown so low. I know his great preseason alone isn't enough to support moving him up, but he's got a year of experience, has put on weight, and as far as I can tell has the attitude you need to be dominant. I was thinking Tyler Brayton's job might be in danger, but now I guess I should ask if you really see Greg Hardy passing Everette on the depth chart?

Pat Yasinskas: Like I said in the original post, the Panthers still think Brown has a world of potential and could be a factor. But his development hasn’t been rapid. Hardy’s emergence has been incredibly rapid.

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Jared in New York writes: I know this may sound a little bit strange, considering his position, but do you think Todd Sauerbrun is a candidate for most (disliked) Panther? As great as he was, he did some pretty bad things for them like refusing to place kick, showing up overweight, getting a DWI, and (being linked to a steroids investigation)?

Pat Yasinskas: That’s going to be up to you as fans, because you’re the ones who are doing the voting. But the list of Sauerbrun’s indiscretions that you ticked off kind of speaks for itself. If I were a fan, I think I’d at least consider giving him a vote. I know some coaches and front-office types at Bank of America Stadium who might give him some votes. Sauerbrun's time in Carolina never was dull.

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Nate in Palmer, Alaska, writes: I've never been a fan of Antonio Bryant. I'm laughing still from the news of him getting cut by the Bengals. That noise you hear is me laughing from 6500 miles away! Of course, Bryant's laugh is probably just a little bit louder seeing he made $8 million and I'm still working my tail off to provide for my wife and kids. You can add Antonio Bryant to the most disliked player of the NFC South's history. I’ve never liked the guy.

Pat Yasinskas: You’ll be able to cast your official ballot shortly. Like I wrote yesterday, there are plenty of people inside One Buccaneer Place that aren’t members of the Bryant fan club.

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Scott in Atlanta writes: Have not heard anything lately about Jonathan Vilma's strained groin. Any news about how serious?

Pat Yasinskas: Your question was very timely. New Orleans general manager Mickey Loomis spoke to the media just a little bit ago and said the injury is not serious. Loomis expects Vilma to be ready for the regular-season opener.

Aside from paddling my kayak around the prettiest lake in Pennsylvania and trying to get myself in shape for training camps, I did a fair amount of reading while I was off.

Among the books I picked up, two had ties to the NFC South. The first was “Hero of the Underground’’ by Jason Peter. You may remember Peter as the defensive end the Carolina Panthers took with their first-round pick in 1998.

Although Peter gets his life together in the end, this is not really a feel-good story and the language and subject matter makes it tough to recommend for younger readers. But it’s a pretty fascinating book and it’s not really about football.

Peter talks significantly about his college playing days at Nebraska, but once he gets to his time with the Panthers, the theme starts to change. In great detail, Peter explained how he got hooked on pain killers while with the Panthers and also experimented with illegal drugs.

Other than a very humane sendoff by coach George Seifert, who never showed much public personality in his time in Carolina, there’s nothing real enlightening about the Panthers. This book is more about Peter’s deep spiral into drug abuse after Seifert told him his injured body couldn’t hold up anymore.

After football, Peter lived in New York and Los Angeles. He writes that he continued to abuse pain killers and got heavily involved with cocaine and heroin. At one point, Peter wrote, he tried to kill himself.

I had seen an item on HBO’s Real Sports where Peter talked about his addictions. I covered his final three seasons in Carolina and don’t claim to know Peter well because he often wasn’t around due to a whole bunch of different injuries. But, when Peter was around, he seemed like a decent guy and there were no indications of major problems other than his injuries.

Peter makes some broad statements about how prevalent pain pills are in NFL locker rooms. I’ve got no reason to doubt him, but that’s a can of worms for another place and time. Bottom line, Peter wasted a few years of his life buried deep in drugs. But, after several unsuccessful attempts at rehab, Peter said he got clean and he’s done some work as a radio host.

