When Tiki Barber left football for broadcasting this winter, every network went after him, and for good reason. The former Giants running back is telegenic, articulate and personable. Barber is even experienced -- he has his own Sirius radio show and is a regular guest on local and national television shows.
One quick headline, then the topic of the week:
Nothing gets chewed over more every NFL offseason than quarterback questions. Only Indianapolis and New England seem immune to the constant pattern of change, speculation and potential controversies at this position.
Ten last thoughts from around the NFL before I disappear on vacation for a while:
One night last week a family new to Pittsburgh -- husband and wife, three kids ages six years to 11 months -- walked into the neighborhood bistro La Tavola Italiana atop Mount Washington for dinner. The husband had been there before. He moved around the place in a comfortable, self-assured way and recognized the Sicilian cook and owner, Carmela Giaramita, right away. "Mom!" he said affectionately, then bear-hugged her. She wasn't really his mother but had been so accommodating and friendly in his previous visits that he felt a kinship.
Falcons QB Michael Vick who increasingly seems as problematic off the field as he is on it seems to have found trouble once again. This time Vick is dogged by allegations that he was part of a dog-fighting ring operating out of a home he owned in Virginia. (We must say "owned" because once the dog-fighting rumors surfaced, Vick quickly sold the house for less than half of its assessed value. OK, so he's no Donald Trump.)
So now it's dog fighting. For at least the fourth time in a span of about five months, Michael Vick's name has once again surfaced in connection with a story that threatens to further tarnish his reputation, leading to a growing debate about the viability of his future as the face of the Atlanta Falcons franchise.
Musings, observations and the occasional insight as the NFL's offseason enters its May minicamp stage ...
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Since January 2000, Adam "Pacman" Jones' attorneys count at least 283 NFL players who have been arrested or charged in offenses including drunken driving, domestic violence, speeding and weapons.
ALSO: AFC Draft Grades
When Tiki Barber left football for broadcasting this winter, every network went after him, and for good reason. The former Giants running back is telegenic, articulate and personable. Barber is even experienced -- he has his own Sirius radio show and is a regular guest on local and national television shows.
One quick headline, then the topic of the week:
Nothing gets chewed over more every NFL offseason than quarterback questions. Only Indianapolis and New England seem immune to the constant pattern of change, speculation and potential controversies at this position.
Ten last thoughts from around the NFL before I disappear on vacation for a while:
One night last week a family new to Pittsburgh -- husband and wife, three kids ages six years to 11 months -- walked into the neighborhood bistro La Tavola Italiana atop Mount Washington for dinner. The husband had been there before. He moved around the place in a comfortable, self-assured way and recognized the Sicilian cook and owner, Carmela Giaramita, right away. "Mom!" he said affectionately, then bear-hugged her. She wasn't really his mother but had been so accommodating and friendly in his previous visits that he felt a kinship.
Falcons QB Michael Vick who increasingly seems as problematic off the field as he is on it seems to have found trouble once again. This time Vick is dogged by allegations that he was part of a dog-fighting ring operating out of a home he owned in Virginia. (We must say "owned" because once the dog-fighting rumors surfaced, Vick quickly sold the house for less than half of its assessed value. OK, so he's no Donald Trump.)
So now it's dog fighting. For at least the fourth time in a span of about five months, Michael Vick's name has once again surfaced in connection with a story that threatens to further tarnish his reputation, leading to a growing debate about the viability of his future as the face of the Atlanta Falcons franchise.
Musings, observations and the occasional insight as the NFL's offseason enters its May minicamp stage ...
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Since January 2000, Adam "Pacman" Jones' attorneys count at least 283 NFL players who have been arrested or charged in offenses including drunken driving, domestic violence, speeding and weapons.
ALSO: AFC Draft Grades
"I've got to be the Godfather today," Lions president Matt Millen said last Saturday morning, sitting in the living room of his town house in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn. He sounded full of hope and anticipation. In an hour Millen, a man who badly needed a good day, expected to be fielding calls from three or four clubs and hoped -- in a role reversal for Don Corleone -- that someone would make him an offer he couldn't refuse in exchange for the No. 2 pick in the NFL draft.
