Rayfield Is In, Too...I Think

Todd Archer with a great profile of Rayfield Wright …Who I think is absolutely, positively in the Hall of Fame this week…

"I still have nightmares over the guy," Youngblood said. "He was definitely one of my nemeses in my career. There's no question that he was a dominant offensive right tackle at that point in time."
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"He had the whole package," Youngblood said. "He had finesse and he had size and quickness and great feet. I'm sure it broke his heart to go from a tight end. He went from being a pretty boy to one of those grunts, but he turned into a wonderful player."

At a North Texas golf outing not too long ago, Hall of Fame defensive lineman Joe Greene saw Wright walk by and said, "There goes the best offensive lineman I ever played against."

Funny Super Bowl Quotes …

According to SI.com, former Green Bay Packers defensive back Herb Adderley provided one of the nine "most memorable" quotes at a Super Bowl.

The Hall of Fame cornerback was asked at Super Bowl II in Miami if he would rather play a Super Bowl in Los Angeles or Miami. The first Super Bowl was played in Los Angeles.

"I'll play anywhere for $15,000," Adderley said.

Well, that's not bad, but consider what former Packers general manager Ron Wolf said after the Packers lost to the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXXII.

"We're a one-year wonder, just a fart in the wind," Wolf said.

Wow.

Mavs hold on to big lead to beat Bulls ...

It didn't come to that for the Mavericks, but win No. 9 in a row was hard to feel real good about.

A 30-point lead dwindled to five, and if the Chicago Bulls didn't miss four 3-pointers on one possession in the final 30 seconds, it could have been worse.

As it was, the Mavericks hung on for a 98-94 victory, tying the fourth-longest winning streak in club history. In the third quarter, they were up 69-39. Then, after Chicago made 10 baskets without a miss, they were in a serious battle.
"The important thing is that we held on and didn't have a disaster by letting them come back and win," Jerry Stackhouse said.

And it would have been nothing short of a disaster. The biggest blown lead in franchise history is 30 points on Dec. 6, 2002, against a Los Angeles Lakers team that was one of the best in the league. This would have been worse, given that the Bulls aren't even a playoff team right now in the Eastern Conference.

The Mavericks gave up 60 points, 24 points in the paint, 24 fast-break points and were outrebounded, 26-17, in the second half.

As bad as they were, they had been terrific in building a 58-34 halftime lead.

Red Wings and Blues, tonight, and BaD Radio, the Musers, and Rob Chickering will be there….The Blues still have players left, right? I guess not. Scott Young is the highest scorer, left…

Chris Chelios said last weekend he would provide leadership for the U.S. Olympic hockey team whether he had a letter on his jersey or not.

As it turns out, Chelios will have the letter "C" on his sweater, the epitome of leadership in hockey.

Chelios will be named captain of the U.S. hockey team today at an 11:30 a.m. news conference at Joe Louis Arena.

Don Waddell , the U.S. men's hockey team general manager, will attend the conference.

Chelios turned 44 last week, becoming the oldest player in the NHL. This will be his fourth Olympic tournament, his first in 1984 when he played in Sarajevo.

"To get a shot at the gold medal for the fourth time is unbelievable," Chelios said.

Bengals WR Chris Henry is in big trouble …but isn’t the real question, “is he wearing his own jersey in that mug shot?”

This just in: being an obese football player could be bad for your health …

The heaviest athletes are more than twice as likely to die before their 50th birthday than their teammates, according to a Scripps Howard News Service study of 3,850 professional-football players who have died in the last century.

Most of the 130 players born since 1955 who have died were among the heaviest athletes in sports history, according to the study. One-fifth died of heart diseases, and 77 were so overweight that doctors would have classified them as obese, the study found.

Tice is hired in Jacksonville to be an assistant …

Speaking of all of this Hall of Fame talk, here is a back and forth with someone who had major issues with my Gosselin/Aikman blog of yesterday:

Interesting Blog, but sometimes I wonder if you write this stuff just to piss off Hansen cause I don’t understand your logic. You preface the blog by stating that Goose gives a good argument and that Aikman should go in the HOF then you spend the rest of your blog attacking the guy’s accomplishments and Goose’s view point. Seems like you’re a bitter Packer fan who resents Aikman led Cowboy teams that beat up on the Packers. Maybe it just really pisses you off that even in your S.B. year of 96 Favre couldn’t lead his team to score a single point against the Cowboys. Look man, I’m a huge Cowboy fan but I don’t secretly hate the 60’s Packers for their NFL championship victories against the Boys, both were great and should be noted and respected as such. So Bob, Aikman’s career is done and for all relevant reasons Favre’s is too, so get over the 90’s and move on. The Cowboys of the 90’s are considered one of the greatest teams of all-time because they were made up of great players that enabled this team to be great in all phases of the game. Also I don’t get your attack on Goose’s article; you call the guy a homer for writing a pro Aikman piece for his HOF candidacy. What is Goose supposed to do, present the HOF panel with reasons why he shouldn’t go in the HOF, just so Packer fans won’t think he’s a homer? So let me put it to you Sturm style, love the show and the Blog but please get over the Packer’s failure against the Cowboys great teams. Maybe you think Aikman is really overrated, and that’s fine but in the end he will be a first ballot HOF with three rings, so just get over it, or maybe you’re just trying to piss Hansen off?

