It appears that Scott Pioli’s vision of continuing the winning tradition in Foxboro out in Kansas City isn’t going to pan out.

According to Nick Wright of 610Sports.com, he’s heard from a ‘reliable source’ that Pioli and head coach Romeo Crennel have both been informed they won’t be back next year.

One would have to believe the fact they were told and are even being allowed to finish out the season is simply a courtesy considering what they endured with the Jovan Belcher incident a couple of weeks ago.

Unfortunately at the end of the day, it comes down to the results – which haven’t been good since Pioli arrived.  The Chiefs are 23-39 in four seasons under his guidance, with a franchise quarterback in Matt Cassel who didn’t pan out in Kansas City the way he did in his only full season in New England.

The biggest difference is the Chiefs didn’t surround him with enough talent but more importantly enough protection, as Cassel has been injury plagued after getting knocked around quite a bit during his tenure there.  To make matters worse it appeared that they also stopped trying to get him to develop and grow and basically threw him to the wolves, and the result has just been an absolute mess.

They have played in only one playoff game during Pioli’s tenure, and they’re currently 2-12 heading into these final two games.

While the two denied they’d been informed of any such firings, the writing appears to be on the wall, and the facts don’t seem to leave you to believe they’ll survive after the final week.

It’s probably not an easy thing when your future isn’t in your own hands, and neither is your present.

That basically seems to apply to Jets quarterback Tim Tebow right now, as Tebow once again found himself passed over this week in favor of third string quarterback Greg McElroy after head coach Rex Ryan elected to sit starter Mark Sanchez.

Tebow is basically powerless right now and is trying to say the right things, but after being asked if he felt he had been passed over, he told the New York Daily News on Wednesday that, “All you can ask for and all you want is a chance.”

When questioned whether or not he was given one, he told the newspaper after a long pause, Tebow responded, “(I) try to make the most of every opportunity I have. Would have loved to have more.”

As it stands right now it doesn’t appear that Rex Ryan is willing to give him one over these final two games, as other published reports say Sanchez will be the back-up, leaving Tebow as the odd man out.  Clearly Ryan knows his future is uncertain and he’s going to take his chances with McElroy.  Either way should he survive the most-certain front office purge this offseason it seems like Tebow will be gone once the year comes to an end, so there appears to be no benefit in letting him take snaps away from McElroy.

For Tebow, he had no say in coming to the Jets and it’s a season that he’ll probably want to forget after suffering fractured ribs while enduring an injury for a team that didn’t seem to want him after all.  Should they elect to trade him elsewhere, he won’t have much of a say in terms of where he ends up either.

Given a lot of his early success in Denver one would believe he’ll get an opportunity somewhere.  But Ryan appears to have slammed that door shut over the final two games, taking that ‘chance’ Tebow was looking for with it.

It’s been an interesting journey for Tim Tebow with the Jets this season, and one that appears to be coming to an end.

The early signs that Rex Ryan is trying to distance himself from the 2nd-year quarterback came to light on Thursday, with Ryan saying that they’re ditching the Wildcat and keeping Tebow sidelined on punt protection.

During his press conference Ryan cited Tebow’s health as the reason he’ll be kept off the field during punts, and the fact the Wildcat hasn’t been productive to back up his other decision.

However, Tebow will still be the Jets back-up behind Mark Sanchez.

“I don’t really see him in that [punt team] role,” Ryan told reporters yesterday. “As far as the Wildcat, obviously with the ribs the way they are . . . Hopefully, once we get the OK with those ribs, we can expand that, but that’s probably not necessarily going to be a big factor in our game plan.  He can be the backup quarterback and run some base things.”

The whole situation has been a mess and a distraction all season, likely factoring into how Sanchez has more or less imploded just two seasons removed from leading the Jets to back-to-back AFC Championship appearances.  The Jets were 8-8 last season and Sanchez received a contract extension back in March.

Then for some strange reason the Jets decided to bring the Tebow circus to town. along with his legion of fans.