The other book with NFC South ties I read was “A Few Seconds of Panic’’ by Stefan Fatsis. I should say I scanned the book and will read it in its entirety at some point. But what I was scanning for were the parts involving Todd Sauerbrun, Carolina’s former punter, who is one of the most entertaining and unique people I’ve ever met. Fatsis is a reporter who got permission to go through the preseason as a kicker with Denver when Sauerbrun was with the Broncos. Kickers and punters have to spend a lot of time together and Fatsis shares some Sauerbrun tales.

Some of Sauerbrun’s antics through the years have been humorous and this book includes a few new anecdotes. But it also shows a serious side of Sauerbrun, as he stands up and addresses the Broncos after being suspended for four games for taking a dietary supplement. In this instance, Sauerbrun, who often has been described as cocky and unfiltered, is humble and says all the right things.

MIAMI -- The NFL has released its All-Decade team and it has four of what I would call true NFC South players on it and a few other guys with some ties to the division.

Former Tampa Bay linebacker Derrick Brooks, current Carolina defensive end Julius Peppers, current Tampa Bay cornerback Ronde Barber and former Tampa Bay defensive tackle Warren Sapp were named to the team. Brooks was automatic. He’s the best player in the history of the NFC South. No argument with Peppers or Barber. Sapp left the Bucs after the 2003 season and spent four more seasons with Oakland.

Sapp should be a Hall of Famer, but I’m not so sure he belongs on this team because of the time frame of his career. Sapp was dominant in the 1990s and very early this decade, but he really didn’t do much in his Oakland years and has been out of the game the past two years.

The one guy I think might have been overlooked in favor of Sapp is former Carolina and current New York Jets defensive tackle Kris Jenkins. For three or four years, he was considered the best tackle in the league, and he’s resurrected his career in New York.

A few other guys from the NFC South that you could make a case for are Carolina receiver Steve Smith, New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees, former Tampa Bay safety John Lynch and former Carolina punter Todd Sauerbrun.

Also elected to the All-Decade team were current Atlanta tight end Tony Gonzalez, but he had spent his entire career with the Chiefs before joining the Falcons in 2009. Offensive tackle Willie Roaf also made the team. Roaf spent the early part of his career with New Orleans, but left for Kansas City early in the decade.

We’ve rolled out the All-NFC South offense and defense for the 2009 season already and we’ll get to the special teams, coaches and front offices very soon. But with the Saints on a bye for the first round of the playoffs and the rest of the NFC South done for the season, it’s time for our annual awards.

Some are pretty conventional and some are not, but put them all together and, hopefully, you’ll have a comprehensive review of the season.

Most Valuable Player: Drew Brees, Saints. Do I really have to explain? Let’s save time and move on.

Most Valuable Player not named Brees and not with the Saints: Jon Beason, Panthers. Consistently excellent. Should have been named to the Pro Bowl. Best player on the division’s best defense.

Rookie of the Year: Thomas Morstead, Saints. Yes, I’m going with a punter and it’s not because the pickings are slim. There were some other decent options. But Morstead was so good punting and on kickoffs that he earned this award.

Best win: The Saints steamrolling the Patriots on Monday night. If the Saints play like that in the postseason, they’ll win the Super Bowl. That said, I’m a little concerned that the Saints might already have played their best game.

Worst loss: Carolina’s 20-9 home loss to Buffalo. The Panthers had a chance to get to 3-3 after an 0-3 start. They had one of the worst teams in the league coming into Bank of America Stadium. They didn’t just lose. They got embarrassed. Think about what might have happened if they just had been able to win that game?

Worst injury: You could see right away that Atlanta rookie defensive tackle Peria Jerry was going to be an impact player. He was making everybody around him look better. Problem is, Jerry went down with a knee injury on Sept. 20 and missed the rest of the season. You instantly could see the rest of Atlanta’s defensive line start to slide.