Mario

And here is my response to that:

sure seems to me that you read the parts that support your argument and ignore the nice things I say about your guy. I harbor no bitterness to at all to Aikman, nor the Cowboys, but since I have done about 2,000 shows and 6,000 hours of radio and you still think like you do, I guess it makes no sense to try to explain it to you-

And his response to my response:

Thanks for the replay and I’m sorry I did a poor job of getting my point across. What I’m asking is did you put the Aikman Blog out to infuriate Hansen and other Aikman/Cowboy die-hards or did you put the Blog out to call Aikman overrated one last time before he goes into Canton? Just seems to me like you start off by saying that Aikman was great and will gain first time induction but then you write that many of Goose’s arguments for Aikman are inaccurate and homerish. So I think if you want to agitate Hansen and the rest just put out what you feel, and simply state that Aikman had a great career but you have and always will think he’s overrated. I just wish you would come out and say it like that as opposed to trying to play both sides of the argument. That stance won’t bother me and it would be some fun reading and I’d love to read you defend an argument that Aikman really is overrated. Let me put it like this I am a HUGE Roy Williams fan but when you get down on Roy I never disagree cause I hold the guy to a high standard and when he gets beat in coverage and/or misses a tackle I note it to and could never be angry at a sportscaster for commenting on it. I’m not against your Blog on Aikman I just would have preferred if you had come out as straight Aikman bashing instead of a Blog of backhanded compliments. But maybe I’m wrong and you don’t think Aikman is overrated and if so then I did indeed interpret your Blog incorrectly, and sorry for wasting your time.

Mario

PS – and thanks for the scoreboard on your radio career, that was a cute touch

And then my response to his response to my response to his response:

I think you are missing the boat again. Look, I was not "scoreboarding" you, I was trying to explain that my track record suggests that I have been quite fair with Troy. I say he is a "no-brainer hall of famer" and yet guys like you don't think that is enough praise.

If you think I suggest he is over-rated, then I guess you cannot be reasoned with. I may think Dale over-rates him, but most rate him where he belongs to be rated. Amongst the best.

Third, this was not a blog against Troy. I would think based on what I said that in the blog, it seems quite obvious that it was a blog questioning the usually sound logic of Gosselin. I expect more out of him based on his work than this.

Thankfully, of the 3500 people who read that essay, you are the only one to get this worked up. I appreciate that you are passionate about your guy, but I assure you that it is not illegal to discuss the pros and cons of a guy's career in a manner that is respectful and researched.

Anyway, he gets in this week, so congrats on that-

And his response to my response to his response to my response to his response:

This is too funny man and I guess I really suck at getting my point across but I’ll try one more time. I think the blog is accurate in that Goose put out a homer article on Aikman, but what is the guy supposed to do? Throwing out a stat like most games won in any decade sounds great and that’s what Goose should be doing cause the guy isn’t giving a pros and cons as to why Aikman should go into Canton, he is giving a position paper on why Aikman should go into Canton so Goose isn’t going to say that his facts may be misleading or anything else derogatory concerning Aikman’s career. So I think it’s a cheap shot at Goose for doing what he should be doing, but by no means am I fired up on this issue it just surprised me that you would question Goose’s logic here when his undertaking in the article is so clear, he is writing an article that is supposed to tell people that despite Aikman’s modest stats he’s a HOFer. Maybe you think Goose should have used a better argument. As far as me saying that you under-rate Aikman well that is definitely my fault for misinterpreting what you wrote, then it just seemed odd to me that you would compare Aikman’s accomplishments to that of Brett Favre’s as a way of attacking Goose’s logic. That would be like saying that just because Kobe doesn’t accomplish what MJ did that Kobe doesn’t belong in the HOF. Aikman may not have had the career that Favre did but why does that matter, their both HOFer? So I did a poor job of getting my point across but all I want to know is why would you write a blog stating that Aikman is a great qb that should go into the HOF and then criticize Goose for being a homer when that is what he’s supposed to do. If you wanted to add context to Goose’s article all you got to do is point out is Aikman’s record at the beginning and end of his career. Come on dude, this guy wins 3 Bowls and then gets beat by Plummer in the playoffs, that’s all you gotta say. So I hope you don’t think I’m attacking you anymore, I guess I’m just the one person reading the blog who didn’t get it and I’m sorry for bringing up Favre’s lack of success at Texas Stadium, whoops I just did it again!!

Mario

Ps – by the way Bob I used to hate the Pack in the mid to late 90’s until I went to school in Iowa and was exposed to the pompous, obnoxious, overbearing Vikings fan, talk about a collective group of fans that holler about a team that just only knows how to joke

And my final response to his response to my response to his response to my response to his response:

No worries at all- I would never suggest Favre is better than Aikman because it is a total apples to oranges debate- I would be happy with either one, I suppose, but I am not sure you can go wrong either way.

My issue with Goose is not arguing on Troy's behalf, but I would just rather he do so with sound arguments that are not easily shot down. I guess my thought is that if I can shoot these down so easily as misleading statistics, couldn't Aikman detractors do so far easier?

Finally, I would just say this: I know to some (perhaps even you) the idea that someone could love one franchise and yet fairly examine all franchises and players might seem impossible, but I assure you I love football enough to consider issues like these every day. My opinion of the Green Bay Packers has absolutely nothing to do with my opinions of the Dallas Cowboys. One is my childhood team, and the other is the main subject of my job. I am sure you can offer me a little credit for being able to seperate the two.

Anyway, I am always happy to sports-argue, as long as we can keep it at a higher level than "you are just mad because the Cowboys beat you" rants. Frankly, those generally get the delete, but I am in the mood to respond today under all circumstances.

For the record, Rick Gosselin is the finest football writer in Texas, and 99% of the time, his debates have no holes. That is why I found this one noteworthy, and blogworthy.

Not really an email war, but I just wanted to show that no matter how carefully I write something on this topic, it will always pull some offsides…You just can’t do anything but throw flowers at the feet of the locals…