The college football season is over; withdrawals, depression, misery. Before you slip into an apathetic stupor for eight months, remember that the NFL Draft is just around the corner! From now until April's NFL Draft, I will be profiling some of the more interesting prospects. I can't promise that I'll get to your favorite player, but if you'd like to see a certain player profiled, shoot us an email and let us know.

When Jordan Shipley was granted a sixth year of eligibility after the 2008 season, Big 12 defenses were plagued with nightmares all spring and summer. When 2009 rolled around, their worst fears came true and their nightmares became reality. Shipley torched opponents for 116 receptions for 1,485 yards and 13 touchdowns in 2009, all single-season school records.

While defenses were not too thrilled to see Shipley return, the extra year in college did wonders for his NFL readiness. He is now one of the most mature, NFL ready prospects in the entire draft regardless of position. That's not saying he'll be burning NFL defenses in 2010 or will even develop into a team's top receiver, but Shipley will undoubtedly find a home in the slot or as a second receiver on an NFL offense.

The biggest concern among scouts is his size. Shipley is 6'0 190 pounds. He's not the biggest wide receiver in the draft and has had to overcome leg and hamstring injuries early in his career at Texas so the risk of injury concerns some teams. If you can come to terms with his size, get over the injury woes he's faced and don't expect him to be your team's top receiver, then Shipley is your guy.

Whenever Colt McCoy needed to move the ball for a first down, who did he turn to?

Shipley.

Whenever the Longhorns were in desperate need of a big play, who did they turn to?

Shipley.

When Texas needed a reception to get Garrett Gilbert in rhythm in the title game, who did they turn to?

Shipley.

His dependability and good hands make him an absolutely ideal candidate to play the slot in the NFL. Some have even compared him to Wes Welker because of his underrated quickness and his ability to catch the ball in traffic.

You just can't make this stuff up.

We are still more than a week away from kickoff in Super Bowl XLIV and the NFL, the institution that is the marketing envy of not just the sports business world but the business world in general has a PR nightmare on its hands.

The two week layoff between Championship Sunday and the Super Bowl is intended to have the hype of the biggest game on the biggest stage with the largest viewing audience slowly build to a crescendo and culminating with the drama of the actual game itself.

This year, instead of talking about Peyton Manning and Drew Brees, Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark, Marquis Colston, Reggie Bush, defense, anyone or anything about defense; we find the focus of Super Bowl XLIV on anything but football.

America's Game has America's problems

The NFL who's labeled itself America's Game has now taken on America's problems. This week's media focus has been on Mr. Saint" himself, Archie Manning and the moral issue of who he should root for, Tim Tebow and his ‘right to life' TV commercial, the Pro Bowl and the joke that it has become, and now arguably (along with the ‘right to life' topic) the most controversial issue of all; the resurfacing of news that the leader of the half-time show, Peter Townshend of 'THE WHO', was on the registered sex offender list in the UK for five years.

Inflaming the sensitivity are now rumors that Townshend is furious about the resurfacing of the news and may try to take a ‘dig' those badgering him by playing ‘See Me, Feel Me'.

The band has however publicly released its set list. Reportedly they will be playing a medley of 'Baba O'Riley', 'Pinball Wizard', 'Tommy', 'Who Are You' and 'Won't Get Fooled Again.'

Florida-based "Protect Our Children" wants the NFL to reconsider letting 'THE WHO' perform, and even sent 1,500 "sex offender advisory" postcards to homes and schools, warning residents to watch out for Townshend.

Townshend was a registered sex offender in the UK for five years after his arrest for using a Web site advertising child pornography. He said he was merely doing research for an upcoming book.

He was cleared by police, but was still placed on the sex offender registry as a caution because he accessed images of child abuse.

(You don't think they'll be mad that I said that do you?)

For an institution that is the marketing envy of not just the sports business world, but the business world in general, the NFL sure has managed to screw thing up.

