I spent the last two weeks on the road, traveling from Houston to Oklahoma City, St. Louis, Peoria, Grand Rapids, Little Rock, and back to Houston. That amount of car time leads to a lot of thinking time, and here are some of the thoughts that kept me going as the miles piled up. 1. I spent a lot of time listening to coverage of the Jerry Sandusky trial. It was often painful to listen. The juxtaposition between the tormenting recounts of the victims who clearly find Sandusky a predatory monster and the character witnesses who painted Sandusky as a pillar of virtue and saintly human being is impossible for me to reconcile. Either Sandusky is an incredibly accomplished deceiver or the young men making the accusations are the tightest, most well-coordinated conspiracy in history with no apparent motivation other than ruining a man’s life. I’m siding with the former. I find Sandusky to be a reprehensible human being that pulled off a great cover up by appearing to be such a caring individual. Granted, I have a strong and deeply rooted distrust for people who claim to be of strong moral character and who seem inhumanely benevolent (character flaw, I know…), but the staging here is too classic. A well-known and respected community leader uses his position of authority to give him unprecedented opportunity to do terrible things for his own personal gain and joy. Is that really hard to believe these days? I can rattle off a lengthy list of people guilty of that, though none with quite as much sleaziness and sordidness as what Sandusky did to those innocent young men who came to him for guidance and help. My armchair analysis about Sandusky is that I happen to think he is legitimately insane in a clinical sense. I genuinely believe him when he pleads that he did nothing wrong or out of the ordinary because in his sick, warped world, his actions are normal to him. I’m surprised the defense didn’t approach that angle, even more than I am surprised that Sandusky didn’t take the stand in his own defense. If I’m a juror I think it’s nice that so many people spoke so strongly in his defense, but if he’s unwilling or afraid to take the stand in his own defense, I’m deeply suspicious. I need to hear him definitively and unconditionally refute the charges if I’m voting not guilty, and Sandusky didn’t do that because he can’t do that without lying. I hope he rots in a jail cell and then in hell, a hell worse than the one which he put those eight young men through. 2. LaDanian Tomlinson retired this week, capping off a Hall of Fame career by signing a one-day contract with San Diego so he could retire as a Charger. That is a class move by a class player who is probably underappreciated in the pantheon of great running backs. So where exactly does Tomlinson rank in that hall of greatness? I would argue that Tomlinson is the best and most valuable running back of the past decade and belongs in the top-five all-time. Jim Brown is #1 on any list that is worth reading and I can definitively assert that despite being born several years after he retired. Walter Payton is certainly high up on the list, even though I was only cognizant of the last few years of his illustrious career. I’m a sucker for Eric Dickerson, the most consistently violent-but-smooth runner I ever saw play the game. Emmitt Smith belongs even though I’m admittedly not his biggest fan; his lengthy productivity and accomplishments speak rather loudly for themselves. That is the top four, which leaves the next spot open for Tomlinson. The competition is tough. Barry Sanders is the most exciting runner of my lifetime, but his alarming propensity to lose yardage costs him points in my book. Earl Campbell and Terrell Davis both had greater peaks but their careers were too short. Marshall Faulk is a worthy debate, but I’ll take Tomlinson's extra 1400 yards and 45 touchdowns in six fewer games. OJ Simpson, Marcus Allen and Tony Dorsett were all awesome players but I’ll take Tomlinson, thank you very much. I hope Tomlinson gets that sort of credit and respect from the football intelligentsia when all is said and done. 3. Percy Harvin has demanded a trade from the Vikings. He is unhappy not just with his contract, but also his usage and the level of respect he feels he deserves. This is a tricky situation for Vikings GM Rick Speilman because Harvin has more leverage than most in his position. Harvin is the only legit receiving threat on the roster, and he is also one of the better return men in the league when used in that capacity. With Adrian Peterson’s injury status up in the air, Harvin is the best (only?) weapon on the entire offense that can threaten defenses. His rookie contract terms, where he will make just under $4.5M ovwe the next two years, leave him woefully undercompensated for his level of production. But the ball isn’t entirely in Harvin’s court. Durability is a major and contentious issue. Even though he has missed just three games in three seasons, he has missed weeks of practices and often departs for a handful of series during games thanks to recurring migraine headaches. He is not the easiest teammate to play with or coach, though much of that truculence stemmed from his strained relationship with Brad Childress. Harvin is not a regular part of the team’s red zone package, a major bone of contention for Harvin, and the next quality block he throws will be the first. He still has two full years on his contract, which means the team has little obligation or incentive to do anything. It would seem impossible to get good value in return for Harvin right now. At this point of the offseason, most teams are still optimistic about what they’ve got and no injuries of significance have forced desperation yet. The rumors emanating from Cleveland of Colt McCoy (more on him later) and a couple of draft picks amount to larceny on the part of the Browns. Harvin can pout and kvetch all he wants, but the bottom line is that he will be a Minnesota Viking for at least the next 10 months and there is nothing he can positively accomplish by wishing for anything else. Go out and prove your worth and the cash will come, Mr. Harvin. 