As it turns out, the most talented team in college football last season may not have been national champion Florida. Or regular-season No. 1 Ohio State. Or perennially dominant USC.
You will notice the generally low level of the grades for the 2007 draft. This does not reflect, I believe, the teams' drafting skill, just the overall level of talent. At one time you could find three or four genuinely exciting players on a team's list. Now there are many one-player drafts, and a few of those "one's" aren't even that scintillating.
NEW YORK -- Musings, observations and the occasional insights from the two-day pick-fest still taking place in Radio City Music Hall:
JaMarcus Russell is making it rain.
• Cleveland Browns -- The steep price they paid is no small compensation, but in landing both Joe Thomas and Brady Quinn, the Browns came away with a potential franchise left offensive tackle and a franchise quarterback in the span of 20 picks. It's a move that could determine the fate of this franchise for a long time to come.
DETROIT -- All those rumors about Brady Quinn (FILM ROOM) being close to a deal with the Oakland Raiders, or having already agreed to one? Forget them. Totally false.
Random thoughts, musings, and the occasional insight as the pick-fest known as the NFL Draft looms less than 24 hours nigh ...
As you might have heard, the NFL Draft has become arguably the nation's biggest sporting event. If you're going to tune in for any of the 18 hours (!!!) of live coverage this weekend on ESPN, you'll want more than just your copy of Don Banks' latest mock draft. Here's the 10 Spot's glossary of key draft terms:
Commissioner Roger Goodell will officially announce the Oakland Raiders are on the clock in just two days, but draft stocks are still shifting. Here's the latest on player movement as well as the most recent draft notes.
You want to know who's gonna draft whom? Sorry, that's not my gig this year. I'm on a sabbatical from the hard news, remember? You'll have to ask the other guys. Which doesn't mean I'm shunning the draft. Oh no, I'll be in the room checking the action, if there's still any left from this current whirlwind of activity.
Former Oklahoma running back Adrian Peterson, an almost certain top-10 pick in the first round of Saturday's NFL draft, re-injured his collarbone in the Sooners' loss in the Fiesta Bowl on New Year's Day -- an injury that has not been previously disclosed except to NFL teams.
Today's hypothesis: The NFL Draft is the biggest sporting event in America. Before writing that bold sentence, I toyed with various other adjectives until settling on "biggest.'' Among them:
Even those who ply their trade in the comparison business are occasionally subject to comparisons. Just don't expect Mel Kiper Jr. and Mike Mayock, the NFL draft television gurus of the moment, to file a scouting report on each other. "The comparisons are ridiculous," says Kiper, who has covered the NFL draft for ESPN since 1984. "Mike does what he does, and he does it the way he does it. I do it the way I do it. Zillions of others do it the way they do it. I don't have anything negative to say about anybody out there who puts out a draft report or covers the draft. They are obviously working hard. To see Mike Mayock and other people out there, I applaud that. I applaud that Mike Mayock is in the business.''
Three quick points, four days out from the NFL Draft:
It's paralysis by analysis time in trying to discern exactly what's coming in this weekend's NFL Draft. But there are some things that simply make too much sense not to happen. Here are 10 moves that not only could happen, but we think should:
Imagine the sales pitch that might have been delivered in the long hallways of a Ministry of U.S. Sports Culture not very long ago: O.K., how about this for a television event. The commissioner of the NFL stands at a podium in the middle of a stage. Every few minutes he reads out, in a businesslike monotone, the name of a collegian who has been selected to play for an NFL team. "With the first pick ..." and so forth. No music, no special effects. Just the commissioner and the microphone. Trust me. It'll kill.
The images on the large screen came one after another, each more disturbing and haunting than the other. There was Mike Webster shown naked from the waist up, lying dead on an autopsy table. There was Terry Long dead on an autopsy table with his tongue sticking out, still showing the pain of someone who had endured a prolonged death after ingesting antifreeze. Then there were simply the words of Dr. Bennet Omalu -- who didn't show pictures of Andre Waters because he shot himself -- as he described Waters' condition at his autopsy.
