—

A: This is always an interesting debate, and I’m not sure there is a right answer to your question. I think there are benefits to doing it both ways, depending on the state of your team. But if I were the head coach of a team that clinched everything early, what I probably would do is this: rest the players who have injuries that are affecting performance, but play everyone else as usual, and try as much as ever to win every game. There is something to maintaining rhythm and momentum and confidence, and I would not want to mess with it.

Q: Why aren’t more people talking about how tough the NFC South is? The Panthers have the second best record in the league and the Bucs are only a game behind! The Falcons and Saints are also playoff worthy teams. We get no respect.
— Ray Howard, Atlanta

A: The NFC South is the second best division in the NFL this year after the NFC East. It might be the third best division behind the NFC East and AFC East if Tom Brady were healthy. But your point is well taken. The NFC South is one tough division, and it would be even tougher if the Saints were not so beat up.

Q: Does it make sense for the Bengals to have Carson Palmer play again this season? At this point, I’d rather he just get healthy for next year.
— Cliff, Rapid City, S.D.

Slideshow The '12th' man Check out some wild and crazy NFL fans supporting their teams. NBCSports.com

A: It makes sense for Palmer to play this year if he’s healthy enough to play. The Bengals are paying him a lot of money, and they aren’t paying him to sit in the hot tub. Sometimes fans don’t realize that the entire purpose of a football team is to try to win games. Even when the team seemingly has nothing to play for. There are enough games left in the season that the Bengals owe it to themselves to play Palmer if he can play. If he were to be sidelined another few weeks with his injury, then they might want to shut him down for the year.

Q: Does it seem strange that Donovan McNabb didn’t know you could tie in the NFL? How many other players do you think aren’t aware of that?
— Harry Gilmore, Havertown, Penn.

A: I would bet a lot of NFL players were unaware of the rule. As McNabb pointed out, there are so many NFL rules that very few people are aware of all of them. Look, I shouldn’t cast stones because I don’t know all the rules. But McNabb should have been aware of this one because it could have affected game strategy. But you can understand that he was not aware because ties happen so infrequently. In close to 24 years of covering the NFL and seeing somewhere in the vicinity of 450 games in person, I never have covered a tie game.

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