Former Denver running back Floyd Little was one of Tom Mackie’s favorite players while the latter was growing up watching the Broncos. He was so dedicated a fan, in fact, that for years after Little retired he wrote letters and compiled statistics arguing for his idol’s induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

And as Little and Mackie suffered through years and years of disappointments, Mackie even got to write Little’s biography, which was titled “Floyd Little’s Tales from the Broncos Sideline.”

Little’s induction later this summer has been supported by some and panned by others both here at this site and elsewhere. Those who support him say his numbers don’t tell the entire story of what he meant to the Denver Broncos and the National Football League. Those who disagree with his enshrinement say he didn’t play long enough or put up dominant enough statistics.

Whether you agree with it or don’t, however, you can’t knock the efforts Mackie put forth in supporting his friend and one-time hero. SportsIllustrated.com penned a fascinating story this week that looked at the relationship that developed between the two and at the steps Mackie took to ensure that Little would one-day be memorialized in Canton.

It’s a good read. I’d suggest checking it out.

I stumbled across this old profile on former Atlanta Falcons center Jeff Van Note at sportsillustrated.cnn.com today. I often check that site but only occasionally actually click on the stories they have in their “vault,” which for those who don’t check the site, is really a repository for old, interesting stories that seem to randomly pop up from time to time.

I started reading it because of Van Note. I can’t completely explain why but he’s one of my favorite players from the early 1980s when I started watching the game. And the profile was very interesting. It was written as his career wound down. He had lost his starting job at center but was sticking around for a final season or two for no other reason than he really loved the game.

If Wikipedia (and my math) is correct, Van Note is 64 now. He played in the NFL from 1969 to 1986, all of which was with the Atlanta Falcons. When he retired, only Jim Marshall of the Vikings had played in more games with one team (246).

He played mostly for teams that weren’t very good, though he was a solid contributor on the Atlanta teams in 1978, that made and won the team’s first playoff games, and in 1980, that won the NFC West and had arguably the league’s best team before falling victim to a Dallas Cowboys comeback in the the playoffs.

He made five Pro Bowls and strikes me as one of those guys who will not make the Hall of Fame but who will more than occasionally be brought up for consideration.

I was very young and just learning about the game back then but everything I remember and everything I read indicate that he was, at worst, a very solid, workmanlike player and, at best, during his prime, memorably good.

One of the things that struck me about the profile was that he broke the picket lines during a 1974 labor issue only to decide later that he made a mistake. He became a vice president to the NFL Players Association and then the union’s president from 1983 to 1984.

One of the issues of the time was rookie salaries. “We’ve got to stop paying all this money to rookies,” he told Sports Illustrated’s Ralph Wiley at the time. “Salaries are fine, but earn them. What do rookies know about winning in the NFL? Tilt the scales to the proven veteran.”

As top picks like JaMarcus Russell, Tim Couch, David Carr and Ryan Leaf continue to sign massive contracts and fizzle out after a few years, that continues to be one of the main issues in today’s labor discussions as well. Of course it wasn’t a billion dollar institution at the time Van Note played, but it’s still instructive – the league has been fighting about some issues for as long as 25 to 30 years and still hasn’t figured out how to get it right.

Van Note may never make the Hall of Fame. But it was blue collar guys like him who came unheralded from the University of Kentucky to play for just short of two full decades who helped turn this league into what it is today.

His voice was instructive in 1986 when this profile was written. And it strikes me that if you got a half-dozen or so of his contemporaries into a room in an effort to solve the labor issues of today that you might have more success than the league and the union are having with some of the out of touch owners and players of today.

The Minnesota State Lottery has introduced a new Minnesota Vikings scratch off game that has a $200,000 grand prize with second-chance drawings that will make players eligible for other prizes, such as season tickets.

As is called for under state law, proceeds from the $10 tickets will benefit environmental causes and the state’s general fund, according to the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal.