SI.com presents a listing of each existing franchise's best draft class in the last 30 years. The league has endured a few stages of evolution since '77 -- expansion, free agency, greater TV exposure, the salary cap -- but this exercise should reaffirm the notion that consistent championship contenders are always built through the draft. For the sake of brevity, we've limited the list to the productive players from a team's particular class.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell's new get-tough policy has gotten rave reviews, and rightly so. But there's get-tough, and then there's getting ridiculous. As in fining Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher $100,000 for wearing a non NFL-approved cap to Super Bowl media day, while sipping from a non NFL-approved bottle of water.
Different college football programs have earned a reputation for developing talent at certain positions. NFL teams are well aware of this and pay special attention to these schools' prospects.
SI.com's Adam Hofstetter spent a day last week with top NFL Draft prospects, Adrian Peterson and Brady Quinn. Below is a recap of his time with Quinn. Here's his story about Peterson.
SI.com's Adam Hofstetter spent a day last week with top NFL Draft prospects, Adrian Peterson and Brady Quinn. Below is a recap of his time with Peterson. Check back tomorrow for a story on Quinn.
In mid-April everyone's trying to figure out who will go where in the NFL Draft? But let's not lose sight of the question that really matters: Who will be doing what come mid-October? After checking sources around the league, these are five names I expect to be writing plenty of good things about come the 2007 regular season:
There may not be a better off-campus house in America than the one that Wisconsin senior tackle Joe Thomas shares with five teammates in Madison. Miller Lite tap in the kitchen, poker room in the basement, John Belushi poster on the TV room wall and -- everyone's favorite -- padded red bra hanging from the antlers of a six-point trophy buck. "I was just doing laundry one day, and it snuck its way into my clothes," Badgers defensive back Ben Strickland says mischievously while watching Pardon the Interruption from the depths of a recliner. In Thomas's room upstairs, his laptop rests on homemade legs: four rolls of toilet paper. In the backyard there's a hot tub, a hammock and a couch. The best in late-night college carryout is within stumbling distance on Madison's busy streets.
Living in Boston, where Drew Bledsoe made his NFL name, I shouldn't have been surprised to hear the notion tossed out there almost reflexively, even before the news of the former Patriots quarterback's retirement had sunk in.
In just two weeks commissioner Roger Goodell will step up to the podium for the first time and open the 2007 NFL Draft. At this point, teams are finalizing their draft boards and targeting certain players. Here is the word circulating in the scouting community as to what may happen on draft day.
Musings, observations and the occasional insight in reaction to the release of the NFL's 2007 regular-season schedule ...
All you need is one look at the personal conduct policy that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell handed down on Tuesday to know that the man isn't playing around. Along with slapping a season-long suspension on Tennessee cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones and an eight-game punishment on Cincinnati wide receiver Chris Henry, Goodell sent a blaring message to the rest of the league's teams, coaches and players. That statement wasn't just about a first-year commissioner flexing his muscles. It was about a first-year commissioner doing some serious educating.
NEW YORK (AP) -- The punishment was aimed squarely at Adam "Pacman" Jones and Chris Henry. The message went far beyond them, to all NFL players.
The stars have come out today. Two friends in the business check in with observations I thought I'd pass along -- the first from NFL Network host Rich Eisen about the frustration of some readers not being able to get the network on their cable systems. And Rick Gosselin, the draft maven who writes about the league so well for the Dallas Morning News. I'll let them start, and then move on with your e-mails:
KANSAS CITY -- Myth of the Month: If a team near the top of the first round of the NFL Draft wants to trade down, it can get a ransom for the pick.
I didn't believe the NFL was on the verge of a major image problem until I watched a recent interview with Tennessee Titans cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones. Before that, I doubted a string of off-the-field issues could threaten the league's popularity. After it, I realized the fact that a discussion with a diminutive, dreadlocked, drama-prone football player could hold my attention for longer than 10 minutes had to say something about the state of the NFL. When problem children like Pacman can dominate the headlines this long, they eventually can taint an entire league.
