NFL Fanhouse Exclusive

One picture of a football player hangs in Jeff Fisher's office. It is of his former teammate, Walter Payton.

Ten years after Payton's death, he still serves as an inspiration to Fisher. That was true last season at this juncture when Fisher's Tennessee Titans were 6-0. It remains true this season with Fisher's team 0-6.

"It is the only picture in here, other than of the stadium and some family pictures," Fisher said in a recent interview from his office at the Titans' facility in Nashville. "I had so much respect for him as everyone did. Players come in and it's good for them to see his picture in my office. Especially young players. When they first come in here to talk, it's one of the first things they see."

Some things make no sense.

Just take the way Walter Payton played, for instance. Season after season, game after game, down after down, he destroyed folks. He did so as a running back for the Chicago Bears, and he spent 13 years as one of the most explosive hitters ever at any position, despite wrapping just 200 pounds around his frame of 5-foot-10. After he would belt a heftier defender toward the parking lot with his famously potent stiff arm, he would return to his preferred status of mellow.

LONDON -- A bunch of Patriots went to dinner Friday night and were mistaken for a boy band. Had they been anywhere else, that embarrassing mix up might have caused an international incident. But since England gave us the ultimate boy band, the Beatles, the Patriots graciously ate their meal.

Then they routinely devoured Tampa Bay on Sunday.

Now they head back to the States after proving what we already knew: as Tom Brady rolls, so rolls the rest of New England's band. And, ready or not, America, Brady is back in rhythm.

"I'm feeling great," he said after New England's win. "I keep rolling."

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LONDON -- Mike Alstott's 1-yard touchdown run sparked Tampa Bay to an 84-0 win over New England Saturday.

No joke. Alstott really did score one of the red team's 14 touchdowns. The guys wearing blue jerseys had zero.

"Nil!" Paul Stewart said.

He broke out a bottle of champagne and passed it around. If ever a team deserved to savor a little success, it's the Bucs' UK fan club -- it beat the Patriots' fan club on Saturday in a flag football game. The other Bucs team was presumably watching film or sacrificing goats or whatever you do when you face that other New England team.

That'll happen Sunday at Wembley. Saturday at Richmond Park in Southwest London was the preamble. The oldest NFL fan club in Britain (the Bucs) met the fan club of England's most popular team (the Patriots).

SAN DIEGO -- Outside linebacker Elvis Dumervil set aside any doubts that the 2009 Broncos' astonishing turnaround isn't legitimate on Monday night when he leveled Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers a second time in the contest, helping punctuate a 34-23 division victory that gave undefeated Denver a stranglehold on the AFC West.

With that, Dumervil had his NFL-leading 10th sack, putting him on pace to surpass Michael Strahan's single-season record of 22 1/2.

"It's hard to get to 10 [sacks]," said Dumervil, who was surrounded in the crowded visitors' locker room at Qualcomm Stadium by teammates hooting and calling him the next Strahan. "Every sack guy knows it's hard to get to double digits.

"But this ... it's a new team, a new regime, and everything is new. We're just trying to innovate. We're trying to build a brand of football here, what we want to be as the Denver Broncos."

Sources have confirmed that the Washington Redskins recently tried to hire Mike Shanahan to replace Jim Zorn and Shanahan declined. The sources would not rule out the possibility that Shanahan would reconsider in the offseason.

"Shanahan told the franchise there was little he could do in the middle of the season for them and that changing coaches during the season in the NFL rarely works,'' a Redskins management source told FanHouse. "Several people that Dan Snyder trusts have suggested, if he makes a move, he should turn it over to secondary coach Jerry Gray. That could still happen.

"We are trying to give Jim every chance to turn it around. The move to [bring in offensive consultant Sherm] Lewis is to take more off Jim's plate, especially the play-calling, because it is not working, and that is where Jim is spending much of his time. Now he can coach the entire team. Let's see where that gets us.''

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On the day of the release of his new DVD, "All Day with Adrian Peterson," FanHouse caught up with with the superstar running back for a few minutes of time during his busy schedule. The movie is available at Best Buy in conjunction with NFL Films and Warner Home Video. You can also purchase it online at Amazon.com.

Matt Snyder: So, what should the masses know about this video?

Adrian Peterson: It's a great behind-the-scenes look of things from practice and some good highlights. It also shows some footage of growing up and during the NFL draft. There are conversations and things you can't see anywhere else. I definitely recommend everyone get a copy. You need to get yourself a copy, man!

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Atlanta Falcons weren't even finished piling up takeaways, yards and points in Sunday's 45-10 rout of the 49ers at Candlestick Park when San Francisco coach Mike Singletary lost his sideline poise.

Rather than take out his frustrations on one of his underachieving players, Singletary instead engaged in a third-quarter shouting match with Falcons right guard Harvey Dahl.

During an early third-quarter drive that was dominated by running back Michael Turner (22 total carries for 97 yards) chewing up the 49ers' 3-4 defensive front, Singletary and Dahl argued back and forth, with both of them very animated and obviously irate. Neither was penalized for the jawing match.

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Embattled Oakland coach Tom Cable will not have to face NFL commissioner Roger Goodell this weekend while the 1-3 Raiders are preparing for Sunday's game against the undefeated New York Giants at Giants Stadium, an NFL league office source said.

The NFL office has been monitoring developments with the Napa Police Dept. and the Napa District Attorney's Office as the criminal investigation continues into whether Cable attacked and fractured the jaw of assistant coach Randy Hanson during a coaches-only training camp meeting Aug. 5 at the Marriott-Napa Valley.

DENVER -- Timmy Smith's face lights up. Yes, he wants his record to be broken.

No, not that record. Not his stunning performance in Super Bowl XXII, when he rushed for 204 yards as his Washington Redskins flattened the Denver Broncos 42-10 on Jan. 31, 1988 in San Diego.

The record he wants to see topped is the one at his alma mater, Hobbs (N.M.) High School.