Colts

For the second straight Tuesday, the Eagles addressed their subpar special teams by releasing a player whose roster spot appeared safe not all that long ago. Last week, it was punter Chas Henry. This week, the Eagles waived linebacker Brian Rolle, who was the starting weakside linebacker just a little more than a month ago. Rolle's role had shifted to special teams after he was demoted. After the Eagles kick-return cover team was gashed by the New York Giants on Sunday, somebody presumably had to pay. "It is what it is," Rolle said during a phone interview.

INDIANAPOLIS - In a somber news conference Monday, the Indianapolis Colts announced that head coach Chuck Pagano had been hospitalized for leukemia treatment and probably would not return to full coaching duties this season. He will be replaced on an interim basis by former Temple coach Bruce Arians, the offensive coordinator. "He will do fine," Arians said of Pagano, his voice cracking as he recalled his own fight with prostate cancer in 2007. "I know him. He's a fighter. He's survived tough times already in his life.

INDIANAPOLIS - It took Chuck Pagano less than 9 months to instill his fighter's mentality and hopeful spirit in the Indianapolis Colts. He will need both to survive the biggest battle of his life - leukemia. In a somber news conference Monday - one day before Pagano's 52nd birthday - the Colts announced that their new coach had been hospitalized for cancer treatment and probably would not return to full coaching duties this season. He will be replaced on an interim basis by offensive coordinator Bruce Arians, who coached at Temple from 1983-88.

Wondering whether or not to start Aaron Rodgers and Rob Gronkowski, or to bench Ryan Tannehill and Kenny Britt? The network bozos specialize in that kind of advice. If you're looking for help with your real starting lineup conundrums, read on. Here are my picks to roll, and get rolled, in Week 1 of the 2012 season.   Watch 'em roll Matt Ryan, QB, Falcons at Chiefs. He and his elite receivers were locked-in all preseason. Kansas City may be playing without its best corner, Brandon Flowers (foot)

I HAD ALWAYS wanted to go where no man had gone before, yet I also had a debilitating fear of heights. So earlier this summer, I decided that I would watch every first-team snap of every preseason football game. As I wait for Mayor Nutter to schedule the parade, here is what I learned: 1 Take the Colts over the conventional wisdom. Since 2002, 23 teams started a rookie quarterback in the majority of their games. Seven of those teams finished with a winning record. Six of those teams finished the previous season with a losing record.

BETHLEHEM - The Eagles didn't really need another corner, Howie Roseman acknowledged Thursday when asked how he came to trade for Kevin Thomas from Indianapolis. But Roseman liked Thomas coming out of USC in 2010, before the Colts drafted him in the third round, and corner is one of those positions where you always look for more real players. And maybe most important, former Eagles personnel chief Ryan Grigson is the GM in Indianapolis now, and Grigson needed linebackers. Roseman had a couple of those, former seventh-round draft picks Moise Fokou (2009)

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - The Eagles traded linebackers Moise Fokou and Greg Lloyd to the Colts for cornerback Kevin Thomas and a 2013 conditional seventh-round draft pick. Thomas was drafted in the third round in 2010 by Indianapolis. He missed all of 2010 with a knee injury. He started five of nine games he played for the Colts last season, recording 33 tackles and defending three passes. There were reports out of Indianapolis during the spring that the 6-foot, 192-pound Thomas could challenge for a starting spot in 2012.

The Indianapolis Colts on Thursday signed Stanford quarterback and No. 1 overall pick in the draft Andrew Luck to a four-year, $22.1 million deal. "12 is officially signed!!!!!!" Colts owner Jim Irsay tweeted, adding a photo of Luck signing his contract for good measure. Luck's agent and uncle, Will Wilson , confirmed the deal had been completed. The deal is similar to the one signed by Cam Newton a year ago and the one signed this week by Robert Griffin III . Newton, last year's top pick, has a four-year, $22 million deal with Carolina and Griffin, who went No. 2 behind Luck in April's draft, signed a four-year contract with the Washington Redskins worth $21.1 million guaranteed, with a club option for a fifth year.

After a 51/2-week absence from Indianapolis' offseason workouts, the NFL's No. 1 overall draft pick showed up in a red No. 12 jersey on Tuesday and started showing everyone what he'd learned in his final classes at Stanford. "I'm just trying to soak everything in, and I'm starting to have a good understanding of what's going on here," Andrew Luck said after a one-hour workout. League rules prohibit rookies from attending team mini-camps until they finish classes, with the exception of one three-day rookie camp, which ended May 6. So dozens of reporters, photographers, and television cameras monitored each pass Luck threw.