The month-long run of marathon meetings at 49ers headquarters had gotten more tedious than The English Patient, and the team's top executives craved a little spice. Then, as if a gift from the football gods, it arrived -- the videotape that turned a trio of rational men into smitten reality-show judges.
Almost 10 years later, Doug Williams is still quick to correct what he construes as an erroneous and inappropriate characterization. He didn't replace Eddie Robinson as head coach at Grambling. Nobody ever has -- or will.
This article originally appeared in Sports Illustrated on December 1, 1997.
All draft talk, all the time. That's what I heard at the league meetings last week, that's what I get asked about on most every talk show I'm on, that's the subject of the story (featuring Wisconsin tackle Joe Thomas) I'm working on for SI right now and that's what I'm prepping for this week. Fitting that your e-mails are heavy, heavy, heavy on the draft. So on with your draft topics, and a few others.
Editor's Note: The NFL officially announced the cancellation of its preseason game in China on Monday.
Musings, observations, and the occasional insight in the wake of this week's rather uneventful NFL annual meeting in Arizona ...
Baseball is enjoying such unprecedented economic success and labor peace that it starts the new season Sunday doing a pretty good impression of the National Football League.
I learned two important things after writing last week's column on the recent struggles of defensive linemen selected first overall in the NFL Draft. One is that there are a hell of a lot of readers who thought I had overlooked Lee Roy Selmon and Ed "Too Tall" Jones, when, in fact, I was discussing the failures of defensive linemen drafted within the last 30 years. The other is that there are a handful of readers out there who think the 2000 draft class produced some of the worst first-round picks in recent history, including its top selection and the inspiration for last week's column, Cleveland Browns defensive end Courtney Brown. It was this second lesson that got me to roll back my sleeves and delve into some draft evaluations for this week's column.
PHOENIX -- Dispatches from the third and final day of the NFL's annual meeting in cooler-than-expected Arizona ...
PHOENIX -- Oakland Raiders rookie head coach Lane Kiffin admitted Tuesday morning that when he watches LSU quarterback JaMarcus Russell play football, he thinks of John Madden.
PHOENIX -- Very impressive performance by Lane Kiffin this morning at the AFC coaches breakfast here at the NFL meetings. (Each year the AFC coaches meet the press one day, the NFC coaches another. They sit at round tables, eat some fruit or eggs, chug coffee and update the world, usually carefully, about their teams.)
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- There will be sexier stories than commissioner Roger Goodell tweaking the player-conduct policy at the annual NFL meetings here this week. Like the announcement this afternoon of the first two prime-time games of 2007 on NBC, including Eli Manning opening his second straight season on the first Sunday night game of the year, this time against Dallas. (My, how Tony Romo's star continues to rise.) Like Ron Jaworski replacing Joe Theismann as Monday Night Football analyst.
In this month's whirlwind of NFL player relocations, no move was more surprising than that of three-time Pro Bowl outside linebacker Joey Porter, a career Steeler who was cut by the team on March 2. Four days later the Dolphins gave Porter, one of two NFLers ever to have 60 sacks and 10 interceptions, a five-year, $32 million deal. The 6'3", 250-pound Porter, 30, a magnet for controversy on the field and off, is apparently not about to change his ways -- he was cited for punching the Bengals' 6'7", 305-pound Levi Jones at the Palms in Las Vegas last Saturday, one of the rare things that, at SI's press time, Porter wouldn't talk about.
The NFL may soon hand down the kind of decision that could highlight Roger Goodell's brief reign as commissioner and put the spotlight squarely on his efforts to strengthen the league's personal conduct policy. Sources within the league office say the NFL is likely to set an example with its punishment of troubled Tennessee Titans cornerback Adam "Pacman'' Jones, suspending him even before the legal process from a Las Vegas strip club brawl in February is complete. The suspension could wipe out his entire 2007 season.
