"It's still the same," Leinart said Monday of his status.

"Nothing has changed," coach Ken Whisenhunt echoed.

"I've talked to a lot of people who have played with this injury," said Johnson, who wears a protective harness on the shoulder. "They didn't get surgery, and they played and had a successful season. So I'll be fine."

Johnson said he lobbied coach Marvin Lewis to let him play against the Colts, but was turned down.

"I asked Marvin to play Thursday, not to prove a point but to show that I'm ready to go," Johnson said. "And he told me no, there's no need. I already got hurt in one preseason game, there's no reason for another. I will be ready for the opener."

"If I don't play [Thursday, when the Patriots play the Giants in their preseason finale] then I'll be ready for Kansas City," Brady said on an appearance on WEEI Radio's Dennis & Callahan Show.

"I had a herniated disc before I got here," Williams said after watching practice Sunday afternoon at Halas Hall. "We knew that. Everyone knew that. It just was a thing where most people it doesn't affect. It wasn't affecting me so if nothing is broke, you don't fix it. Then something happened in practice that second day, the disc started moving and that caused some problems."

"Nobody was trying to pull the wool over anybody's eyes," Angelo said testily. "Nobody is covering their ass."

"Nobody is twisting the truth or embellishing it," Angelo said. "I could give a [bleep]. I could give a [bleep]. If we screwed up, I would tell you, 'We screwed up.' Hey, if we said this was 50-50 and we just rolled the dice, I would tell you that."

"We're just giving you the minutiae now of everything, which we normally don't do. We don't get into that, the nitty-gritty of everything we do, for reasons like this. We don't want to get into these witch hunts. OK? But let's clear the air."

However, an MRI Sunday found a torn lateral meniscus, Dr. Russell Warren told the team. The two-time Pro Bowl choice will have surgery Tuesday and be sidelined for the season.

This is not the first time Umenyiora has required surgery to repair cartilage damage in his left knee. He underwent arthroscopic surgery for the same problem at Troy State.

There is only one call to make: Bring back Michael Strahan.

The Giants need to reach out to Strahan, one of their all-time greats, and sweet-talk him back from retirement. GM Jerry Reese surely has his number as one of his Fave Fives.

Someone asked me the other day what I thought about the idea of making Olympic gold-medal sprinter Usain Bolt a football player. Let's put it this way: If Hall of Fame general manager Tex Schramm and I were still running the Cowboys, we'd be in Jamaica right now waiting for Bolt's plane to land.

That's not to say anyone can predict what the fastest human being alive might do on a football field. But in a sport that places such a premium on raw speed, why not take a chance on a guy who just shattered world records?

There's no way of knowing for sure. He's got a tremendous body. The thing that would concern me is that he's such a long strider. Those long legs help him run fast, but they wouldn't do a lot of good making cuts.

That said, he could probably fly past most any cornerback. If he had any hands at all, he'd be scary. Certainly worth giving him a look if you're a team in need at receiver.

You never know when you might strike gold.

The full extent of the injury will not be clear until the surgery is performed, so no timetable was given for a possible return, but expect it to be a while, given the history of the injury. A reasonable timeframe probably would be six to eight weeks from the surgery, which Curtis told the Daily News will take place Thursday morning. The regular season starts Sept. 7. There is little chance the Eagles' leading 2007 receiver (77 catches, 1,110 yards) will be full-strength before October, at best.

Curtis becomes the third Eagles player to suffer a sports hernia in the last few years. Donovan McNabb had surgery during the 2005 season after trying to play through the injury. L.J. Smith had offseason surgery in the spring of 2007 but the injury lingered, especially after he suffered another injury to the area during training camp. Smith cautioned yesterday that Curtis should not try to come back too soon. Previously, cornerback Sheldon Brown played the 2003 season with the injury, something Brown said yesterday he would not do again.

“There is no question in my mind that Willis McGahee can be a three-down back,” offensive coordinator Cam Cameron said. “I think this is the right time in his career to do it. With his ability, there is no reason why he shouldn’t excel on three downs.”

The only bright spot for the Ravens’ offense was Rice, who ran for 77 yards and a touchdown.

The Vikings led the league last season by allowing 74.1 rushing yards a game. By halftime, Rice had darted for 71 yards.

Harbaugh downplayed any potential battle for the starting running back job.

“[When] Willis is healthy and he’s ready to go, he’s our starter,” Harbaugh said. “But [Rice] played like a starter.”

Owner Zygi Wilf is a frequent visitor to practice, and this is what I like about him: Not only is he approachable, he does not draw attention to himself while standing on the sideline. Here's something else I like about him: When a trainer challenged him to field punts one afternoon at practice, insisting he couldn't catch one, Wilf took him up on it -- walking on the field in front of an audience of Vikings fans. He caught three of six. I knew there was a reason I liked this guy.

Brandon Marshall formally appealed his three-game suspension Thursday to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, according to a league source. Goodell had found the Broncos' receiver in violation of the league's personal conduct policy. An appeal hearing has not been set, although it's expected before the season-opening week.

Appeal aside, Goodell said he would consider reducing the suspension to two games if Marshall met certain conditions.

The New Orleans Saints, the Broncos' Game 3 opponent, might be interested to learn the most significant condition is for Marshall to stay free from trouble and disturbances through Sept. 15, which is when he can be reinstated.

Since being traded to the Cowboys, Jones has tried to surround himself with a better support group. He's befriended former Cowboys Michael Irvin and Deion Sanders. Jones also has become friends with several of his new teammates, including Tank Johnson, whom the Cowboys helped return from a similar suspension last season.

"The important thing is getting him here and getting him acclimated," Johnson said. "I have told him you are a good kid, we know you and we're looking forward to having you on the team and we're excited about you proving everybody wrong."

Jerry Jones wouldn't speculate on when he expected to hear from Goodell, acknowledging that the decision "probably will be very late in the preseason." Jones did say, however, that he anticipated to at least "get a feel" of what to expect before the Cowboys have to cut their roster to 53 players on Aug. 30.

"I'm just guessing that," Jones said.

The Favre-Faneca relationship is definitely something to watch. Faneca probably thought he’d walk in as the leader of the offensive line, if not the entire offense. Now, it’s Favre’s show. If Faneca doesn’t like Favre and/or resents all the attention Favre is getting, things could get even more interesting in New York.

"I just need some time," Coles told a member of the Jets' public-relations staff.

Coles was said to be very upset Wednesday night, when the team learned that Pennington would be released to make room for Brett Favre.

Toward the end of practice, Coles stood alone on the sideline, away from his teammates - unusual for him. Clearly, something is bugging him.