Best injury: The leg injury that New Orleans linebacker Dan Morgan suffered in minicamp. It wasn’t major, but it was enough to prompt the star-crossed Morgan to retire for the second time. Sure, it’s a shame that he missed out on being part of what became a very fun season in New Orleans and a healthy Morgan truly might have prospered on that defense. But Morgan made the right call in walking away. The guy put his body through too much and had some concussion issues in his Carolina days. He’s got a family and his health is more important than football.

(Read full post)

Posted by ESPN.com’s Pat Yasinskas

It’s time to reveal the selections on special teams for our midseason All-NFC South team.

Punter: Jason Baker, Carolina. A very steady punter, who has made the Panthers forget the rocky days of Todd Sauerbrun.

Kicker: John Carney, Saints. It hasn’t been a very good year for veteran kickers in the NFC South. John Kasay and Jason Elam are well below 80 percent on their field goal attempts. Carney’s only been slightly better at 79 percent, but we have to choose someone to fill this position.

Return man: Clifton Smith, Buccaneers. Start the music. We’ve got a Buccaneer on the All-NFC South team. But this guy deserves it. He’s come back from a brutal hit by Carolina’s Dante Wesley and shown he hasn’t lost a thing.

Long-snapper: Jason Kyle, Saints. He’s switched teams, going from the Panthers to the Saints, but he remains automatic.

Posted by ESPN.com’s Pat Yasinskas

On the eve of the season, it’s time for an installment of team-by-team mailbags. I’ll bang that out as I watch the Penn State/Syracuse game.

We’ll start with the Carolina Panthers.

Zach in Georgia writes: Hey Pat, thanks for the follow up information about Shaun Smith. That is unfortunate news. Do you think the Panthers did enough to fill in at DT? Seems to me that is Nick Hayden is starting we must not have good depth at all. Any chance they go after someone via a trade before the deadline if they get off to a poor start in their first 5 games?

Pat Yasinskas: Yes, the reports are that Shaun Smith is suspended for the first four games, so that limited the pool of defensive tackles for the Panthers. Let’s be real honest, they’ve got Damione Lewis, who isn’t truly an every-down tackle, and second-year pro Nick Hayden as their starters at the moment. They’re backed up by a couple of guys who have joined the team only in the last two weeks. I suspect this is going to be an ongoing issue and I think the Panthers will continue to monitor defensive tackles that get released or might be available for trade.

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Zac in Charlotte writes: Sauerbrun's return a gift to media everywhereThat is one of the best stories I have ever read on the Panthers. Great article. I can actually picture Coach Fox asking you that. I love it!

Pat Yasinskas: Thanks. Todd Sauerbrun truly was one of the most entertaining players I’ve ever covered. Not an unpleasant guy at all, but he clearly made some questionable choices throughout his time in the NFL and that’s why he’s landed in the United Football League. Hopefully, he’s learned from his past and can play his way back into the NFL. The guy’s an enormous talent -- and a fantastic quote.

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Jesse in Charlotte writes: Pat, with the very streaky play coming from all of Carolina's Quarterbacks this preseason do you see any way that the Panthers could bring the newly unemployed Jeff Garcia into the picture?

Pat Yasinskas: Not going to happen. For better or worse, John Fox is very stubborn and very committed to Jake Delhomme and, to a lesser degree, to Matt Moore and Josh McCown. Besides that, Garcia doesn’t fit Carolina’s offensive style. He needs to be in a West Coast system. One other thing on Garcia, I think the guy is a good quarterback and can help some teams. But he’s made it clear that he isn’t content to be a backup and any team that adds him should consider the locker-room implications of such a move. Garcia's been a disruptive force when he's been a backup in the past.

Posted by ESPN.com’s Pat Yasinskas

It is a wonderful day here in the NFC South because Todd Sauerbrun is back in football.