The result?  When the going got rough the fans didn’t rally behind him, they started chanting for Tebow instead.  That’s not to say Sanchez doesn’t deserve some criticism for being a guy they’ve paid a lot of money that doesn’t appear to be tough enough to mentally deal with it, but it’s obvious it was a deal they really shouldn’t have made because Tebow just isn’t a fit with this franchise.

Now Ryan has to try and walk a fine line for the rest of the year to try and get through it and then likely move on from him once the year comes to an end.

That is of course if Ryan is able to survive long enough to coach in New York again next season.  And for that, his fate is in Sanchez’ hands.

This is turning out to be an ugly season in the NFL.

According  to the Dallas Morning News, Dallas Cowboys nose tackle Joshua Brent was reportedly driving while intoxicated and arrested following an accident Saturday morning that claimed the life of practice squad player Jerry Brown.

In the report Brent apparently was traveling at a high rate of speed when his vehicle hit the outside curb on East State Highway 114 early Saturday morning and flipped, and came to a stop in the middle of the road.

He’s been charged with intoxicated vehicular manslaughter by the Irving Police Department, as Brown was later pronounced dead after being transported to a local hospital.

Tim MacMahan of ESPN.com reported that prior to his arrest, Brent was trying to pull Brown away from the burning car when police first arrived.

It’s the second weekend in a row there has been a death of an active NFL player, with last week seeing Kansas City Chiefs player Jovan Belcher shoot and kill his girlfriend, before turning the gun on himself in front of Chiefs personnel.

Suggs is another guy who has been snake-bitten with injuries this season, but it sounds like he’ll be on the field when the Ravens take on the Redskins this weekend.

According to SI.com Suggs is battling a torn right biceps which he suffered in the fourth quarter of a 23-20 loss to the Steelers on Sunday, but he still may play this weekend.

The veteran linebacker has already missed the first six games of this season with a torn right Achilles tendon, but since his return he’s managed to accrue 19 tackles along with two sacks over the last six games.

His status for this weekend isn’t a definite, but he’s reportedly a ‘game time decision’.  Considering they’re battling a player like Washington quarterback Robert Griffin III, it wouldn’t surprise anyone to see him out there.  However, Suggs says he won’t play if he doesn’t feel like he’s truly able to help his team win.

“I don’t want to be out there and can’t make a play because I’m unhealthy and I don’t have a full biceps,” said Suggs. “It’s more if I will help us or hinder us by playing.”

The Ravens currently lead the AFC North with a record of 9-3 on the season heading into this weekend, two games ahead of second place Pittsburgh and Cincinnati – who are both 7-5.

The Steelers are trying to stay in the playoff hunt, and they got some good news this week after the Associated Press reported that quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is looking like he may be returning soon.

According to the report Roethlisberger threw ‘a few dozen passes’ Wednesday and looks like he’s shown coach Mike Tomlin enough to make him hand the keys back over to the veteran quarterback.

Roethlisberger said in the report that he’s leaving it up to his teammates to decide if they see if his velocity is back where it needs to be.

“I’m getting there,” Roethlisberger said. “I’ve got to talk to (tight end) Heath (Miller). He’s my barometer. He lets me know how close I am to 100 percent on velocity and stuff like that.”

For now Tomlin hasn’t named him the starter heading into this Sunday’s match-up against the San Diego Chargers, but after going 1-2 with Roethlisberger out of the line-up he sounded like he has pleased with what he saw during the throwing session.

“I thought it was a positive day for Ben,” Tomlin said. “He threw the ball around both vertically and horizontally. I thought the ball had good velocity, particularly in a few instances. So, it was positive.”

It’s been a busy year when it comes to player suspensions and the Redskins Cedric Griffin became yet another player added to that list on Tuesday.

According to the Associated Press Griffin has been suspended four games without pay for violating the NFL’s policy on performance enhancing substances.

The suspension is tough news for the Redskins, who will now be without their cornerback for the rest of the regular season.

That makes their postseason aspirations a little tougher.  With four games to go the Redskins are currently in a battle with the New York Giants for the NFC East and are 6-6 on the season.  The Giants are 7-5.

Head coach Mike Shanahan told the Washington Post that Griffin “made a bad decision” that lead to his punishment by the league.

