Matty Ice on tap. (Source: New York Times)

We’ll be watching and covering the games all day. If you want to join in the conversation, just use the comments section below.

¶ With Falcons driving, the team announced that Roddy White just became the 12th wide receiver in NFL history to register 80 catches & 1,000 yds receiving in four consecutive seasons.

¶ Falcons’ first drive ends with a field goal. Aaron Rodgers and the Packers waiting in the wings.

¶ Carolina marches right down the field and scores on the Browns in Cleveland. Mike Goodson with a 26-yard scamper for the score. The Browns drive right down the field, with Jake Delhomme going 5 for 7 for 63 yards. Peyton Hillis scores on a 9-yard touchdown run.

¶ The Jags have taken an early 7-3 lead on the Giants — New York, without Hakeem Nicks to bolster a thin wideout lineup, cannot fall behind by much in this game.

MORE AFTER THE JUMP

¶ People were calling the Bills a trap game for the Steelers — not yet, they’re off and running with a 10-0 lead.

¶ Hillis scores again for the Brownies — 14-7 over the Panthers. Hillis has 6 carries for 40 yards and two scores in one quarter of play. Delhomme over 100 yards as the 1st quarter ends. Hillis becomes the first Browns back with 10 rushing touchdowns in a season since Kevin Mack in 1986 (Hillis has 11 with his second score).

¶ The Falcons are making their case as the NFC’s team to beat with a good game so far against the Packers. Matt Ryan throws a touchdown to Tony Gonzalez.

¶ Hillis has just scored his third touchdown of the game midway through the second quarter.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

THREE GAMES ON TAP TODAY: New England at Detroit – 12:30 p.m.; New Orleans at Dallas – 4:15 p.m.; Cincinnati at New York Jets – 8:20 p.m. (all times EST).

News and notes:

¶ New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, listed as questionable for Thursday’s early Thanksgiving game against the Detroit Lions with a foot injury, will start, according to Ian R. Rapoport of the Boston Herald.

¶ The Herald reports that running back Fred Taylor will also play for the Patriots.

PATS-LIONS:

¶ Lions 7, Pats 3: Detroit down inside the Pats’ 1-yard line. Shaun Hill sneaks for the first down — first and goal. As the Jets’ Damien Woody tweets, “NE is seeing what we saw in Detroit 3 weeks ago….not the same ‘ol Lions!”

¶ Next play: Maurice Morris rolls in for the touchdown.

¶ Brady pacing the sideline.

¶ Thanks to Rhino’s Sports Pub for reminding us about one the greatest Thanksgiving Day games of all time: the Miami Dolphins versus the Dallas Cowboys in a blizzard, circa 1993. The Cowboys went on to win the Super Bowl, but this was one of their most bizarre moments of the season — and a play Leon Lett will never forget. VIDEO ABOVE.

Game coverage and commentary continues in the comments section…

The Manning Bowl resumes tonight in Indianapolis (minus Cooper)

It’s been a great Sunday of football so far, but the most hyped match-up the NFL this weekend is tonight’s Manning Bowl II (aka the Colts vs Giants), in which the brothers Manning will square off for the second time as pros.  The first time – in 2006 – Peyton got the better of Eli and the Giants with a 26-21 win.  This time around, Eli has a lot more experience to go with the best receiving corps he’s ever had.

Aside from the QBs, the Colts are trying to bounce back from a beating at the hands of the Houston Texans in Week 1, but will do so without their best defensive player, Bob Sanders, who may be lost for the season. The Giants will look to create pressure and turnovers on defense, with a unit that looks re-energized under new DC Perry Fewell.  If they can’t get to Peyton and force him to hurry, this could be a high-scoring affair.

Believe it or not, there are 20 other players involved in tonight's game. We couldn't find any pictures of those guys.

We’re going to be following tonight’s Colts/Giants game using our new CoverItLive chat interface feature (below) … if you’re watching the game and are bored, join us in making fun of the Manning brothers, cringing at Cris Collinsworth, and calling for the heads of the horrible NFL refs. No big whoop.

