(Getty)Evelyn Lozada has filed for divorce from Chad Johnson, according to TMZ. Legal documents claimed that her marriage was "irretrievably broken," just days after Johnson was arrested for allegedly head-butting her during an argument.

The couple was married 41 days ago.

Since the incident, Johnson has been released by the Miami Dolphins, and made no statements to the media. His Twitter account, usually a cauldron of activity, has not been active.

Getty ImagesIf a team's success is based on how much everyone likes each other, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers should be Super Bowl contenders this season.

They're forming quite the mutual admiration society down there. Everyone is smitten with free-agent acquisition Vincent Jackson (more on that in a minute), but not as smitten as Jackson is with fourth-year quarterback Josh Freeman. The preseason is a time for everyone to be happy and excited about everything, but Vincent Jackson is positively drunk with optimism. Jackson on Freeman:

"We have tight ends, running backs and obviously, Josh Freeman, and he's a quarterback I think should be mentioned among the top five in the league.''

Rodgers, Brady, Brees, Roethlisberger, Rivers. That's five. Plus Eli and Peyton. Stafford, Ryan, Romo, Schaub, Vick. Or any of the rest of the 24 quarterbacks who had a passer rating better than Josh Freeman's last year, which includes Mark Sanchez, Kevin Kolb and Tarvaris Jackson.

I guess Vincent Jackson and I just define "five" differently.

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The Giants call on Steve Weatherford when they decide to punt. A Giants fan named Bryan Wheeler called on Weatherford when he decided to go for it.

And by "go for it," I mean that he decided to propose to his girlfriend. He did it at Giants training camp, with some help from Weatherford. As Weatherford walked off the field, he handed Wheeler a football, which looked to everyone else like a friendly training camp souvenir. When Bryan showed the ball to his girlfriend Jacklene, though, it had a special message: "Jacklene, Will You Marry Me? Love, Bryan."

Jacklene said yes, and these two crazy kids will be tying the knot. Weatherford explained how it all went down, via Giants.com:

"I think he contacted our community relations people and requested that the craziest guy on the team help him out," Weatherford said. "I don't think he had to look too far down the roster … Obviously whenever you get to do something like that, it's flattering because it makes you realize how important you are to a lot of people. The guy hopefully, cross your fingers, is only going to get married once, and I was the one to help him get engaged."

Craig Ochoa (r.) seems to be in over his head (Getty Images)

The labor battle between the NFL and its "real" officials goes unmerrily on, and at this point, it seems that the men (and woman) replacing them in the current lockout could be in games into the 2012 regular season. According to a Monday report by ESPN's Adam Schefter and Chris Mortensen, the league is prepared to take its replacement officials -- none of whom claim current professional or high-level collegiate officiating experience on their resumes -- into the games as they begin to really count.

According to Schefter and Mortensen, the stalled talks are about more than a slight pay raise and better pension plan for the NFL's actual officials. The NFL wants to make at least some of the officials full time, when all the current locked-out officials are part-timers, with career concerns outside of their football jobs. More than 90 percent of those officials have full-time jobs, and many of them are unwilling to quit their outside jobs and leave the revenue and security provided. The league also wants to add a few more crews to provide more off-time for the actual crews, many of whom work 15 weeks of the regular season, and the alleged best of those are elected to call the playoffs.

The NFL has also talked about rotating in some of the replacement officials into the crews, even if and after the current impasse is solved. And that's not good news for players and coaches around the league, many of whom have made public statements about the substandard performances those replacement officials have put across. This should be no surprise -- because Division I officials have agreed not to moonlight in the NFL, the natural progression of promotion to the NFL has been stunted, and the most obvious candidates to bump up to the pros has been stunted.

As a result, those officials who called Week 1 of the preseason, and will continue to do so, wouldn't be close to NFL candidacy under normal circumstances. Craig Ochoa, who couldn't even get the opening coin toss right in the Hall of Fame game between the New Orleans Saints and Arizona Cardinals, and kept replacing "Atlanta" with "Arizona" in his calls for the Atlanta Falcons-Baltimore Ravens preseason game, used to work in the Lingerie Football League, and may have been fired from that esteemed organization.

According to CBS Sports' Mike Freeman, another official was fired from his job as a teacher for sending correspondence that was racist in nature, and another was fired from the Pac-10 in a recent sweep of a series of officiating crews that were notable for their general incompetence. This after the NFL sent a memo to all teams, a copy of which Freeman acquired, that told all clubs to avoid any criticism of the replacement refs.

[Roto Arcade: What to do about the Titans' Chris Johnson]

That hasn't gone so well. New York Giants receiver Victor Cruz recently made it clear that if the NFL is so concerned about player safety and the officials' role in the monitoring process, a good start would be to have the most qualified people on the field.