It's bad enough that the game isn't real football. Without going into detail, the offense basically can't attempt to trick the defense and the defense can't .........well...... play defense. No zone, no blitz..... Occasionally they do allow tackling.

But if you are going to parade your league All-Stars out there for the public to see, how can so many of the league's All-Stars not play?

There are so many screwed up aspects to this game that I can't begin to count them.

• How do you have an AFC squad where David Garrard is in the game, but Peyton Manning and Tom Brady aren't?
• Brett Favre had the best year of his Hall of Fame career and people were talking about him being a league MVP along with Chris Johnson (if it weren't for Peyton Manning) isn't playing for the NFC? Sure he got the crap kicked out of him last week, but he's not hurt, he'd be playing if his team won and they were in the Super Bowl.
• Nate Kaeding can't play because he is injured? Since when his being embarrassed because you are statistically the best kicker in NFL history but can't make a playoff field goal an injury?
• I could go on with many of these but you get the point......

The NFL has 88 players participating in the Pro Bowl (44 players on both the AFC and NFC rosters), but 34% of the Pro Bowl players had to be replaced because they are either injured, embarrassed, or playing in the Super Bowl?

Fantasy-Friendly RedZone Drives NFL Network Growth

That was the piece we ran on November 19, 2009 profiling the NFL Network's NFL RedZone channel. At that time, the NFL Network was aggressively penetrating households across the nation. Just few months later, the NFL Network is being more aggressive than ever.

The National Football League is now planning to make its RedZone Channel available to cell phone users next season. Viewers would see the same stream of action as the people watching at home as the coverage bounces from game to game.

If this actually happens a number of people are going to be really pissed off.

Does your wife or girlfriend watch football with you on Sunday's?

• We I sure hope so as wives and girlfriend are going to go nuts as men across America will be watching their cell phones on Sundays everywhere from Church to their kids sporting events. There will be nowhere that is off-limits for Sunday NFL Football and domestic incidences will occur all across the land. A nationwide fight for attention will spontaneously break out as ‘significant others' become increasingly insignificant by about week #3 in the 2010 NFL season.

• The executives from News Corp.'s Fox and CBS Corp. are going to cry foul. The two networks each pay the NFL about $1.4 billion each season to air live games on Sunday afternoons and an expansion of the RedZone Channel has the potential to erode the audience for some of its most reliable-and expensive-programming. Are advertisers going to want to pay -up for programming that's also available on the RedZone Channel and own on every one's portable media device too?

For my part, this is really insane stuff. When I was a kid we didn't even have cable TV, that didn't come until 1981 when I was 14 years old where I lived on Long Island, NY. I was a huge Jets fan as a kid, and if they didn't sell out Shea Stadium, the game was blacked out on NBC who had the AFC contract at the time. Forget about seeing teams from around the country, I couldn't even see my home town team.

Earlier last week, ESPN.com analyst Mel Kiper released his first 2010 NFL mock draft and the first five picks were set as follows:

1. Defensive Tackle, Ndamukong Suh, Nebraska - St. Louis Rams
2. Defensive Tackle, Gerald McCoy, Oklahoma - Detroit Lions
3. Safety, Eric Berry, Tennessee - Tamp Bay
4. Quarterback, Sam Bradford, Oklahoma - Washington
5. Offensive Tackle, Russell Okung, Oklahoma State - Kansas City

There aren't any big surprises here. The Rams, unless a good trade is proposed to them, would have to be insane not to take Suh with the first pick in the draft. Rams head coach Steve Spagnuolo is a defensive-minded guy so you just know he is foaming from the mouth just thinking about inserting Suh into his defense.

The next two teams, Detroit and Tampa Bay, have plenty of holes on the defensive side of the football so it's not shocking both are set to pick stellar defensive players.

Here is where it stars to get a little confusing.

Washington is the only team in the NFL to not pick an offensive lineman in the first two rounds since 2000 when they picked offensive tackle Chris Samuels. The Redskins haven't picked ONE offensive lineman in TEN years! Now, Washington has a top five pick and, according to Kiper, there is an offensive tackle worthy of being chosen within the first five picks.