JOIN IN THE CHAT AFTER THE JUMP


To Launch chat in a new window, Click Here

+10 points for anyone who got the Billy Joel reference in the post title

Along with the start of the NFL season, comes the beginning of Fantasy Football, giving millions of armchair GM’s an opportunity to put their money where their mouth is and show off their football knowledge against their peers.

Admittedly, I’m a bit of a fantasy football geek.  I’m currently in 2 leagues, which is down from the 3 I used to play in.  With three leagues, it was just way too confusing knowing who to root for/against in any given game, and often times, you were rooting for/against the same guy!  So I knocked it down to a much more manageable 2 fantasy teams, much to the delight of my fiancee, I’m sure.

At this point, if you haven’t done your homework and ranked your players, you’re kind of screwed.  I mean, I’m sure plenty of guys fly by the seat of their pants, and they probably end up doing fine (which effing kills me) … but in general, you’re better off having a strategy going in.  I’m the kind of guy who likes to hit a home run with every pick, though this has never happened.  But after enough years doing this, I hope I’ve at least learned the kind of players to avoid, and which guys present the best value at each draft pick.  That’s the key word – value.  My strategy is to take the best player available – not entirely regardless of position – and stack your roster with people who will actually score points. You can always make trades later in the season.  I’m done with rolling the dice on rookies until they show that their talents translate to the NFL. Skip the boom or bust guys … give me the guys I can count on for 10 points every week.  Inevitably, quite a few of the players you draft won’t be on your roster come mid-season. But the draft is where you build your foundation, and determines how much you’ll have to scramble in free agency week in and out.

Reality check: Lest we forget, at the end of the day this is all really just for fun, so I try not to take it too seriously.  First and foremost, I’m a football fan, and my real-world allegiances (and overall perspective) take precedence over my fantasy world.  But you can’t help feel attached to anything you invest this much energy into, and you best believe my roster will be filled with players I like, and can cheer for on Sundays.

DRAFT NIGHT #1
12-team, standard scoring (non PPR)
Pick #4, Live Online draft

This is my work league, and I’m the commissioner, which makes me the uber-geek in the office.  But I’ve never actually won the championship, so it sort of makes all my supposed football knowledge worth bupkus.

For this league, most of the owners work together in the same office, which adds an extra element of pride/trash talk to the proceedings.  But we’ve got several out-of-town owners, hence the online draft so everyone can participate live.  Not as much fun as an in-person draft, but we’ve got the chat room to talk smack about each other’s picks.

Ray Rice is a hot fantasy prospect this season

With the #4 pick in this draft, I have a pretty good idea who I’m going to pick.  Barring any surprises in the top 3, it’ll most likely be Ray Rice, RB Baltimore.  After that, I’ll have about a half hour before my next pick, which be largely determined by who’s available.  I won’t bore you with the play-by-play, but I’ll try and keep track of any notable highlights along the way in the comments, and I’ll post my roster after it’s all said and done.  Because you know you care.

Eli Manning is a bloody mess. Not what Giants fans wanted to see tonight (Photo: Tim Farrell, US Presswire via ESPN.com)

UPDATE: Eli Manning left the game in the 2nd quarter with a 3-inch laceration on his forehead, requiring 12 stitches.

Watch Eli get bloodied on NFL.com

With the Giants driving and inside the 15, Manning dropped back to pass and ran into Brandon Jacobs, knocking the ball out of his hands.  When Manning grabbed for the ball, LB Calvin Pace drilled him from behind, knocking Eli’s helmet flying through the air.  As he went down, sans helmet, Manning fell forward into S Jim Leonard, cutting his head on Leonard’s facemask.  Eli walked to the sidelines and was replaced by backup QB Jim Sorgi.

From TheBlueScreen:

The Giants have sent Eli Manning home after he got 12 stitches in his forehead. The team says X-Rays were negative and there were no signs of a concussion.

“I feel fine,” Manning said. “I feel normal. … I’ll be back as soon as I can. It’s really not an injur. Nothing serious. I really feel like I could go back out and play right now if I had to.