Kenny Britt's response? Survey says... (Getty Images)

Selected in the fourth round of the 1997 NFL draft by theJacksonville Jaguars out of Cornell, former NFL defensive lineman Seth Payne played five years for the Jags, and five more for the Houston Texans. Since leaving the game after the 2006 season, Seth has been honing his writing skills, and has proven to be a real treat on Twitter with his football knowledge and wicked sense of humor. He'll bring both to Shutdown Corner on a regular basis.

Our intrepid columnist is back in the saddle.Back in 1990, a band by the name of Extreme had a hit song called "More Than Words," a slow and tender acoustic love song.  Teenage girls and soccer moms alike rushed out to buy the CD.  What they soon discovered was that while Extreme had made a great love song with mass appeal, most of their music was aggressive heavy metal that appealed mostly to angry teenage boys.

I fear that my last column, about my emotional attachment to the game of football, is going to set some readers up for exactly that experience.  I pulled on their heartstrings with a sentimental piece that revealed my vulnerable side, and now they're going to discover the real me. They'll find that I'm like a raw oyster, containing a small pearl of wisdom, but otherwise, a mass of unpalatable goop.  Some readers are saying, "No, no, raw oysters are in fact quite tasty."

Those readers are sick bastards.

The fact of the matter is that I spend most of my day trying to sort out and make sense of my absurd, senseless inner monologue.  Here at Shutdown Corner I will occasionally let you peek into that chaotic jumble of haphazardly firing brain cells.

Those brain cells once performed adequately for me on a test called the Wonderlic, which is the intelligence test administered by the NFL every year at the national scouting combine.  Over the years the Wonderlic has been the subject of controversy as critics have questioned the ability of a paper and pencil test to predict on field football intelligence.  For instance, my Wonderlic score didn't predict that I'd be dumb enough to commit three penalties in one quarter against the Bills, yet I was.

I've always felt that a more accurate intelligence test would combine some elements of the Wonderlic with real world scenarios from the life of an NFL player.  So I present to you the first five questions from my proposed Football Intelligence Quotient exam.

1. You've just been fined by the team for missing a workout.  The fine will not be made public. What should you do?

a)      Tweet a picture of the fine with a sympathy inspiring caption that says, "Don't they know I got kids to feed?"  (This was used recently with splendid results).
b)      To forget about the whole incident, Tweet a direct message picture of your genitals to an intern.  Mistakenly make it public.
c)       Tweet that the strength coach is lying.  Cling to your accusation even after being confronted with security camera footage that shows the exact time you entered the facility. [I actually witnessed a version of this before the days of Twitter]
d)      Tweet nothing and show up early for your next workout.

2. For various reasons, you decide to cheat on your wife.  What is your first course of action?

a)      Sign up on that website advertised on the radio that makes an extramarital affair sound like a straightforward proposition.  What could go wrong? It's guaranteed!
b)      Buy some condoms, and remember to save the receipt.  This may be tax deductible.
c)       Stock up on Ambien.  Some claim that it enhances sex and makes for clever and eventful texting.
d)      Rethink cheating on your wife.

3. As a rookie, you'll face an incredible amount of pressure and scrutiny.  What is the best way to take a breather?

a)      Find a hobby, like opening a restaurant.  It seems like a simple enough business, and your unemployed cousin has the time to run it.
b)      Take an interest in your alma mater's football program.  Those kids could use some advice, not to mention extra cash.
c)       A relaxing massage.  But don't waste money by going to a licensed massage therapist.  Look for one with a crudely painted particle board sign that says something about hot oil.
d)      Golf.

4. You are approached by a guy in a white coat who calls himself a doctor.  He offers to sell you a revolutionary new vitamin injection that will help you add muscle mass and recover more quickly.  What should you do?

a)      Check the policy on banned substances, but ignore the part that says you are responsible for everything that goes in your body even if it's labeled improperly.  Don't ask the team medical staff for advice.  Now go for it!
b)      Pay with a check or credit card.  You'll need a paper trail if you want a refund later.
c)       See if he'll throw some of that undetectable synthetic pot into the deal.
d)      Run away!

5. You spend five years with the team that drafts you.  You are loved by fans and you've laid down roots in the community.  Your wife and children love it there.  Unfortunately, when you enter free agency the team is barely under the salary cap and is unable to make a remotely competitive offer, so you sign elsewhere.  How should you open up the press conference in your new city?

I don't know if it falls under the category of denial, self-serving bias, lying to the media or Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie really, really giving himself the benefit of the doubt, but he believes the following hit was perfectly clean, and that is goofy talk.

Via Sheil Kapadia at phillymag.com, Rodgers-Cromartie was asked about the hit after Monday morning's practice:

Has he received any notification about a fine from the league?

"No."

Does he expect to receive a fine?