Steve LaCroix, the Vikings’ vice president of sales and marketing, said in a statement that the promotion is not tied to the team’s long-standing pursuit of a new stadium, but instead capitalizes on newfound popularity after the team’s strong showing during the 2009 season.

But the team saw progress in its pursuit of a stadium during the state’s legislative session this year and increasing gambling options statewide have been discussed as one possible funding mechanism for a new facility.

One could surmise that the team and the state might be taking a look at how this scratch off game performs as 2010 winds down, the 2010 season approaches and the 2011 legislative session approaches.

The Vikings’ lease at Metrodome expires after the 2011 season and team officials have said they will not renew the lease.

Funeral services were held Monday for former Arizona Cardinals and San Diego Chargers head coach Don Coryell, who died last week at 85.

He was a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame this year but was not selected for enshrinement, a fact that John Madden apparently took issue with during his eulogy.

Madden, who coached under Coryell at San Diego State in the early 1960s, pointed into the crowd at Dan Fouts and Joe Gibbs, and said all three were in the Hall because of Coryell, according to the Associated Press.

“There’s something missing,” he continued.

Coryell never won a Super Bowl. His playoff record was 3-6. But he led some high-powered offenses that changed the game in the 1970s and 80s.

That, reportedly, is what most likely has kept him out of the Hall. My inclination is that he is right on the borderline, but he was coaching just as I was starting to watch the game. So I’d be interested in hearing people’s thoughts on the influence he had on the game and whether or not he eventually will make it to Canton, Ohio.

JaMarcus Russell had been linked in recent days to the New York Jets as a possible backup quarterback option, but it looks like he’s blown that long-shot opportunity.

He’s probably not going to be relegated to reprising The Longest Yard anytime soon. But the one-time-top-draft-pick-for-Oakland-turned-all-time-draft-bust just made it harder for himself to get a second chance.

Russell was arrested and charged with possession of codeine syrup, according to several media reports.

Hmm. His name is already becoming synonymous with luminaries such as Ryan Leaf and Tony Mandarich in terms of being a stiff despite high draft status.

He was so bad at quarterback for Oakland last year that when Bruce Grad-friggin-kowski upgraded the Raiders’ quarterback play to merely mediocre, the team immediately became more competitive.

Teammates and coaches have called him out for not having much – if any – work ethic.

Yes, this news just cannot help him in any way. If he actually WANTS a second chance in the NFL, he’s got a funny way of showing it.

I just wrote a post on our sister site, brushbackpitch.com, that was mostly a rant on a rough day. But it also dealt with a topic I think we can help each other out with.

Have you ever been on the road, traveling for business or taking a family vacation, and wondered where you might be able to stop and watch your favorite team play?

I ended up through bad weather and flight cancellations tonight in Schaumburg, Ill. While I would have preferred being at home, the front desk workers at my hotel made my life easier by pointing me in the direction of a store where I could get a change of clothes and by telling me about a sports bar where I could get a discounted meal and watch a bunch of ballgames to pass the time.

In return, if I happen to be in Schaumburg again for some reason, I’ll probably patronize both the Wingate by Wyndham hotel and the The Fox and Hound pub again. What other team specific or general sports bars have you come across on your road trips that you’d like to point out to our readers?

Thank you for the feedback.

One of the most exciting rookies entering the NFL this season is Dez Bryant, the wide receiver from Oklahoma State who fell to Dallas late in the first round.

Reports indicate that he is catching everything in sight and that, even if he is the third wide receiver by definition, he will be the first receiver by performance no later than by the end of the season.

Some seem to think it’s time to start carving Bryant’s bust for the Hall of Fame and that he makes Dallas an unstoppable offense that could be destined for the Super Bowl. To those people I say whoa, whoa, whoa, let’s hold on just a minute.

Without question the Cowboys have a great deal of offensive skill talent and Bryant will very likely be one piece of that puzzle. Tony Romo has been a good to very good quarterback, at least during the regular season. There’s Miles Austin, who made this blog look good last season by breaking out after we predicted he would well before the preseason started.

