The NFL is a big business, and the New England Patriots remind everyone of this perhaps more than any other team in the league. This May, the team released defensive tackle Kyle Love – and in terms of timing, it’s perhaps worse than the time they released wide receiver Tiquan Underwood the day before Super Bowl XLVI. That’s because this time, the decision to release Love came on the heels of the player having been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. Charles Blouin-Gascon explains.

The news came out late last week that an elite athlete can’t participate in his sport for a year. That’s hardly uncommon: heck, it even happened more than once last week alone, but things tend to get weirder and more unusual when you’re talking about college sports, though, and that’s what makes the case of Everett Golson stand out. It all begs the question of what role academics ought to play in the NCAA.

Brett Favre was a lot of things to a lot of people, but especially to the rabid Wisconsin faithful. Josh Koebert, one of the many inspired football afficianados who can attribute their passion for the game to the franchise-changing quarterback, weighs in on the man’s exodus, eventual retirement and potential return to the place he became a legend.

Titus Young was arrested for a third time in a span of a week recently, a concerning feat that’s had the sports blogosphere quipping ever since. As Andrew Bucholtz explains, however, given the possibility of mental illness – or even traumatic brain injury as Young’s father claims – the case in general is one that the football community is going to have to find a better way of dealing with.

This year’s NFL draft starts on Thursday, and it may begin with a selection that’s more remarkable than it seems. The prevailing consensus amongst draft experts is that the Kansas City Chiefs will take an offensive tackle first overall, either Texas A & M’s Luke Joeckel or Central Michigan’s Eric Fisher. At first, that might appear to be a dull story: many see going for an offensive lineman with the top pick as both a safe move and a reflection of the lack of elite quarterback prospects in this draft. However, taking an offensive lineman first overall is highly unusual in the NFL’s recent history, and that represents an important story in its own right.