Why would the Redskins take a quarterback in the first round of the 2010 draft (Besides the fact that it's Washington.)? They have been plagued with offensive line problems for more than two seasons. Jason Campbell has been getting beaten up game after game, yet he has still produced decent numbers (Just imagine if he was as lucky Mark Sanchez... Sanchez got play for a team that traded away Chansi Stuckey and got Braylon Edwards in return!). Peyton Manning wouldn't even be able to survive with the offense around Campbell.

No, Campbell didn't have a good season. He dropped shotgun snaps, fumbled the ball when nobody was around and he also threw 15 interceptions. Overall, he just didn't look like he knew what he was doing, more so in the first half of the season than in the second half.

Don't get me wrong. What Jim Leavitt did for South Florida was remarkable. He brought the program from operating out of trailers and holding meetings under shade trees to bordering on the state of Florida's fourth football school.

I say "bordering" because the Bulls are not quite there. They're streaky to be honest, going from ranked #2 in Week 7 of the 2007 season with 11 AP first place votes to losing three straight and four of their final seven games including the Sun Bowl against Oregon. I don't mean to sound negative about what Leavitt did as head coach, but to be considered in the same class as Miami, Florida State and Florida, you have to win 10 games in a season at least once, or maybe a dozen times, and South Florida has never done that, not even in Division 1-AA.

Leavitt did have the Bulls on their way, though. Who knows, maybe if he were given a couple more seasons USF would have gotten that elusive 10 win season. But after the 'incident' it became clear that it was time for a change.

Don't worry Bulls fans, Skip Holtz is just the man to take over what Leavitt started. In fact, I'll go as far as to say that Holtz will do what Leavitt did not do in nine seasons in the FBS and take the Bulls to their first 10 win season. I'll even go as far as to say that the Holtz hiring is the best hiring of any program this offseason; better than Brian Kelly to Notre Dame and Lane Kiffin to Southern Cal.

How He Got Here

Holtz began his coaching career as a graduate assistant with Bobby Bowden at Florida State, but his football education likely began the moment he came into this world as the son of Lou Holtz, then a young coach just beginning his own coaching education. By the time the younger Holtz was 28 years old, he was an offensive coordinator at one of the most storied programs in all of college football: Notre Dame.

Working under his dad, he worked closely with the eventual second overall pick in the 1993 NFL Draft, Rick Mirer. Mirer recalls his time with Skip, only six years older than he, as an enlightening experience. "We knew he was just getting started in coaching, but he knew a lot of football. As a player, you were drawn to the guy because there was a positive energy around him. Not everybody is like that. He was always very positive, very enthusiastic, a high-energy coach, upbeat and optimistic."

The big Tebow news has not been his struggles taking snaps from center at Senior Bowl practice or even the shirtless pic of Tebow at the Senior Bowl weigh-in featured on TMZ's website (why?), but rather a commercial scheduled to air during the Super Bowl that has the 2007 Heisman winner speaking on behalf of Focus on the Family, a pro-life Christian group.

Oh, boy.

The issue has, needless to say, sparked major controversy.

Tebow will appear in the commercial with his mother Pam. The two will reportedly tell the story of Mrs. Tebow's decision to ignore her doctors' advice when they recommended she have an abortion during her difficult pregnancy with Tim.

How does Tebow feel about the controversy? "I know some people won't agree with it," he said, "but I think they can at least respect that I stand up for what I believe, and I'm never shy about that."

He's also quoted as saying, "I don't feel like I'm very preachy about it, but I do stand up for what I believe. Unfortunately, in today's society, not many athletes tend to do that. So I'm just standing for something."

Tebow's stance of "I stand up for what I believe" has not satisfied the many groups lobbying CBS to scratch the Super Bowl ad.

