Back in the late 1970’s, it was 260 pound Texas A&M Wishbone fullback George Woodard.
Then, several years ago, it was 270 pound Aggie tailback JaMaar Toombs.
Now, it’s 282 pound Aggie tailback Jorvorskie Lane.
What is it about over-sized running backs that fascinates the Aggies?

Despite my earlier reservations, the Michael Vick debacle actually provides some hope for the Houston Texans’ draft strategy:

In 2000, [the San Diego Chargers] stunk. Fan apathy grew like dandelions. The Chargers had gone 1-15, almost impossible in the modern-day NFL. Ryan Leaf was their starting quarterback, fading away like bad smoke, soon to get into coaching (of all things). They needed oomph. They needed star quality. They needed box office.
The quarterback situation was beyond dismal. So, what did they do? They didn’t take my advice (as usual), which was, in 2001, to draft electric Virginia Tech quarterback Michael Vick. That’s why I’m a sportswriter, not Lombardi.
But they almost took Vick. They came this close. So the worst team in the NFL sent its No. 1 overall pick to Atlanta for the fifth selection, who turned out to be just a guy, a someone, a nice fellow, a tailback named LaDainian Tomlinson, who has scored 111 touchdowns and thrown for six more since that fateful day.
LT now owns San Diego. Vick now owns a set of tremendous problems. He makes Leaf look like Johnny Unitas.

Read the entire column. The Chargers are now one of the elite teams in the NFL, while the Falcons are trolling quickly to the bottom. Maybe that Texans 2006 draft wasn’t so bad after all.

Before the ubiquitous burners these days at the wide receiver position in the National Football League was the Dallas Cowboys’ Bullet Bob Hayes, the 1964 Olympic gold medal winning sprinter-turned-NFL All-Pro wide receiver.
Hayes played before the days of big money in the NFL and his life took a turn for the worse in the 1970’s when he served prison time for being involved in a drug ring. Hayes died at the age of 59 in 2002 from kidney failure and is still a legend in his hometown of Jacksonville, Florida, but this Jacksonville Times-Union article indicates that his legendary status does not equate with a fitting resting place:

In a corner of A. Philip Randolph Park, a statue surrounded by red, white and pink flowers captures “Bullet” Bob Hayes at his Olympic peak – the 1964 Tokyo games – whizzing past the competition in the anchor leg of the 4×100 meter relay.
Yet, on the other side of the city, the final resting place for Jacksonville’s most revered athlete is nothing more than a bare patch of grass. [. . .]
In 1999, the Times-Union named the phenom who rose from poverty on Jacksonville’s Eastside to Olympic greatness, and later stardom for the Dallas Cowboys, as its Athlete of the Century.
Hayes is remembered locally as an Olympic legend for his world record performances and two gold medals in Tokyo – his anchor sprint in the relay is still considered among the fastest ever. And later, as a player in the National Football League, his unmatched speed forced defenses to revise their zone schemes. He holds 22 Dallas records, including 71 career touchdown receptions and 20 yards per catch, and is enshrined in the Cowboys’ Ring of Honor.
But in Edgewood Cemetery, where Hayes is buried, there seems to be a legacy deferred – an empty tract with no headstone. Times-Union reporters who visited the burial site twice, once in June and again last week, observed no marker of any sort. A Times-Union photographer on Saturday found a temporary marker at the site. [. . .]

SI.com’s Michael Silver rates the owners of the 32 National Football League teams, and Texans’ owner Bob McNair comes in a respectable seventh:

Like [Redskins owner Daniel] Snyder, McNair is an aggressive, personally invested owner who desperately wants to field a winning team. Unlike the Redskins’ boss, McNair hasn’t even come close to doing so.
Since the Texans joined the NFL in ’02, there have been a lot of dubious decisions on key matters, from the stubborn insistence that David Carr was a franchise quarterback to the selection of Mario Williams over Reggie Bush and hometown hero Vince Young in the ’06 draft. McNair, at the very least, deserves some blame for hiring the people who made those decisions.
That said, he has established a highly valued franchise in a market the NFL had abandoned. He also worked exceptionally hard on last year’s revenue-sharing plan. And, on a self-serving note, McNair’s may be the most media-friendly organization in the league.

If there was ever a sports franchise owner whose team deserved some good fortune on the playing field, then it’s McNair.
Oilers owner Bud Adams comes in 18th, which is somewhat surprising only because it’s hard to believe that there are 14 owners worse than him. Go figure.

In the late 1970’s, Earl Campbell ushered in a generation of outstanding running backs from Texas and he remains the standard by which power runners are evaluated. However, the pounding that Earl took during his playing career has taken a heavy toll. As Jay Christensen and Tom Dienhart report, the Tyler Rose is badly crippled despite the fact that he has just turned 50 years of age (a related Chip Brown/Dallas Morning News article is here).
Given Campbell’s condition, this recent Chronicle story looks even sillier than it did at the time it ran.

Stephanie Stradley, who did a good job of blogging the Houston Texans last season as the “Texans Chick” over at the Chronicle, is now blogging over at the NFL Fanhouse. She passes along this interesting item regarding Texans’ star wide receiver Andre Johnson’s comparison of new Texans QB Matt Schaub and former Texans punching bag, er, I mean, QB, David Carr. Johnson’s comments are particularly interesting given Carr’s recent remarks (see here) regarding his time with the Texans.
H’mm. Any surprise that Carr’s Texan teammates never voted him to be one of the team’s captains?

You know it’s about time for the college football season to begin when the first story appears proclaiming that Texas A&M football coach Dennis Franchione remains on the hot seat (Brett Zwerneman of the San Antonio Express-News):

. . .Anyway, an Aggies neighbor here in town firmly stated Monday that this is Dennis Franchioneís make-or-break season in College Station. I didnít realize she had that much pull with the Aggies brass.
I argued that A&M will have a better team than last season — and a worse record. For starters to a tough last two-thirds of the schedule, the Aggies play a non-conference, Thursday night road game at Miami, a recently-proud program now under first-year coach Randy Shannon. [. . .]
Last year, A&M squeezed out a three-point victory at KU and a one-point victory in overtime at OSU. This year, A&M plays league road games at Texas Tech, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Missouri.
The Aggies havenít won in Lubbock since 1993. They havenít won in Lincoln, Neb., since 1955 (no, I didnít cover that game). They havenít won in Norman, Okla., since 1997. They havenít won in Columbia, Mo., since 1999.
In other words, A&M hasnít won at any of those places this millennium (or century, if that grabs you more). In 2003, Franchioneís first season at A&M and the last time the Aggies played this league slate, A&M lost at the above four hotspots by a combined 167 points.
One-hundred-and-sixty-seven points! (Right, that team didnít have Mike Goodson. You got me.)
Obviously theyíve got a little ground to make up. . . .

The entire column is here.

Maybe it’s simply because the Texans have been one of the NFL’s worst expansion franchises in modern times.
Maybe it’s because of the scars from the Tony Boselli deal. Or perhaps the Philip Buchanon deal.
Maybe it’s just because of the concern that is raised whenever Richard Justice declares that the Texans are about ready to turn the corner.
But does it trouble anyone else that the management of the Atlanta Falcons apparently knew this information about QB Michael Vick and still traded their backup quarterback to the Texans, anyway?