There’s Roy Williams, who has underperformed since Owner Jerry Jones traded a ransom for him but who also has the skills to be a productive wideout.

There’s the speed back in Felix Jones and the power back in Marion Barber III and they are accompanied by Tashard Choice, a more than solid reserve who could probably start on a handful or more teams. Rounding out the talent are Jason Witten, who arguably is the best tight end in the league, and a collection of parts like Patrick Crayton and Kevin Ogletree, who fill important roles on good teams.

So what’s wrong? Why should we not anoint Dallas the NFC representative in the Super Bowl?

Do you remember watching Tony Romo get smushed by a dominant Vikings defensive line in a second round playoff game in January? I was there watching as aging left tackle Flozell Adams was having his way with defensive end Jared Allen until he got hurt. That changed the entire complexion of the game.

Doug Free replaced Flozell the Hotel, who has since been released, and Free became a turnstile for Allen and Ray Edwards, and the Vikings went on to a dominant 34-3 win.

The most serious question facing Dallas at its offensive skill positions is how are there going to be enough balls to go around this season. But despite being destroyed in the playoff game, Jones, Wade Phillips and the Cowboys brass did little to upgrade that line during the offseason.

At the moment, Free is penciled in as the Cowboys’ left tackle for the season. Defensive ends around the league must be licking their respective chops at that news. The team did trade disappointing linebacker Bobby Carpenter to the St. Louis Rams for Alex Barron. That provides a body. But the fact that St. Louis would trade Barron for Carpenter should give an indication of how far the tackle had slipped in their eyes.

Left tackle also isn’t the only question mark on the line. Free actually played alright by most accounts when he replaced Marc Colombo at right tackle while the latter was injured. Colombo returns for another season but he is aging and likely is a point in his career where he will always be prone to miss a game or several.

The talk is that the three of them are competing fiercely for the two starting spots. Well, that’s great. But just because three guys are fighting hard for a starting job doesn’t mean any of them are going to suddenly start playing well.

Don’t get me wrong. This isn’t just to be a Cowboy hater. The weapons on offense are plentiful and they are for real. That is a scary, scary bunch of skill players. The defense likely will be very good as well. I don’t doubt for a second that the Cowboys are the favorite to win the division again.

But which of those wideouts is going to catch the passes Romo throws while he is laying on his back?

Yes, that was a trick question.

Dallas should win many games this year and the offense should be very productive. Fantasy football points should abound.

But let’s not get carried away just yet. Romo has been mostly durable during his days as Dallas’ starter. If he is constantly evading a swarming pass rush it will lead to incompletions, could involve interceptions and, in a worst case scenario, result in injuries. At a minimum it would make it difficult for Dallas to improve on a less-than-stellar performance inside the Red Zone, where the Cowboys in 2009 seemed to employ the offensive version of the bend-but-don’t-break philosophy typically applied to defenses that give up a lot of yards but hold tough inside the 20s.

If too many of those potential downsides occur they can derail even the best and most talented of teams – no matter how many accolades Dez Bryant and his new teammates get between now and throughout the season.

Check out our baseball site at BrushBackPitch.com.

I’m not smart enough nor do I have the time right now to understand ins and outs of college football’s Bowl Championship Series. If you do an archive search on this blog, which typically focuses more on the NFL than college football, you’ll see that neither my brother nor I like the BCS as it sits right now.

But I would guess neither of us would claim to be an expert on what conferences make huge chunks of money or whose teams have the worst chances of being selected for the big money bowl games.

I was intrigued during the last couple weeks, however, as discussion emerged about the possibilities of the Big Ten, which includes the University of Minnesota where we both went to college, potentially adding any number of teams from big name Notre Dame to up-and-coming Rutgers, to recent power Missouri to trying-to-re-emerge Nebraska.

But I’ve been hesitant to embrace the talks too much because when you follow college sports you know that A) the BCS sucks and B) there is always a money angle somewhere along the line.

