Oh yeah, there was some meaningful tennis played last night.

What was the loudest noise heard in New York yesterday? Was it a) Jets fans cheering they have a real quarterback, b) Jets fans cheering Tom Brady's injury or c) Serena Williams after she won the US Open championship.

Wow, that was some kind of celebration.

Williams clearly has her overpowering form and conditioning back, screaming her way to a 6-4, 7-6 victory over Jelena Jankovic that vaults Serena back to a No. 1 world ranking.

Serena did apologize for getting so excited after the match, but it's her father who had the quote of the night.

"I never knew Serena to be very, very excited. I knew Serena to be very, very mean. I describe her as being a combination of a pit bull dog, a young Mike Tyson and an alligator."

Uh, that's a little frightening... as is Serena's game when she's on.

Isn't it great to have football back?

I'm a little late posting on this, but it took me this long to believe the Carolina Panthers really did just travel across the country and knock off the San Diego Chargers, whom many predict will represent the AFC in the Super Bowl.

You see, I picked the Chargers in my suicide pool. A lock, right? Unfortunately there's no such thing as a lock in the NFL which is why it's the greatest sport running today.

With 2:27 remaining, the Panthers go the ball on their own 32, down 19-24. Delhomme is certainly no John Elway, but looked the part in hitting six different receivers en route to this tremendous 14-yards, walk-off touchdown pass to Dante Rosario in the back of the end zone. Delhomme managed to sneak in a pump fake just before contact, which gave Rosario the necessary room to find some space.

Stunning.

I still expect San Diego will be a much better team this season, but we saw plenty from Carolina to believe they now are front runners in the NFC South. Most notably, the two-headed tailback combination that rushed for 139 yards on a pretty good defense. DeAngelo Williams got the pill 18 times, rushing for 86 yards, while rookie Jonathan Stewart picked up a cool 53 yards on 10 carries. Both were fresh at all times, and picked up a lot of tough extra yards.

Adding injury to insult, LaDainian Tomlinson will be examined today for a turf toe-like symptoms.

It took a few minutes to adjust to Brett Favre wearing the New York Jets jersey, but we were quickly reminded it's still the same No. 4.

Whether it was his first touchdown pass set up from the classic play action ball fake that all the Dolphins bit on, followed by the 56-yard strike to Jerricho Cotchery that Chad Pennington could have never thrown. And if that wasn't classic Favre enough, his second touchdown pass, a prayer on 4th and 13 that found the hands of Chansi Stuckey for the Jets second touchdown.

In total Favre finished 15 of 22 for 194 yards and 2 touchdowns. Best of all, it was obvious his first touchdown pass energized the Jets into thinking, "Hey, we could be alright this year." Coupled with the news that Tom Brady is lost for the year and the Favre signing becomes even bigger.

Is it possible the Jets could win the AFC East? We'll get a good indication this coming Sunday. A couple months ago, no one could have predicted a Favre vs Matt Cassel game being one of the biggest of the season.

Unlike some of the delusional Patriots fans out there, I'm not going to wait for Brady's MRI. He's probably at best got a torn ACL, and there's a high possibility he has a torn MCL too. I'm incredibly fearful that Brady may have suffered a knee injury along the lines of the one Daunte Culpepper suffered a few years back, as in one you may never fully recover from.

And while I feel bad Brady, and would like to see the best team in football (sorry Giants, you may have won the Super Bowl, but you're not the best team) beaten straight up, the NFL season doesn't stop.

So who exactly does the Brady injury help the most? Let's take a look.

Buffalo Bills - The Bills are a team on the rise with Trent Edwards at quarterback. Make no mistake about this, Edwards is the real deal. Edwards played at Stanford with practically no talent around him, and only went 10-20 as the starter, which is why he wasn't drafted until the third round of the 2007 Draft. But Bill Walsh himself annointed Edwards as one of the best prospects he had ever seen, and Edwards looked the part yesterday against the Seahawks. The Bills have a solid receiving core with Lee Evans, Roscoe Parish and James Hardy and they also have Marshawn Lynch at running back to help take the load off of Edwards. The one problem for the Bills is that their team defense was dreadful last year, only the Lions were worse. However, they looked pretty good against a depleted Seattle squad. But the AFC East is now a very weak division, and there's plenty of reason to believe the Bills could come out of the mix on top.

New York Jets - One man does not a team make. Or so I thought until Brady went down. So why not Favre now leading the Jets to the AFC East title? I know when Favre was traded to the Jets, he looked like a shot dog, probably because he figured the only way he could get to the playoffs was as a wild card, since the Jets were going to get steamrolled by the Patriots in their two meetings. Well, no longer. Favre has to be ecstatic about the Jets chances to win the AFC East now. Granted, I still don't think the Jets are all that great, but as Brady's injury has showed us, one player can provide a huge shift in the balance of power. I'd expect the Jets and Bills to fight for the AFC East now until the final week of the season.

Indianapolis Colts - The Colts were the one AFC team that seemingly "solved" the Patriots during their run to the Super Bowl. But in all honesty, the Colts' 2006 AFC Championship win over the Patriots seemed more like a fluke. Everyone was ready for the Colts to pull their own version of the Patriots dynasty after their Super Bowl win and it never happened. As far as I'm concerned, the Patriots owned the Colts with the exception of the Colts' AFC Championship win in 2006. So Peyton Manning has to feel much better about the Colts' chances today. The only issue is that the Colts sure look like they've got some serious problems to deal with this year after getting trounced by a very balanced Bears team in Week 1. Their offensive line - missing Jeff Saturday - looked porous, which led to Peyton Manning's happy feet coming out again. But if the Colts can solve their O-line issues, they have as good a chance as anyone of becoming this year's AFC powerhouse.

San Diego Chargers - I'm still not sure how the Chargers lost to Carolina yesterday, but whatever. This is another team that the Patriots absolutely owned during their run. No one, and I mean no one, seems more primed to take over the AFC now than the Chargers. After all, they beat the Colts twice last year, including the shocker in the playoffs at the RCA dome. This team is absolutely loaded on both sides of the ball and definitely has a chip on its shoulder from years past. The one problem is that the team is coached by Norv Turner. Sure, he got them to the AFC Championship last year, where they put up a tremendous fight against the Patriots, but with Norv it seems like even making the playoffs is always a question.

Dallas Cowboys - They're without question the new Super Bowl favorite. I know they're a little questionable at wide receiver right now, and Romo is the anti-Brady in the playoffs, but this is now the most talented team in football, period. Provided they can navigate through the NFC playoffs, don't run into a incredibly hot team like the Giants last year, and Jessica Simpson doesn't show up any games, I'd fully expect them to make the Super Bowl and be a heavy favorite to win it all. But we'll see what great expectations will do to this team, and more specifically to Romo.

Last year, Shelden Brown laid a vicious hit on Reggie Bush, and Bush had a hard time even getting up afterwards. This time, Steven Jackson was the victim. Check it out:


Jackson missed most of training camp due to a long holdout, but Brown reintroduced him quickly to life in the NFL. While Reggie Bush is widely regarded as a "soft" running back, Jackson has been known to attack defenders, and run straight at them from time to time. But this time, he got absolutely wrecked by Brown. It even sent his helmet flying. Who knows... maybe this was Marc Bulger's way of letting Jackson know that his holdout wasn't exactly appreciated.

In case you forgot, here's Shelden's hit last year on Bush:



Shelden Brown Hit On Steven Jackson a Nice Wake Up Call [Larry Brown Sports]