Three injuries combined to limit Harrison to just 13 games over the past two years, and Harrison knew that the train moves on without you in the NFL if you can't get back to your usual standard of play in a timely manner. If Harrison, an Ed Block winner, is willing to roll the dice on the virtually undetectable HGH, then you can be certain that other players within the NFL have chosen the same route.

My guess is that the NFL's level of urgency in finding its way through the complicated blood testing for HGH issue just got elevated a notch or two in the eyes of commissioner Roger Goodell.

• Jarvis Green is no slouch, and the Patriots defensive line without Seymour in the lineup for six games isn't dead in the water. But know this: Seymour is the one player on New England's defense that opposing offenses must scheme for, and his absence makes a difference in where an opponent decides to attack the Patriots. The result is that New England has more of the field to defend.

The Pats will miss Seymour far more up front for six weeks than they will Harrison in the back for four. New England proved last year it can play and win with backup safety James Sanders taking over for Harrison, and I think it will do so again.

The unspoken fear in New England, of course, is six weeks still won't be enough for Seymour's knee to recover from offseason surgery. Stay turned to that sub-plot, even if the Patriots guard injury updates like Cold War secrets.

• Can someone -- anyone -- explain to me how Wade Wilson is guilty of seeking a competitive advantage through his use of HGH? In coaching? Huh? How? Still trying to comprehend how coaching Cowboys quarterbacks makes him a competitor in this case.

• Don't expect his Giants teammates to greet Michael Strahan like a returning hero. I'm sure most of them will say the right things for public consumption, but the truth is the veteran defensive end doesn't have a great base of support in his own locker room. And I can't see where him blowing off the entire preseason in a contract holdout does anything but make him more of an island to the teammates with which he shares that room.

Strahan is considered a me-guy within New York's organization, with an agenda that is always topped by whatever is best for Strahan. I didn't take the retirement talk seriously all along, because his holdout was all about trying to extract more money from the Giants, pure and simple. His gambit didn't work, and he was left with no choice but to report in time for the regular season because there's nowhere else he could make a $4 million salary in the coming 17 weeks.

• I realize the Patriots have Vinny Testaverde's cell phone on speed dial, and he'll probably be back in Foxboro again at some point later in the season if they need him. But is this any way for a 43-year-old man to spend his mid-life autumns, yo-yoing back and forth between Long Island and New England?

Or did this all come down to the fact Vinny wasn't willing to run down and break his neck covering kickoffs, like new Patriots third-team quarterback Matt Gutierrez?

• More and more we're learning you can't trust anything anyone says in the NFL any more. At the NFL Scouting Combine in February, I sat and listened as Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio named Byron Leftwich his starting quarterback in 2007, removing any issue of a QB competition with David Garrard as Leftwich entered the final season of his contract.

Late Friday afternoon, I sat and listened as Del Rio explained why Garrard was his guy for the job, and Leftwich's time with the organization had necessarily come to an end.

I couldn't help but wonder when Del Rio wasn't shooting entirely straight with us, then or now?

• Turns out the Simeon Rice to Denver deal almost didn't happen because the Broncos background check of Rice turned up that the veteran defensive end once briefly flew through Cleveland.

• I still can't get over how far Ron Rivera has fallen off the radar screen after coming fairly close to landing an NFL head coaching job early this year. The former Bears defensive coordinator drew head coaching interest from Arizona, Pittsburgh, Dallas and San Diego, but wound up landing a job as the Chargers' inside linebackers coach on Norv Turner's staff.

Not defensive coordinator. Not linebackers coach. Inside linebackers coach. How did that happen? By the way, the Bears and Chargers meet this Sunday in San Diego.

• Maybe the Bucs pulled a coup signing Jeremiah Trotter, the former Eagles middle linebacker. All I know is Philly is one of those teams that consistently seems to release a guy at the right time. Trotter's had success in the Eagles defense on two different occasions, but I can't help but remember his stint in Washington (where he signed as a free agent) was mostly desultory.

• My new favorite NFL punter is Sav Rocca, the 34-year-old former Australian football player who the Eagles kept over veteran Dirk Johnson. I watched Rocca punt at Eagles camp in early August, and he consistently launched 60-yarders that seemed to whistle through the air as they descended (one of which came a bit close to nailing me as I waited to chat with Eagles general manager Joe Banner).

If Rocca can handle the job in his rookie NFL season, I predict he's going to emerge as a cult figure for those rabid Philly fans who make a game at the Linc as unique an experience as there is in the league.

• If there's a train wreck waiting to happen early in the NFL this season, it looks to me like it'll occur on offense in Kansas City. The Chiefs scored just two offensive touchdowns this preseason, and while they made the right decision to start the season with veteran quarterback Damon Huard under center rather than Brodie Croyle, points could be at a premium in September until running back Larry Johnson rounds into shape and the re-tooled offensive line finds some kind of form.