Remember him? Former Super Bowl winner again taking a back seat

He may be the most unceremonious Super Bowl winning quarterback this side of Trent Dilfer (and perhaps Mark Rypien). But Brad Johnson, who guided the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a 48-21 rout of the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII, has had an above-average career that currently has him holding a clipboard for Tony Romo in Dallas. He will be entering his 17th NFL season in 2008 after being drafted in the 9th round of the 1992 Draft by the Minnesota Vikings. He is among the most accurate passers in NFL history, becoming the first player to complete over 60% of his passes in 12 straight seasons. Yet he has always taken a backseat role to flavors of the month despite his steady production. First it was Randall Cunningham in his 1998 renaissance year. Then it was Jeff George in a 2000 season in Washington gone awry. Tavarais Jackson helped give him the boot in his second stint in Minnesota before Johnson became Romo's backup this past year.

So perhaps it was only fitting that Johnson's performance in 2002 was overshadowed by the Buccaneers' dominant defense. He almost assuredly will never be a starter again in the league, but if Romo succumbs to injury, the Cowboys would be in steady hands with Johnson.

Johnson had a potentially promising career with the Redskins before injury and ineffectiveness in 2000 led to George taking over at the helm. Johnson left as a free agent in 2001 to join the Bucs, but a one-and-done in the playoffs had many questioning if he was capable of taking Tampa Bay deep into the playoffs. But Johnson flourished in Jon Gruden's first season as head coach, and was as instrumental to their Super Bowl run as their vaunted defense.

Alas, he will not end up in Canton. He may not even be remembered by the casual football fan when his career officially ends. But he'll always have his Super Bowl ring and a place in the history books.

Minus fanfare, D-Backs could still slither to top of NL

They certainly aren't baseball's sexiest team. Considering they have Randy Johnson, how could they be? But despite their pedestrian 40-37 record, the Arizona Diamondbacks still may be better equipped to make a run at the NL pennant than the recent fan-favorite, the Chicago Cubs. They have last year's NL Cy Young winner and last year's AL All-Star starter heading their starting rotation, perhaps the most lethal 1-2 punch in baseball. They have two of the top up-and-coming outfielders in Chris Young and former first-overall pick Justin Upton. While the Cubs possess a much deeper lineup, their pitching, namely their starting pitching, is a cut below Arizona's. Johnson, Doug Davis, and Micah Owings round out the D-Backs' starting staff.

I am sticking to my guns of my preseason pick of Arizona as NL champions. Yes, it's early. Yes, the Cubs are the darlings of the Midwest, a team starving for a championship for 100 years now. The Cardinals and Phillies will have a say. But last year's league-runner up, Arizona, could be best-assembled to compete in a playoff series. While I have whiffed thus far on my AL pick, the Detroit Tigers, I will stand by the Diamondbacks. Very quietly, they could snake their way to National League supremacy.

Interleague Play has lost its luster

I am saying enough with interleague play. It was a novelty for the first few years, and then again when they rotated it so teams could play teams from other divisions in the opposing league. But really, all it does it highlight the major discrepancy between the quality of American League teams and National League teams. When I see Kansas City beating up on Arizona and the Tigers regaining life against the Dodgers, I realize that while those NL teams are considered solid in their respective league, they are a cut below the majority of American League teams.

Interleague play, in addition to feeding the top AL teams easy wins against NL bottom feeders, also can spoil some of the potential World Series matchups. In the old days you knew the only AL-NL showdown you'd see was the World Series, a pair of teams with no past history on a collision course for destiny. Now, it's not the case. The last three years have featured World Series matchups that played out in the regular season.

I'd rather see the AL teams beat up on the AL teams and the NL teams beat up on the NL teams all the way up until late October. But I also want a salary cap, and world-class commissioner Bud Selig doesn't figure to take that path either.

Real fans don't need to wear paraphernalia

Maybe it's just frustration stemming from the countless baseball hats with the dreaded "B" logo on it (technically stands for Boston, but actually stands for Bandwagoner). A few years prior, the "NY" Yankees hats were seemingly the only sports gear people wore, with an occasional Lakers jersey or Cowboys t-shirt mixed in.

Which brings up an interesting question. Ever talked to a Kansas City Chiefs fan? How about a Cleveland Indians supporter? As crazy as it sounds in this Boston/New York universe that we are victims of, there are, in fact, fans of some of those other sports organizations. While the Tony Gonzalez jerseys and Grady Sizemore tees are scarce, it doesn't mean that those teams, like many others, aren't well followed and supported. Most sports fans are not spoiled by their teams' success and have to stick with their teams through the rough patches (I should know, I support Baltimore sports teams and follow the Blue Jays rather closely up here in Toronto).

The fact of the matter is, as many knowledgeable sports fans as there are, many do not have to flash their teams' logos to prove to others that they are fans. As many fashionable logos and jerseys as there are out there, sometimes sports paraphernalia is as much a fashion statement as anything else. And that's where one can separate the paraphernalia from the true fans.

While it seems like most all sports teams outside of Boston aren't allowed to ever win championships, there is an occasional ray of hope. Every now and then I'll spot a Steelers' Super Bowl XL hat or a Florida Gators National Championship shirt. Of course, Steelers and Gators fans are certainly more hardcore than the average team. It's just that not every one of them needs to show it off.

Fantasy race: LT vs. AP

LaDainian Tomlinson and Adrian Peterson have flat out separated themselves from the rest of the running backs in the NFL. Peterson took the league by storm last year in his first year, just like Tomlinson did six years prior as a rookie.

If these two phenomenal running backs were to in fact race, it would be a dream matchup. It isn't that they are the two fastest backs in the league. That may in fact be far from the truth. But if one were to apply a guantlet of defensive players to them, it would simply be dazzling to watch them maneuver their ways to the end zone.

Tomlinson does it with his vision as much as he does with his speed and power. Peterson's cut backs top that of even Fred Taylor. Both can catch the ball out of the backfield, but LT is more adept at it than Peterson.

For them to start at midfield and dash to the end zone would be exciting, to say the least. Tomlinson would get there primarily on the strength of his initial burst, while Peterson would be more likely to utilize his patience, then draw defenders one way just to juke them back another way. The end result would have the two mild-mannered backs high-stepping into the end zone just a few split seconds apart. In a dead sprint, Tomlinson might win. But any time these two backs go head to head, it would be worth the price of admission.

Just think back several months to their only encounter. Peterson stole Tomlinson's thunder and Jamal Lewis' old rushing record by ripping LT's Bolts for an NFL-best 296 yards. What will they have in store when their teams meet again in 2011? It's a shame we will have to wait that long.

Now the Patriots are snitches, too

The team that Eric Mangini ratted out, much to the delight of many NFL fans, now has its own personal snitch. Nick Kaczur, and offensive lineman, helped the feds bust his supplier after Kaczur was arrested for illegal possession of a painkiller.
Kaczur is the third Patriots player to be arrested on drug charges since the Super Bowl, a time that the NFL’s dirtiest team on the field is starting to have their noses covered in off-the-field business. After Willie Andrews and Kevin Faulk were caught with marijuana, Kaczur was caught with painkillers. As a true Patriot, he turned into the golden boy all of a sudden, cooperating with the feds to save face. Maybe the feds simply didn’t want to smear the Patriots’ “good” name.
Or maybe it’s yet another heartwarming story, a Boston athlete doing a good deed. Of course, being a spy is nothing new to the Patriots. Kaczur surely was well-prepared seeing as how he learned from the best in Bill Belichick.