Dozens of women's advocacy groups and other liberal organizations have written a letter to CBS urging them "to immediately cancel this ad and refuse any other advertisement promoting Focus on the Family's agenda."

The letter also says, "By offering one of the most coveted advertising spots of the year to an anti-equality, anti-choice, homophobic organization, CBS is aligning itself with a political stance that will damage its reputation, alienate viewers, and discourage consumers from supporting its shows and advertisers."

Something tells me the other side doesn't agree...

According to ABC news, Gary Schneeberger, a spokesman for Focus on the Family, does not understand the controversy surrounding the commercial. "There is nothing political or controversial about the spot. It's a personal story about the love between a mother and son," he said.

ABC News also reports that, according to a source at CBS, "the words 'abortion' and 'pro-life' do not appear anywhere in the ad."

So how did CBS respond to the pleas to drop the ad? "At CBS, our standards and practices process continues to adhere to a process that ensures all ads -- on all sides of an issue -- are appropriate for air. We will continue to consider responsibly produced ads from all groups for the few remaining spots in Super Bowl XLIV."

Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints? Archie?

Archibald Elisha Manning III was an All-American quarterback for Ole' Miss and was selected No. 2 overall by the New Orleans Saints in the 1971. He was drafted behind Heisman Trophy Winner, Jim Plunkett from Stanford who was taken No. 1 by the New England Patriots. Plunkett would later come to fame as the winning QB for the Oakland Raiders in both Super Bowl's XV and XVII.

When the Saints drafted Archie Manning, they were just a four year old franchise. The Saints were an expansion franchise in the 1967 expansion draft resulting from the AFL / NFL merger. In the franchises four year existence, they had a record of 14-40-2. The Saints faithful were convinced that this All-American QB from neighboring Mississippi was the guy who would lead them to the 'Promised Land.'

As you probably know by now, Archie was an extremely gifted athlete who could run and throw but spent most of his time running from defenders or looking at the top of the Super Dome while lying on his back after being sacked.

The unanimous feeling in NFL circles is that Archie Manning would have been a prolific winning NFL QB for the Saints had they ever bothered to bring in some linemen who could block or some receivers who could catch.

Perhaps no franchise misused a potential superstar the way the Saints did with Archie. Manning managed to make two Pro Bowls despite a 35-91-3 record in New Orleans. He was sacked a disgraceful 339 times, including four seasons when he was sacked 40 or more times. By comparison, his son Peyton was sacked just 10 sacks this season.

Archie Manning had one of the strangest careers anyone has ever seen - even rival players said they sometimes took it easy when sacking Manning because they felt bad for the guy.

Archie played ten full seasons with the Saints and parts of three additional seasons with the Houston Oilers and Minnesota Vikings. Archie's career record as a starter was 35-101-3, a .263 percentage that ranks as the worst in league history among quarterbacks with at least 100 starts. After the punishment he took, at 60 years old, it's truly amazing that he's still able to walk and talk.

Archie, a Sothern native of Drew, Miss., never left New Orleans after his playing days; in fact, he still lives there today. New Orleans is where he raised his family, wife Olivia and three sons Cooper, Peyton and Eli. He has been synonymous with New Orleans Saints football for 39 years now. If there is a Saints franchise milestone or milestone reached by a Saints player, Archie is there to present the award. He was, is, and will always be the face of the New Orleans Saints franchise.

"I've lived in New Orleans for 39 years and I'm very proud of what the Saints have done. I'm very proud."

In a strange way Archie will have a chance to exact some revenge from the Saints for never getting him some offensive linemen. Who knows what kind of career he could have had if someone blocked for him. But for Archie, as like all the Manning's do, is taking the high road and saying all the right things (that's probably where the Manning boys get it from).

The college football season is over; withdrawals, depression, misery. Before you slip into an apathetic stupor for eight months, remember that the NFL Draft is just around the corner! From now until April's NFL Draft, I will be profiling some of the more interesting prospects. I can't promise that I'll get to your favorite player, but if you'd like to see a certain player profiled, shoot us an email and let us know.

