Nick Barnett tried. He really did.
But after reciting the preferred company line on Brett Favre 's comeback with the Minnesota Vikings -- they look forward to playing against any good quarterback, they always enjoy the Vikings rivalry, blah, blah, blah -- one of the Green Bay Packers' most playful personalities couldn't help himself.
"I think he's a great quarterback, a great guy, a great leader," Barnett said. "Would I like to hit him? Hell, yeah, I'd like to hit him. All these damn practices out here and they didn't let us hit him."
Then the linebacker really hammed it up, looking directly into one of the TV cameras stationed around his locker: "I want to get a nice little shot on you, Brett. I said it. Put it on the bulletin board."
RAIDERS: Tom Cable went on the defensive Tuesday and the NFL said it would investigate reports that the Oakland coach got into a fight that sent one of his assistants to the hospital.
A day after calling it "an internal issue that we are dealing with," Cable denied anything transpired at all with defensive assistant Randy Hanson earlier this month. Cable allegedly punched Hanson in the jaw.
EAGLES: Michael Vick and several other players will not travel with the team for their preseason game at Indianapolis. Vick is allowed to travel but is not eligible to play in Thursday's game.
Other prominent Eagles not making the trip because of injuries include running back Brian Westbrook , offensive linemen Shawn Andrews and Jason Peters , and cornerback Sheldon Brown .
LIONS: Kicker Jason Hanson , a two-time Pro Bowl selection and the team's career leading scorer, underwent what coach Jim Schwartz called a "fairly minor" procedure to treat a nagging knee injury. The coach wouldn't say which knee was affected.
The news was somewhat better for former Georgia Tech star Calvin Johnson , who took the field without a cast covering his right thumb. The team's leading returning receiver ran in some drills, but quarterbacks were instructed not to throw to him.
COURTS: The NFL asked a federal appeals court to let it finally suspend Minnesota Vikings Pat Williams and Kevin Williams for violating the league's policy against performance enhancing drugs last year.
- A former Harrah's employee has filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit that accuses Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger of raping another worker and alleges that managers of the Lake Tahoe hotel-casino covered up the assault.
Stacy Dingman is the former best friend of the woman who claims the two-time Super Bowl winner raped her during a celebrity golf tournament in July 2008. The 31-year-old woman said in her civil suit that when she reported the incident to Harrah's security, she was told she was overreacting and that she should not pursue a complaint.
SURVIVOR DEALS WITH ANGST
TAMPA, Fla. --- The sole survivor of a February boating accident that killed two NFL players and a former college player said he's still haunted daily by "survivor's guilt" and wonders why he was the one who lived.
"I still ask every day, 'Why me?'" Nick Schuyler, 24, said in an interview scheduled to air Tuesday night on HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.
Oakland Raiders linebacker Marquis Cooper, free-agent NFL defensive lineman Corey Smith and former USF player William Bleakley died. Their bodies have never been found.
At 7:45 a.m. March 2, a Coast Guard cutter's crew spotted him. Doctors say he could have lived only five to 10 hours longer.
"You don't realize -- and I'm not the religious type -- how many times you say, 'Please, God,'" he said. "When I saw that boat, I said, 'Thank you God. Thank you God.' "
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