DeAngelo Williams' emergence from inconsistent backup last season to one of the most-feared running backs in the league this year may stem from Vinny Testaverde's brief stint in Carolina last season as a Band-aid at quarterback when Jake Delhomme got hurt.

"He really left me with some things that really touched me and stayed on my heart, as you can tell from this season," Williams said this week -- as close as he has come to explaining his evolution.

Testaverde was more forthcoming. "When I got there last year, it was the first game at Arizona, I handed the ball off to him, he'd run 10 or 12 yards and put his hand up to come out of the game," Testaverde said.

"After a few weeks, I said, 'You have all the ability to be a great running back, but you need to get in shape and you need not to want to come out of the game.' "

With only two games left in the season, the subject of Brett Favre's future has begun to boil. To that end, Favre was in peak offseason form this week. In other words, he said a lot without saying anything.

"Who would have thought I'd be sitting here answering that question in front of you?" Favre said, meaning in New York. "If you'd asked me that last year before the [NFC] championship game, I would have said, 'You need to quit drinking.'"

Of all the talk this week about Pro Bowl snubs, perhaps Washington linebacker London Fletcher has the soundest gripe. He is the leading tackler in the NFL this decade, yet is an eight-time alternate without ever having gone to Hawaii. Still, it hasn't made him bitter. "I'm the Susan Lucci of the NFL," he joked after being passed over again, a reference to the soap opera star who was nominated for an Emmy 18 times before winning.

Not everyone in Detroit is convinced the Lions will lose their final two games and finish 0-16. One writer looked it up and found the Lions are 6-8 in the final two games of their past seven seasons, a .429 winning percentage or better than their overall mark of .277 in those seven years. The Lions play host to the Saints today.

Apparently, the NFL Network took note of ESPN's over-the-top coverage of the closing of Yankee Stadium in September. It offered 17 hours of Cowboys programming yesterday leading up to the final kickoff in Texas Stadium history last night. ... A Funeral service for Hall of Fame quarterback Sammy Baugh, the final surviving member of the Hall of Fame's original class in 1963, is scheduled for tomorrow in Texas.