Tom Brady was named the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year on Wednesday. The Pats QB received 19 votes from a nationwide panel of 50 sports writers and broadcasters who cover the NFL, beating Tampa Bay running back Carnell “Cadillac” Williams, who got 14.

The three-time Super Bowl winner and a finalist for AP Player of the Decade, Brady led New England to a 10-6 record and the AFC East title this season. He threw for 4,398 yards and 28 touchdowns. The season came just a year after the QB came back from a left knee injury that sidelined him for all but the first quarter of the 2008 opener.

Buddy Nix, Buffalo’s newly appointed general manager makes swift changes in Bills’ coaching staff.

ORCHARD PARK — Around the NFL, the first day following the end of the regular season has become known as Black Monday because, on average in recent years, about six head coaches lose their jobs.

Black Monday was particularly black in Buffalo because not only was interim head coach Perry Fewell handed his walking papers, so was the entire coaching staff as new general manager Buddy Nix let it be known in a swift and decisive manner that there’s a new man running the show, and the status quo isn’t good enough.

The Oakland Raiders season finale against the Baltimore Ravens will be blacked out locally because they were unable to sell out their game by the deadline.

The Raiders on on their seventh consecutive blackout this season.  Their last sell out was the season opener against the Chargers.  Games need to be sold out 72 hours before kickoff in order to avoid a local 75-mile radius blackout.  Oakland has not had this many blackout since the seven in 1997.

Like it or not, Ravens fans should be thankful of the Colts.

Indianapolis (13-0), which has clinched home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs, will play their starters in Thursday’s game at Jacksonville even though the Colts have nothing to gain.

This works in the favor of the Ravens, who need the Jaguars to lose. Although the Ravens and Jacksonville are both 7-6, the Jaguars have a slight edge because their AFC record (6-3) is slightly better than the Ravens’ 6-4 conference mark.

Ravens may be thankful to the Colts as the undefeated team (13-0) goes into Thursday’s game with their starters on the field right from the start.

After his team clinched the No. 1 seed and home-field advantage in the AFC playoffs, coach Jim Caldwell announced it will be business as usual Thursday night at Jacksonville.

That means healthy starters will play — start to finish. And it means players who are dealing with injuries won’t play. Caldwell’s decision will be embraced by the majority of players, who were not pleased at the thought of limited playing time for front-line starters in the final three games.

Baltimore Ravens Joe Flacco did not have the best performance Monday night, but he refused to blame the cold in Green Bay for his poor performances. “I didn’t have it last night … but that had nothing to do with the game,” Flacco said in a Sports Illustrated interview.

Flacco took responsibility for part of the Ravens’ thwarted comeback attempt.

“We were getting outplayed a little bit, but we hung in there tough and put ourselves in a position to get back in the game. I just made a mistake and I killed those chances, but we gotta keep going, we gotta keep fighting and see what we can do over the next four games.”

The Green Bay Packers soundly defeated the Baltimore Ravens 24-17 on a frigid Monday night at Lambeau Field.

Wind chills nearly dipped into the single digits, while the air temperature was a balmy 22 degrees for a lot of the night.

But the weather was not the real story of the night. No.

Tonight’s headline should be the penalties.

The Packers and Ravens combined for 310 penalty yards on the night, which is tied for second most in NFL history.

Baltimore had 12 penalties for a total of 135 yards, while The Packers had one fewer flag, but were penalized for 175 yards.

Ben Roethlisberger was “hurt” by teammate Hines Ward’s remarks questioning why a concussion kept him out of an important game against the Ravens.

But the Steelers quarterback now agrees he shouldn’t have played.

Roethlisberger patched up his relationship with Ward during a phone call Monday, and the two have since moved on to Sunday’s game against Oakland.

“He reached out to me and I told him I was just hurt more than anything else,” Roethlisberger said Thursday. “You know, we got over it, moved past it and now we’re preparing.”

The Minnesota Vikings’ decision to facilitate Brett Favre’s latest ‘unretirement’ is looking better and better with each passing week. This past Sunday, Favre’s charges moved to 6-0 on the season with a wild 33-31 victory over the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens posted 21 fourth quarter points to charge back and claim the lead late, but Favre led a rally to set up place kicker Ryan Longwell’s 31 yard game winning field goal. Baltimore evened their record at 3-3 on the season with the loss.