“It’s always tough to lose a football player, a guy who was doing a good job for us,” Shanahan said.

Just a day after losing to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football, Eagles head coach Andy Reid announced quarterback Nick Foles will start the remainder of the season, even if Michael Vick can return from his concussion injury. The Eagles sit at 3-9, losers of eight straight games. As it stands now neither Vick or Reid are expected back for 2013.

“No. 1, I just think he’s playing well enough to where I think he can win football games for us,” Reid said. “And No. 2, I think where we sit at this position in the season, I think it’s the right thing to do.”

Foles has actually shown promise in his time this season. Sunday night against the Eagles he threw for 251 yards and a touchdown on 22 of 34 passing. Overall he has thrown for 793 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions with has a passer rating of 73.3. Vick on the other hand struggled this season turning the ball over 14 times in just nine games.

“You see the footwork is better when he’s throwing the football,” Reid said of Foles. “It’s allowing us to add more into his repertoire of throws and he’s been working very hard on that.”

To me there is really no other option here. With the Eagles not even close to the playoff picture, and Vick most likely not returning next season, why not give Foles a shot and see what he is made of. If he performs well, he could even earn the starting job next season. Rumors have it Reid won’t be returning to Philadelphia next year either, but kudos to him for putting the franchise in the best position he can if he were to leave and coaching till the very end.

None of us will ever truly understand the horror of what former Patriot GM Scott Pioli and former Patriot defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel experienced over the weekend.

Crennel said during his press conference on Sunday that ‘I’m choosing not to answer any questions about what I saw yesterday’, and after reading Peter King’s Monday Morning Quarterback column this morning, you can understand why.

In the article King paints a picture of the final moments for Jovan Belcher, which had to be extremely difficult for the former Patriot coach and GM.

King writes that according to accounts from police, Pioli arrived at the Chiefs’ facility moments after Belcher, who was out of his car.  Pioli reportedly got out of his car and could tell that the linebacker was in an agitated state and as they were speaking Pioli noticed he had a gun.  He reportedly told Pioli during their conversation, “I came here to tell you thank you.  Thank you for my chance.  I love you, bro.”

According to King’s source Pioli tried to calm the player down, but wasn’t able to and he then asked Pioli if he could speak to Crennel and Chiefs linebacker coach Gary Gibbs.

Pioli then took out his cell phone and asked them to come outside, and the two coaches also tried to calm him down.  Belcher then thanked them for the opportunity and according to King, walked away – but after a few steps he put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger.

It’s an unbelievable story and you have to feel bad for the three men who witnessed it.  Unfortunately the whole sequence of events should never have happened to begin with, which is something that we’ve already heard debated in the media after Belcher also allegedly took the life of his girlfriend, Kassandra Perkins, and left a little girl without two parents.

““We’re going to try put together a fund for her,” said Brady Quinn after yesterday’s game. “Obviously without having either parent in her life now, I think it’s important that she understands the type of love that she should get from a family.”

“We just want her to understand…you know at one point in time she might have some questions later on in life, and we want her to understand how much she’s loved and not reflect back on an event like this and look at it in a negative way. Hopefully she can understand and try to find a peace with it and move forward with her life.”

Wide receiver Sidney Rice may have scored the game winning touchdown in overtime on Sunday and it’s safe to say he definitely earned it.

On the play Seattle QB Russell Wilson rolled out to his left and hit Rice who took the ball into the end zone and then got drilled by bears safety Major Wright, who hit him so hard Rice fell to the ground in a heap and lost the ball.

Replays showed that Rice was diving into the endzone and after the ball broke the plane was when Wright hit him and knocked it out.

Rice told Danny O’Neil of the Seattle Times that he was fine, and that he was forced to stay down because having had a couple of concussions previously they wanted to make sure he was O.K.

“I definitely knew I was in there,” Rice said. “They just made me stay down because I got a little dinged up there for a second. They made me stay down. They took me off the field, but they knew I was in the end zone.”

Yahoo! Sports has a video of the hit – and it’s a scary one to say the least.