The great thing about throwing an unexpected topic like overtime out there, which happened in this space on Monday, is that it has the potential to generate a huge amount of feedback, with some interesting ideas. That's what I'm going to focus on here -- the new ideas. I'm going to give you e-mailers the floor, then come back to respond to some other topics after you guys have your say.
I've never been a big fan of the NFL's current overtime system. Even though only 29 percent of all overtime games have been won on the first possession of extra time, that's 29 percent too often for me. NFL teams have only 16 regular-season games a year, and those games are too important for something as vital as first possession of the ball to be determined by a coin flip. The rule is madness. Both teams should have at least one crack at the ball in overtime.
ATLANTA -- Walk up to an NFL fan on the street, ask him who Tom Shaw is and be prepared for a shrug of the shoulders. Ask Tom Brady, Peyton Manning or Reggie Bush about Shaw and the answer will be much different.
Sports fans may endlessly debate the relative merits of football and baseball. But when it comes to making money, football wins hands down. Compare the sports' annual broadcast deals: $2.2 billion ...
If we've learned anything from the first few weeks of the NFL's unrestricted free agency period, it's that bigger bank accounts usually lead to riskier decisions within the marketplace. The recent increase in the NFL's salary cap -- it has grown by nearly $25 million over the last two years -- has given more teams more license to indulge in the kinds of moves that they wouldn't even consider a few years ago. I'm talking about aging running backs signing for good money and guards -- yes, guards -- finding fat paydays after years of being dismissed as the most expendable components of an offensive line. It's these types of trends that have made this offseason all the more interesting.
Tennessee general manager Mike Reinfeldt sits in Nashville with $26.5 million in cap room not burning a hole in his pocket. Green Bay GM Ted Thompson does the same with $21.8 million to spend in northeast Wisconsin. And through the mayhem of the first 10 days of free agency, the two guys who run the football side of those teams -- coincidentally, former roommates with the Houston Oilers -- are gritting their teeth, watching money get spent foolishly in some cases, and waiting for the market to simmer down.
Bill Walsh sits at a lacquered wooden table, the 18th hole of the pristine Sharon Heights Golf and Country Club behind him, another blood transfusion and another long, draining day at Stanford Hospital in his immediate future. The Hall of Fame coach is talking about the end of his life -- the "final stage," as he calls it -- and, at 75, sounds as prepared and unruffled as a man battling leukemia can be. But is he completely without regret? Walsh closes his eyes and furrows his brow, the wrinkles on his prominent forehead becoming more pronounced. Something is bothering him, something apart from the disease that has left him so vulnerable: a decision he made 18 years ago that he wishes he could take back.
1. The Patriots trade for Wes Welker -- Whether it's at slot receiver or in the return game, Welker is a pesky little play-making presence that gives the opposition fits. The Patriots gave up second- and seventh-round picks for him, but with two first-rounders this year, that lessens the blow to New England's first-day draft haul. As a bonus, the move also potentially weakens a division opponent, which is never a bad idea. Get ready to see Tom Brady throw a ton of those receiver screens that the Patriots love to Welker.
Musings, observations and the occasional insight as an interesting and, at times, wacky first weekend of free agency comes to a close ...
Though he belatedly joined this year's free-agent class -- upon being released by Pittsburgh in a Thursday afternoon salary cap move -- it didn't take Steelers outside linebacker Joey Porter long to generate interest on the open market.
The multi-team field for the Adalius Thomas sweepstakes in free agency has quickly focused on two leading contenders: San Francisco and New England.
The NFL will consider a "three strikes and you're out of the league" policy for players who break the law, the Associated Press reported this week. The proposal is the result of a meeting between NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, union head Gene Upshaw and a small group of NFL players.
LAS VEGAS -- Placing a fat stack of $100 chips onto the blackjack table at the Mandalay Bay Casino early last Thursday morning, Drew Bennett smiled at Shirley, the silver-haired dealer with a severe game face, and posed a playful question.
I wrote the following nearly five years ago in this space:
In the copycat league that is the NFL, Garrett Wolfe's best advertisement for his own set of skills is Maurice Jones-Drew. Or Warrick Dunn. Or maybe even the just-retired Tiki Barber.