"No."

Does he believe it was a clean hit?

"Yes sir, no question."

Any regrets? Maybe wish he would have tackled Leftwich differently?

"Regrets? We're playing football, man," Rodgers-Cromartie said. "The Bible said don't live a life of regret."

I've often found that the best way to avoid living a life of regret is to not leave my feet and launch myself into the air in an effort to destroy Byron Leftwich's face. It's an approach I'd recommend to anybody.

[Related: Lions WR Titus Young believes he's the successor to Barry Sanders]

Getty ImagesThere's every reason to believe that Titus Young, a second-year receiver for the Detroit Lions, will be a solid NFL player for a long time. But that, in the eyes of Titus Young, would be selling him very short.

He sees himself as some kind of a successor to Barry Sanders in Detroit. The following tweet is from Dave Birkett, who covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press:

Titus Young was asked today how good he can be. Said when Barry Sanders called name at draft "it just felt like he was passing me the torch"

Yeah, I'm pretty sure he just said your name.

Not that I wish to castigate Titus Young here. He's a fine player and he apparently thinks highly of his abilities, and there's nothing wrong with that. If he felt some kind of cosmic connection between himself and (arguably) the greatest running back of all time, then that's great. If it pushes him to maximize his potential, even better.

Two things come to mind, though, that make me pretty confident that Barry Sanders didn't share the same torch-passing experience: 1) If he was going to pass the torch to someone, I don't know why he would've waited 13 years to do it; and 2) Calvin Johnson exists. If anyone in Detroit is carrying No. 20's torch, it's Megatron. Also, Young may want to stop cold-cocking his teammates in practice. That'd be an excellent first step.

Asked after Monday's practice how good Young can be, Lions head coach Jim Schwartz was a bit more cautious.

"Well, he's an important part of our plans," Schwartz said. "How, you know, breakout and everything else, I mean that's all relative as we go through the year. I mean the whole object is to score points, operate efficiently on offense, win games and he's a guy that can help us do that."

The Giants would like you to remember who this belongs to. (Getty Images)

It's one of the goofier sports clichés: "The better team lost." But it's used often enough to explain all sorts of sporting oddities. The simple fact is that, barring some sort of bizarre officiating event, terrible injury, or various acts of God, the better team generally wins games, and I'd add additional weight to that concept in the postseason, when games matter far more. The better team through a season is not the better team on any given day, and it's a pretty classless gesture to come out in public and say that your team lost more than the other team won.

Nonetheless, both Clay Matthews of the Green Bay Packers and Donte Whitner of the San Francisco 49ers have put that notion across when discussing the Super Bowl champion New York Giants, who eliminated both teams from the 2011 NFL playoffs on the way to their second improbable championship in five years. (Then again, if it's their second Super Bowl win in half a decade, perhaps those victories aren't so "improbable" anymore? Perhaps.)

"We picked the most inopportune time to play our worst ball," Matthews recently told Yahoo's Mike Silver.  "The fact is, [the Giants] didn't beat us; we beat ourselves. We need to play our best ball when it counts. This year, I expect us to be right back where we should be."

Whitner agreed. "We felt like it was ours to lose," he said before the 49ers' 2012 preseason opener against the Minnesota Vikings.  "Especially after we beat the Saints, we felt like it was ours to lose.  We felt like the Saints and Green Bay Packers were the two best teams in the playoffs and once they went down we felt like it was ours to lose, and we let it slip through our fingers."

Fortunately, we haven't heard anything similar from the New England Patriots, who lost Super Bowl XLVI to the Giants in an achingly close 21-17 contest. Then again, the Pats lost both of those Super Bowls to the Giants in similarly close fashion -- there was also the stunning 17-14 loss that broke up New England's hope for a perfect season.

The Packers came into the postseason with a 15-1 record, a shaky defense, and with Aaron Rodgers enjoying perhaps the best single season any quarterback ever has. But the Giants had lost narrowly to the Pack, 38-35, in a Week 13 barnburner, so Matthews and his buddies shouldn't have been too surprised by the 37-20 divisional win -- after all, 38-35 was the same score the Giants lost to New England by in the 2007 regular season, and we all know what happened later.

As for the 49ers, two return fumbles by Kyle Williams may have decided the game, but ifs and buts are exactly like candy and nuts in such circumstances -- had the 49ers been able to distance themselves from the G-men as much as they believe they should have, Eli Manning's crew wouldn't have taken the conference in their 20-17 overtime NFC championship win. The 49ers were also 1 for 13 on third downs in the game, and they were 1 for 9 on passes to their wide receivers.

Giants defensive lineman Justin Tuck, who may have been the MVP of both Super Bowl wins had Eli Manning not engineered a couple of late drives, was not amused by the notion that the G-men were just picking up the scraps from better teams.