We say that not only because the man who likes to call himself “The Boom’’ just might be the most talented punter to ever walk the face of the earth (with apologies to Ray Guy, who we’ll get to in a second). No, the real beauty here is that Sauerbrun, who squandered perhaps more second chances than any player in NFL history, is back in the public eye.

We say this because it’s a victory for media everywhere, particularly those who will be covering the new United Football League. For all his faults (and there were tons), Sauerbrun might have been the most entertaining player I’ve ever covered and he wasn’t even trying to be that way.

“The Boom’’ had another nickname among his teammates when he was with the Carolina Panthers and it fit perfectly. The Panthers used to call him “Stifler," after the character in the “American Pie’’ movies. Much like the fictional “Stifler," the real-life Sauerbrun had a unique gift. He said exactly what popped into his mind, no matter how politically incorrect or damaging to himself or others. In short, Sauerbrun had absolutely no filter.

That became apparent one day soon after Sauerbrun had filled in for injured kicker John Kasay and made a game-winning field goal. Sauerbrun had a chance to be a hero in Carolina and he booted it as far as possible.

Asked if he’d like to continue kicking field goals if Kasay had to miss a game or two, Sauerbrun began an interview that became a train wreck without an ending. Sauerbrun said he wouldn’t mind kicking as long as the Panthers gave him more money and also stating he would expect the Panthers give him back some of the money they’d been fining him.

The media, which at the time had no idea about the fines, asked what they were for. Sauerbrun quickly explained the Panthers had been fining him for being a pound or two overweight and sharing his theory that it was ridiculous to ask a punter to watch his weight. When asked why he just didn’t hit the treadmill if it was only a pound or two, Sauerbrun kept railing.

“I try, but I like to eat,’’ he said.

From there, he only continued to dig a deeper hole as members of Carolina's public relations staff seemed to age 10 years before our eyes. He shredded the Gramatica family – as he often did -- and the conversation turned to Guy, who many consider the best punter ever.

“Ray Guy [stinks -- and we’re cleaning it up with that word],’’ Sauerbrun said.

He then went on to say Guy spent his career kicking “rugby balls’’ and bashed the NFL for its use of kicking balls. I think it pretty much ended with that, but it didn’t really end.

After the quotes hit the paper the next day, I remember a perplexed-looking John Fox grabbing me as we walked off the practice field one day and asking something like this in a tone of disbelief, “Listen, I'm not questioning your story or anything, but did my guy really say “Ray Guy (stinks)?’’

Yes, he did.

Posted by ESPN.com's Pat Yasinskas

Now on to the specialists and coach for your NFC South all-decade team.

Kicker: John Kasay. There were a lot of votes for Morten Anderson, Matt Bryant and John Carney. But I asked you all to be fair and make sure we got the guy on here that truly deserved to be here. By putting aside your team allegiances and voting for Kasay, you made the right choice. The guy was in the division all decade and made an awful lot of big kicks.

Punter: Todd Sauerbrun. The Odd Couple lives again. For much of the decade Kasay and Sauerburn worked together in Carolina and nobody could figure out how two polar opposites thrived. It didn't matter. They worked great together.

Return man: Reggie Bush. There were some votes for Steve Smith, but he didn't qualify because he hasn't been a true return guy since early in his career. Tampa Bay's Clifton Smith got some votes after a nice rookie season, but let's see him do it again. There also were a few votes for Michael Lewis, but Bush was the easy winner here.

Coach: John Fox. This one was very close. Fox nudged Jon Gruden by six votes. Gruden won a Super Bowl, but Fox got his team to two NFC Championships. Fox also was starting on a lower level, taking over George Seifert's 1-15. Gruden got a Super Bowl team in Tampa that just needed some tweaking.

Posted by ESPN.com's Pat Yasinskas

We're down to the punters in our series of NFC South position rankings. The return men will come Wednesday before we move on to coaches and the front office.

