Congrats the the Hall Of Famers

      

*RIP Peter Jennings

*Apparantly Wayne Gretzky is taking over the head coaching duties for the Phoenix Coyotes.  Good luck, Wayne, is continuing to try to sell ice hockey in the desert.

*Congrats to the new members of the Pro Football Hall Of Fame.  Dan Marino, despite never winning a ring, may be the best QB of all-time [Elway, Unitas and Montana fans may argue].  Steve Young's road was much tougher....but how sweet for a guy who dredged in the USFL, Tampa Bay and had to follow a Joe Montana injury in the NFC Championship game to leap his NFL career into superstardom.  Respect due to Fritz Pollard, former QB who was the NFL's first black coach, and Benny Freidman...who basically was Dan Marino in a time when QB's rarely passed the ball.

*The Hall Of Fame game in Canton tonight marks the return of Ricky Williams to football.  It will be interesting to see what he looks like in helmet and pads again...but don't overhype any of this.  He may not see too much action in this game...so a small number on the board is nothing to get worked up about.  Truth is, that with Ronnie Brown still unsigned, Williams is atop the depth chart....so keeping him from harm's way could be the most beneficial. 

*Speaking of Ronnie Brown...Miami faces Chicago in that HOF Game and the Bears will be without their first rounder Cedric Benson.  Um, maybe the NFL and NFLPA should consider having a rookie scale like the NBA does.  It would get these kids into camp on time and help stop these wasted seasons [right Philip Rivers?]

*So Joe Gibbs called the Cowboys' fans "ugly".  So what.  Not as bad as the crack of "Texas Stadium doesn't use chalk for their markers cause the players kept sniffing up the lines" he had.  Okay, that one was mine.

*Shareef Abdur-Rahim isn't to happy with the Nets.  A week ago...he loved them.  He agreed to come to New Jerseyto be a Net via a sign-and-trade deal with Portland.  The problem is that Reef's injured stick is a concern...and the Nets haven't pulled the trigger yet.  Word got out that he failed his physical and the team fished his MRI around to area doctors for an opinion.  Now Reef is peeved that the Nets are jerking around and now wants no part of the swamp.  Most likely the Nets go thru with the deal...as they have been working the phones to get back in Reef's good graces.  If, for some reason the deal falls thru, this is a rather big blow to New Jersey since they really were looking forward to Abdur-Rahim's inside scoring.  With Indiana and Miami making moves...this problem is setting the Nets back. 

*Let me go ahead and say that I'm not in love with that 13-player deal in any way.  I do like Antonie Walker in Miami.  He may actually start at small forward and is ideal for hitting those 3s that Shaq sets up.  He could turn into a Robert Horry.  I don't like bringing Jason Williams in.  Nothing against White Chocolate...but he really doesn't fit.  Miami wants to work the ball in to Shaq...and J-Will tends to fire one up here and there [and Shaq didn't like a guy named Kobe doing that].  And Williams tends to hold onto the ball which may limit what Dwayne Wade can do out there.  For Memphis...I just guess Jerry West is still in love with Eddie Jones.  This one is older and more expensive, however.  Boston gets some table scraps back in dealing Toine..which is more than if they let him walk.  But why deal away to the frontrunning Heat??  I do like N'Awlins part...as they got two young players for literally nothing.  And what is Utah thinking bringing back Greg Ostertag???

*Patrick Ramsey, Rich Gannon, Trent Green, Brad Johnson, Jeff George, Mark Brunell, Rodney Peete, Gus Frerotte, Jeff Hostetler, Tony Banks, Jeff Freiz, Heath Shuler, Rob Johnson, Tim Hassellbeck, Jeff Rutledge, Cary Conklin, Shane Matthews and Danny Wuerfful have all been Redskins QBs since Mark Rypien led the Skins to their last Super Bowl win....uh...appearance.