I know I've already profiled a running back, but C.J. Spiller, like Dexter McCluster, is a do-everything type of back who has teams at the next level eager to enlist his services. Unlike McCluster, however, Spiller better fits the NFL running back mold; he has 30 pounds on McCluster as well as a few inches.

In the previous profile I concluded that McCluster was unlikely to develop into an every down back in the pros and will more likely be used as an 'X-Factor'; that is returning kicks, running the wildcat, lining up in the slot and, of course, carrying the ball.

Spiller will definitely be an X-Factor at the next level, but also gives teams the option to line him up as an every down running back. I look for Spiller to pay his dues returning kicks and serving as a third down back and perhaps even running the wildcat in his rookie season, but I also look for him to develop a more traditional role as time goes by.

He is more comparable to Chris Johnson than is McCluster, who some have compared to the Titans running back, not only because of his size, but what he is able to do when he touches the ball. I like that Spiller, like Johnson, does not rely too much on his jukes and doesn't 'over-juke' defenders to work his magic. While there is certainly room for that in the NFL, players who relied exclusively on those fancy moves in college tend not to pan out as well in the NFL (i.e. Reggie Bush). Of course, there are exceptions like the great Barry Sanders, but few nobody is able to do what Barry did on a regular basis.

Like Johnson, Spiller has phenomenal breakaway speed. If you did not have the pleasure of watching Spiller run butt-wild through opposing defenses, check out this video. Both Spiller and Johnson have the speed and burst to take the corner on just about anybody who gives them even a sliver of an angle. There may be a learning curve in competing against professional defenses, but something tells me we'll see Spiller in somebody's backfield sooner rather than later.

That 'somebody' may be the Seattle Seahawks who have tried everybody short of Gary Payton at running back in the last few seasons. The list is endless: Shaun Alexander, Maurice Morris, Leonard Weaver, Julius Jones, T.J. Duckett, Justin Forsett and Edgerrin James. Nobody has worked out since Alexander's MVP season in 2005.

It's not often that your running back runs for 122 yards on 25 attempts including 3 TD's and you complain about the way he played, but there is an elephant on the Vikings roster wearing # 28 and the Vikings are pretending it's not there.

It's been said quite a few NFL people that Adrian Peterson is the best talent to play running back in the NFL since Jim Brown. I don't know about that, but it's pretty hard to argue that he is not one of the most talented to come along in quite a while.

Peterson has an unusual running style, he doesn't run over you like Earl Campbell, he doesn't run around you like Barry Sanders, he comes up to you, beats the crap out of you and then runs away from you while you try to chase him down the field. He runs with a passion and anger on every single play that you see from other running backs only once or twice per game.

"Houston we have a problem"

Well it's Minnesota, not Houston, but you get the point.

While Adrian Peterson has tools and moves to be a 2,000 yard running back, something has to be done about Adrian Peterson's fumbling problem. You can't put an NFL running back on the field (I don't care how many yards and TD's he runs for) if when you hand him the ball 25 times, three of them end up on the ground. For all you Adrian Peterson apologists; I understand that this time he recover two of them and I understand that you are going to tell me that he never got the handoff on the other one.

Well he should have gotten the handoff on the other one and he doesn't always get them back.

When I look back at the Vikings headlines for the year I see:

• "Fumbles become a problem for Peterson"
• "Does that fumble in the red zone officially label Adrian Peterson as having a fumbling problem?"
• "Adrian Peterson's fumble proves costly"
• "Adrian Peterson fumbles are an issue"
• "Adrian Peterson's Fumble Woes"
• "Adrian Peterson's Fumbles Sending Favre Into Retirement Two Weeks Early"

HELLO! He's a fumbler! Will someone please work with him on this?

It has nothing do to with strength, even around other NFL players Peterson is known to have the strongest hands. He gets kidded all the time when he shakes someone's had that his grip is too tight.