For all that Troy Smith accomplished the past two-plus years at Ohio State, I don't think I've ever been more impressed with him than I am right now. After I read the various reports out of last weekend's NFL combine in Indianapolis, it's become apparent that Smith managed to win a Heisman Trophy, rack up ridiculous passing stats and lead his team to 20 straight victories in spite of the fact he's a crappy quarterback.
The biggest question NFL teams struggle with exiting the combine? How much these top prospects, 21-year-old kids, are going to be changed by money. JaMarcus Russell, from working-class Mobile, Ala., has never had the kind of money he's about to get. Ditto Calvin Johnson, Adrian Peterson, Joe Thomas.
The annual rite of winter in pro football -- picking apart draft prospects -- was heating up last weekend at the sweatshop known as the NFL scouting combine. The two top candidates to go No. 1 on April 28, quarterbacks JaMarcus Russell and Brady Quinn, were getting it with both barrels, from the media and from scouts and coaches whispering among themselves. Quinn couldn't win the big one at Notre Dame, wasn't accurate enough, threw three or four brain-lock passes a game. Needed a haircut too. LSU's Russell was a little doughy at his weigh-in (265 pounds on his 6'5 1/2" frame), didn't have Quinn's college experience, isn't particularly mobile or consistent in his mechanics and -- this one from NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock -- might not have the work ethic or love for the game to justify the guaranteed $30 million the top pick will command this year.
Long-distance relationships may not work for romances. But it's a different story for sports fans.
With the 2007 edition of the NFL Combine now half over, it's time to take stock in the winners and losers so far. Many of the earliest draft picks from the offensive side of the ball have finished their workouts for scouts, while a few chose not to participate. Here are the early results.
INDIANAPOLIS -- Dwayne Jarrett doesn't want to hear about the inevitable Mike Williams comparisons. Joe Thomas moved quickly to distance himself from the specter of Robert Gallery. Troy Smith and Chris Leak have questioned why their lack of NFL prototypical height should have anything to do with their quarterbacking skill, and Brady Quinn seems genuinely puzzled as to why his most recent performance seems to be all anybody wants to focus on.
1. Verne Lundquist, CBS: In the history of Vernes, he'd rank below both Jules Verne and Verne Troyer but it's a good time to recognize the veteran CBS sportscaster after his election this month to the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame. His five-decade résumé is remarkable. Lundquist has called among other notable events: Jack Nicklaus winning the 1986 Masters; the 1992 Regional Final between Kentucky and Duke (a.k.a. the first time Christian Laettner really annoyed you); Tiger Woods' fourth Masters victory in 2005 and George Mason's upset over Connecticut last year. Lundquist has long been the voice of CBS's Southeastern Conference football coverage and he's one of a handful of broadcasters you can honestly call underrated. "One of the reasons the [Hall of Fame] hit me like a bolt is because I'm not one of the lead guys even at our network," Lundquist told SI.com this week. "But I have a versatility to our network and I think CBS values me as an employee. So I suppose the c
Brooks, a former NFL wide receiver and cornerback, spent the last seven years as a scout for the Seahawks and Panthers and will contribute to SI.com through April's draft.
Brooks, a former NFL wide receiver and cornerback, spent the last seven years as a scout for the Seahawks and Panthers and will contribute to SI.com through April's draft.
Brooks, a former NFL wide receiver and cornerback, spent the last seven years as a scout for the Seahawks and Panthers and will contribute to SI.com through April's draft.
Of all the players entering unrestricted free agency this offseason, Philadelphia Eagles backup quarterback Jeff Garcia may face the most difficult decision. He'll turn 37 on Feb. 24 and he must choose between being a backup in Philly or possibly a starter on a bad team.
As shocking as it was to learn of San Diego's firing of Marty Schottenheimer Monday night, looking back now, the real surprise was that the Chargers head coach survived in his job into the second week of February to begin with.