But let's not sell the punters short. This spot might be one of the division's strongest areas. The first three guys in the rankings each drew serious consideration for the top spot. Here they are:

1. Michael Koenen, Atlanta. His coverage unit helped a lot, but opponents had only 49 return yards on Koenen last season. No wonder the Falcons used the franchise tag on their punter.

2. Josh Bidwell, Tampa Bay. Has the strongest leg in the division. Would be in the top spot if Koenen and the Falcons had given up more in returns.

3. Jason Baker, Carolina. The division's most consistent punter. Baker's averaged over 44 yards a punt each of the last three seasons and, mercifully, has helped the world forget Todd Sauerbrun ever was in Carolina.

4. Glenn Pakulak. The guy is only eight games into his NFL career, but he did average 47.7 yards a punt last year. The Saints like his leg strength, but used a fifth-round pick on Thomas Morestead because they aren't sure about Pakulak's consistency.

Posted by ESPN.com's Pat Yasinskas

ESPN analyst Herm Edwards sees three possible landing spots for Michael Vick -- and two of them are in the NFC South.

Vick

Edwards mentions Carolina and New Orleans as possibilities along with Jacksonville. And let's remember, Edwards isn't reporting any of these teams are showing interest in Vick -- he's just offering his opinion on three teams he thinks could make sense. I don't disagree with Edwards on New Orleans (more on that in a moment) and Jacksonville, but I respectfully disagree with him on Carolina.

That's entirely because of Panthers owner Jerry Richardson. I just don't see any way Richardson would take a chance on Vick. Richardson has been burned badly twice in the past by Kerry Collins and Rae Carruth.

Those situations bothered Richardson to his very core and he was totally embarrassed that the off-field problems of Collins and Carruth reflected so poorly on a franchise the owner takes enormous pride in. Since Carruth, Richardson has gone out of his way to avoid any player with a checkered past and he's gotten rid of a bunch of other players (Todd Sauerbrun, Chris Terry and Lamar Smith) as soon as they've run into trouble. This one's not going to happen.

As for New Orleans, like I said, I don't disagree with Edwards. His logic is that coach Sean Payton is an offensive guru. Payton has a great quarterback in Drew Brees. But Payton could figure out all sorts of ways to use Vick in a hybrid role or at quarterback in a Wildcat scheme. I say this one's at least possible.

We all know we can rule out a Vick return to Atlanta and Tampa Bay has just made Josh Freeman the franchise quarterback. Although, if Jon Gruden were still coaching the Bucs, they'd almost certainly be in the conversation about Vick.

Posted by ESPN.com's Pat Yasinskas

I'm not sure if I made the comment in a chat or in a post on this blog. But, somewhere, I recently said I thought the best rivalry in the NFC South was between the Panthers and Buccaneers.

Several readers wrote to disagree and here's a sample:

Ross in NYC writes: Hey Pat, You wrote a little while back that you thought the panthers and bucs had the best rivalry in the division. I respect your opinion but I disagree. I think it is the falcons and the saints. First of all it is the oldest rivalry in the division and has been THE southern rivalry in this league. Also throw in the fact that when they play each other it is usually a very close and exciting game. I also think the fans of these two teams get more riled up when they play each other than any other fans or teams in the division. Just giving my opinion on the matter and I think most falcon and saints fans would agree, love your work.

That made me think we should open this up for discussion. I'll stick with Carolina and Tampa Bay and give you my logic behind it. This rivalry really heated up a few years back when there was a war of words between Warren Sapp and Carolina's defensive line. It spilled over to the punters and kickers with Todd ("The Boom," as he prefers to be called) ripping Martin Gramatica (and his family) at every opportunity. I also remember the most physical game I've ever seen when the Panthers went down to Tampa Bay in 2003 and blocked three kicks.

Yeah, the best days of this rivalry might have been a few years ago and most of the central characters are gone. I still go with it as the best in the NFC South.

But we're all entitled to our opinions. So hash it out in the comments section below or send a note to my mailbag in the right corner of this page.