Yahoo! Sports has a fantastic story describing one view of how the Big 10 fought off a “plus one” playoff format a couple years ago as part of a plan to get its own network up and running so it could now raid the Big 12 and become one of what could become three or four “super conferences”.

I don’t know if Dan Wetzel has all the answers in this story. But he did write a book on the topic (due out in October, as he tactfully pitches in the narrative) and this is the best and most illustrative story I’ve seen so far on the topic.

I love the idea of Minnesota hosting teams like Nebraska and Notre Dame on a regular basis. It’s not like my Gophers have been a powerhouse worth watching on their own merits often in my lifetime.

But I don’t like this level of alleged deceit or the idea that college football as a whole, particularly the medium to small-sized schools, may pay a huge price in the long term for these changes either.

I don’t know how this will play out. My instincts tell me we’ll know more in the next few days. The major discussions underway the last few weeks could change the landscape of the game in a big, big way.

The first NFL preseason publication, Athlon Sports Pro Football, hit racks around the country sometime over the weekend.

In the last few years I hadn’t bought Athlon. I thought they had traded the compilation of a lot of important news in exchange for being the first magazine on the racks. But this was Memorial Day weekend and I had some free time on my hands at the cabin of some relatives. So I decided to pick it up.

And I think it’s a better magazine than I remember from past years. First, Athlon has added thoughts from NFL scouts and opposing coaches on every team – and some of the notes are compelling. For instance, one expert noted the discomfort Tom Brady showed in the pocket as New England’s quarterback in his first year back from a torn ACL. “The knee injury had something to do with it, but some quarterbacks never get that feeling back,” he notes.

Then there’s the Fantasy Flash, where the magazine makes a prediction – not always going with the obvious (for example, Brandon Gibson was selected for St. Louis, not Steven Jackson) – and provides an explanation for who and why someone might be a good player to target in upcoming drafts.

Finally, interesting profiles on Jets Coach Rex Ryan and on the increasing prominence of 4,000 yard passers and the aerial game throughout the league made the magazine a good holiday weekend pickup.

It’s still not perfect. Because it came out in late May, there are still going to be a lot of changes the magazine misses out on in making sure it gets out right away. But it has found a way to still provide a compelling read for those football fans who can’t wait another few weeks for the rest of the magazines that will soon follow.

One of the first NFL playoff games I remember watching when I was little was the AFC Championship game in 1981 between San Diego and Cincinnati. The game brought the Chargers from California out to Ohio in January when the temperature was -9 degrees and the wind chill was -57 degrees.

The Bengals crushed the Chargers that day setting the stage for Cincinnati to roll into Detroit for Super Bowl XVI, where the San Francisco 49ers would win the first of their handful of championships.

Many famous NFL games have been played in cold weather. Dallas and Green Bay in the Ice Bowl also comes to mind. But none of those cold weather games have been the Super Bowl. The aforementioned Super Bowl in Detroit was played in the Silverdome. A decade later Minnesota hosted the big game in the Metrodome.

It took four ballots, but league execs voted today to roll the dice on holding the Super Bowl at the new New York Jets/New York Giants mecca in 2014. The stadium will open this year. If it is anything like the old Meadowlands stadium was like there will be swirling winds and other crazy elements.

I like this call. While New Orleans, Miami, Pasadena, Calif. and the other handful of warm weather cities that have hosted many Super Bowls have certainly mastered the formula it’s good to mix it up once in awhile. And what bigger venue is there than New York for a big game?

Sure, the non-East Coast world (myself included) gets sick of ESPN constantly broadcasting the New York Yankees, Mets and Boston Red Sox 4,300 times a year. But this is the Super Bowl. And it could be played in real weather.

Like football was meant to be played in all along. Enough with Super Bowls being reserved for warm weather climates or for cities with domes. It’s not like the players aren’t going to show up if the weather is cold or if there is snow on the ground. This is for the Lombardi Trophy. For the ring. For sports immortality.

Lay it on the line in the mud and snow. I applaud the NFL owners for making this call.