________________________________

UPDATE #2: It’s the Victor Cruz show for the Giants in the 2nd half!  Cruz, a rookie WR from Massachussets, has 6 catches for 145 yards and 3 TDs in the 2nd half. The highlight of the night was undoubtedly this one-handed circus catch Cruz takes 64 yards for the score:

________________________________

The NFL is officially back after the first full week of pre-season games, culminating in tonight’s Monday Night Football match-up between the Giants and Jets. And we. are. fired. UP!!!

The New York Jets are the current darlings of the media after their AFC Championship appearance last season, and adding players like LaDanian Tomlinson, Antonio Cromartie and Santonio Holmes.  Meanwhile, the Giants – who have long held claim to the football throne in New York – have added lots of talent on the defensive side of the ball, and will look to rebound from a horrible finish to the 2009 campaign.  Both teams will be looking to plant their flag in the New Meadowlands Stadium with a win tonight.

We’ll be following all the action and posting our running thoughts in the comments section … join us, won’t you?

How long will Colt McCoy last?

We’re sticking with the NFL Draft on Friday night, all the way through round 3, baby!  Still plenty of talent available at this point in the draft – most notably players like QB Colt McCoy, OT Bruce Campbell and LB Navorro Bowman.

For all the hype surrounding round 1 of the draft, rounds 2-4 are where a team’s draft are really made or broken.  So it’s worth paying attention to the guys who are being selected tonight.

Follow the action in the comments section, where you’ll find highlights of as many draft selections as we can find!

The hour is now. The future of the league is being shaped this evening as the 2010 NFL Draft gets underway in New York, New York. (Source: AP)

If you’re an NFL fan… today is Christmas Day.

Beginning with the Rams first-round selection at 7:32 p.m. EST, we’ll be following the entire first round, pick by pick.

READ AND REACT IS IN THE HOUSE. ArtieFufkin will track ESPN’s coverage of the event. TheDarkHorse will follow the draft on the NFL Network. (We may even see cameos from steverodgers and C-O-U-R-T-N-E-Y!)

We’ll be trash talking, assessing the action, and also taking a look at tomorrow’s 2nd and 3rd rounds–where, in a deep draft like this one, there will be tremendous competition between the teams to get “their guys.”

There’s a sense around the league that this could be a wild night–we’ll be commenting on the action as it happens, and look forward to chatting with you. Click the comments section to join in the action.

(Photos via ESPN.com)

Well, the big day is here.  Championship Sunday.  Colts vs Jets and Saints vs Vikings for the right to play in Super Bowl XLIV. By now we all know the set-up. It’s time to shut up and play.

We’ll be following the game action all day long, and providing our ongoing thoughts in the comments section.  Please join us, won’t you?

CONTINUE AFTER THE JUMP TO FOLLOW ALONG IN THE COMMENTS

(AP Photo/Nick Wass)

I am late to the NFL party today, having missed most of today’s games (except for some highlights) because of holiday stuff.  I am going to blog tonight’s Cowboys-Redskins game (just underway) . . . .

mmmmm .... Turducken. (Photo: Jeff Kowalsky/Getty Images)

Thanksgiving annually means 3 things: 1) awkward family gatherings 2) overeating/drinking and 3) football. Guess what we’ll be doing today?

As has become tradition, the Cowboys and Lions will be hosting turkey day games … off against the Packers and Raiders respectively (hint: neither of these games will be interesting to watch).  But John Madden is no longer a part of the festivities, and in looking at the banner pic above, we can’t help but miss the ol’ son of a gun around this time of year.

This year we also get an extra night game courtesy of the NFL Network, and I – ArtieFufkin – will be attending the Giants/Broncos game this evening in Denver, and will try to report back with images and tales of whimsy from the game.

In the mean time, here is Adam Sandler’s classic “Thanksgiving Song” to get you in the holiday spirit. All of us here at ReadAndReact hope your Thanksgiving is filled with joy and cheer!

And if you can sneak away from the family for a moment, feel free to post your gameday thoughts and follow today’s NFL action in the comments section.