Hayes Finally Runs Into Hall of Fame

"Bullet" Bob Hayes was elected posthumously to the Pro Football Hall of Fame(PFHOF), and I say, "IT'S ABOUT TIME!"

Most athletes can't say they changed the sport in which they played, but former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver "Bullet" Bob Hayes can say that he changed professional football.

Hayes won the gold medal in the 100 meter dash and the 4x100 meter relay in the 1964 Olympics. The Cowboys drafted the fastest man in the world in the 7th round and unleashed his speed on the NFL in 1965. Speed that the rest of the league could not handle.

NFL defenses typically played man-to-man in the secondary. Hayes scored 25 touchdowns and averaged over 20 yards a catch against that man coverage his first 2 years with the Cowboys. The rest of the league got wise and started playing more zone defense, and defenses in the NFL are still playing zone whether the team they are playing has a guy as fast as Hayes, or not. By the way, Hayes scored 20 more touchdowns the next 2 seasons against zone defenses.

His final numbers, 371 receptions for 7414 yards and 71 touchdowns, are not eye-popping like Jerry Rice's, and he doesn't have as many Super Bowl rings as Lynn Swann, but he still leads the Cowboys in TD receptions, and neither one of those guys fundamentally changed the game of football.

Sammy Baugh changed the game of football. He was in the 1st class of the PFHOF. Lawrence Taylor changed the way outside linebacker is played. He was elected to the PFHOF on the 1st ballot. Bob Hayes changed the way the NFL plays defense. He was FINALLY elected to the PFHOF 29 years after he was eligible and 7 years after his death.

It took 29 years, but The Bullet is in the Hall of Fame.

Top 10 Things I Expect On Super Bowl Sunday

Well, it's that time of the year, again. It's time for sports guys like myself to make our predictions about Super Bowl XLIII.
Well, here are a few for you:

1)There will be a coin-flip, and the Steelers will call heads or tails.
2)Peyton Manning will be in at least 3 commercials.
3)John Madden will say, "That's what it's all about", 10 times.
4)I will marvel at the "1st down line" that the network's superimpose on the field.(Greatest innovation in televised sports since the instant replay, by the way)
5)The network will find Kurt Warner's wife in the stands and put her on television 1,000 times.(That never gets old.)
6)The Steelers Troy Palamalu and the Cardinals Larry Fitzgerald will compare hairstyles.
7)Some company, we've never heard of and will never hear from again, will have a commercial in the game.
8)Somebody at your Super Bowl party is going to say, "Now, who's playing this year?"
9)Cowboys fans and 49ers fans will be pulling for the Cardinals to win because they don't want the Steelers to be the 1st team with 6 Super Bowl titles.
10)The Pittsburgh Steelers will beat the Arizona Cardinals.

That's How I See It.

Birds Take Flight

Everybody knows, that birds have no trouble being on the road in the Winter. So, we should not be surprised that all 3 road teams with bird mascots in the NFL Playoffs won their games this past weekend.
The Arizona CARDINALS went to number 2 seed Carolina and beat the Panthers.
The Baltimore RAVENS went to number 1 seed Tennessee and beat the Titans.
The Philadelphia EAGLES went to number 1 seed New York and beat the Giants.
This is clearly the year of the bird in the NFL. 4 bird mascots made it to the post-season, and 3 of those are still alive, and bird teams are 6 and 1. Even more impressive, the birds are 5 and 1 on the road in the playoffs, and that lone loss by the Atlanta FALCONS came to the CARDINALS.
So, we've got the Philadelphia EAGLES at the Arizona CARDINALS in the NFC Championship game, and the Baltimore RAVENS at the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC Championship game.
These are not my official picks, but you've got to think that the RAVENS and the EAGLES are headed to Super Bowl.
Granted my whole "the bird is the word" philosophy is not science, but I am guy who looks at history. Recent history tells me we are looking at our first-ever all bird Super Bowl.

I Don't Like the BCS

I don't like the Bowl Championship Series. Yeah, I know, no real shocker there. What college football fan likes the BCS? Well, I don't like the Bowl Championship Series for a different reason that most. I miss the the excitement of New Year's Day. The BCS took the most important bowl games away from me on January 1st under the premise that we would get an undisputed national champion. Well, that didn't happen this year, and the bowl games on New Year's Day, with the exception of the Cotton Bowl, were of no interest to most people. I loved getting up on January 1st to watch the parades, and then I spent the day watching the Cotton Bowl, the Sugar Bowl, the Rose Bowl, and the Orange Bowl. It was the best day of the year for college football fans. We don't have that anymore, and we don't have an undisputed national champion. I say that's a lose-lose for college football fans. I don't want a playoff in Division 1 football. I want the old bowl system. I want the excitement of New Year's Day back in my life.