Wade Phillips may indeed be a bland, insipid choice as the new head coach of the Cowboys, but there is a certain logic to his hiring. He runs a 3-4 defense that fits the club's current personnel. He has previous head coaching experience (and a much better success rate, by the way, than his main competitor for the job, Norv Turner). And he's a born-and-bred Texan, which shouldn't be overlooked considering the two best coaches in Cowboys history also were homegrown.
For the first time in seven years, the Vince Lombardi Trophy resides today in the nation's heartland, where the Indianapolis Colts call home. It took the Colts 23 years to bring a Super Bowl championship to their relocated home, but less than a week after their coronation, there are already 31 other NFL teams plotting to dethrone them.
In hiring Wade Phillips as the seventh head coach in their franchise history, the Cowboys are choosing to overlook a bit of history that doesn't bode terribly well for Phillips' chances of success on a grand scale in this, his third NFL head coaching opportunity.
If television is indeed the drug of the nation, as the hip-hop band Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy once declared, then we're all doomed with our dependence on the NFL. No programming is more popular among Americans -- more people watched this year's AFC championship game than last year's Academy Awards -- and the NFL enjoyed record viewership in 2006.
A new problem has arisen, as I attempt to make some sense out of the many charts that define my Ninth Annual TV Commentator Rankings column. The problem is how do you rate a team when one member is obviously much stronger than his partner? In the old days, I didn't think about it much. People generally were paired up in regimental fashion, but the new NFL Network has neatly skewed that arrangement.
Also in this column: • Tony Dungy's future • Chargers may mix up DBs
Harry Carson realized something was wrong when he was doing television commentary. The former Giants linebacker would be on the air, live, and he'd lose his train of thought. Carson suspected the concentration issue was connected to other symptoms he'd been experiencing -- headaches, blurred vision, a loss of his sense of smell, and sensitivity to lights and noises -- and he went to see a doctor. "I thought I had a brain tumor," he says. The problem turned out to be postconcussion syndrome. Carson, 53, now a member of the Brain Injury Association's Sports Injury Prevention Council, estimates he had between 15 and 18 concussions during his 13-year Hall of Fame career, though he never reported any of them. "Pain and hurt and being uncomfortable was ingrained in me as a player," he says. "No one knew because I kept it to myself."
MIAMI -- Peyton Manning finally has his ring. So does Tony Dungy and the rest of the Colts, the NFL's winningest team since 1999. But with Super Bowl XLI in the books, the next logical question is whether Indianapolis can build on its big-game breakthrough and add to its trophy case next season?
MIAMI -- Tony Dungy isn't taking any chances. Sure, the Colts are seven-point favorites, but the Indy coach still may insert several defensive starters on special teams because he knows the Bears' Devin Hester could make the supposed seven-point edge vanish instantly.
Indianapolis? Chicago? Who cares? For many, the battle between Anheuser-Busch, FedEx and CareerBuilder for funniest commercial is what matters on Super Bowl Sunday.
Also in this column
Also in this column
Maybe you're one of those people who are already sick and tired of hearing that Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith are the first two African-Americans to coach in the Super Bowl. You think it's just a non-issue created by a media desperate for pre-Super Bowl story lines. You don't care about race; in fact, if not for the constant stories reminding you of it, you might not even have thought about the fact that Dungy and Smith are black men.
The most fascinating part of this year's Super Bowl Media Day was the buzz around Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Marvin Harrison. He's never been a big fan of interviews, so the horde of reporters flocking around his booth on Tuesday afternoon had to be somewhat overwhelming.
MIAMI -- Oh to have had Jim Sorgi hooked up to an EKG monitor or blood pressure machine when Peyton Manning first ambled off the field shaking his right thumb, a look of real concern in his eyes as the AFC Championship Game wound down to its most crucial juncture.
With Super Bowl XLI approaching, Tony Dungy will garner more positive press than Barack Obama. Count on myriad gushy stories about Dungy's grace. Nonetheless, one description that will be elusive is Dungy as genius. Despite making history to highlight his brilliant career, Dungy still hasn't overcome the maddening tendency to overlook his football acumen.
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