4. It is downright astonishing how much of the nation is plagued by bad cellular and network coverage. We were really able to experience it as my phone is Verizon and my wife’s is AT&T. Almost the entire state of Illinois outside of the greater Chicago and St. Louis areas is a giant black hole for Verizon’s 3G network. My wife lost four calls on her AT&T phone between Tulsa and Rolla, MO and struggled to keep her map updated almost the entire length of southern Missouri. Neither of our phones worked in either voice or internet anywhere north of Peoria all the way to my wife’s parent’s home in Princeton. The same was true in a long stretch between Michigan City, IN and Holland, MI. Kudos to the state of Arkansas, where cellular and voice coverage was near-universal despite driving through prolonged patches where modern civilization has apparently not yet arrived. For all the money these megalithic companies spend advertising against one another and how much money they suck up from their millions of customers, you would think they could pour a little bit into improving the infrastructure of their products instead of counting pennies and doing whatever they can to keep stock prices propped up. 5. The Cleveland Browns have a problem--what to do with Colt McCoy? Every report and tweet from anyone close to the team clearly indicates that rookie Brandon Weeden is going to be the starting quarterback to begin the season; his arm strength, accuracy, and ability to orchestrate the offense are all vastly superior according to nearly every onlooker. McCoy can ostensibly still hold onto the starting gig with a great preseason, but even that tenure would only last until the team feels Weeden is ready to take over. I don’t envy Browns President Mike Holmgren on this one. Colt McCoy is everything coaches, fans and teammates want in a starting quarterback. He is a natural leader with great personal qualities. McCoy took the initiative to organize and stage team workouts during the lockout last summer. He’s affable, intelligent, good looking, and comfortable with the press. Alas, he’s just not that good a quarterback, lacking the decisiveness and arm strength to handle the West Coast system that greatly emphasizes the former and downplays the latter. Teams simply do not make deals for backup quarterbacks in training camp, certainly not when there are experienced veterans still on the market and the rookie crop has yet to be legitimately tested. Outright cutting McCoy is something that no parties involved desire, even though in a fair fight Seneca Wallace would likely beat out McCoy for the top backup job. But the longer McCoy lingers in the conversation, the more detrimental his presence becomes. I liken it to the David Garrard situation in Jacksonville last year, or Kyle Orton in Denver; once it was clear the team was going with the younger option with greater potential, the best option was to jettison the former starter. It takes away any controversy and shows the team they believe in the youngster. It shows the fans the team is looking forward and trying to improve, even if the short-term prognosis might take a bit of a hit. Like it or not, every day Colt McCoy is in Cleveland is a symbol of a failed franchise that is too reluctant to make a bold move, too hesitant to make the tough decision that might alienate some feeble fans. If this team truly wants to step forward, they must sever ties with Colt McCoy in some fashion, be it trade or release, before training camp convenes next month. 6. If the state of Texas ever wants to increase its coffers, legalized gambling is the answer. At the border with Oklahoma on I-35 there is a giant, Vegas-style casino whose parking lot was packed near 100% with cars from Texas. I’ve found the same phenomenon along I-10 at the Louisiana border as well. Texans spend more on lottery tickets per capita than all but two other states, and Texas has a great deal of capita. If my home state of Ohio can finally acquiesce to both demand and common sense and allow casino gambling, surely my adopted state of Texas can do the same. It makes no sense for all that potential revenue and tourist dollars to flow over the border. 7. Drew Brees made some unfortunate comments about the NFL’s investigation into Bountygate, comparing the information gathering process to the WMD dubious controversy that George Bush the Lesser’s used to justify his military foray into Iraq. Coming from most NFL players, I would consider that sort of analogy a poor translation of what the agent told them to say off the cuff. But from Brees, a noted and ardent supporter of the military who devotes all kinds of time and resources to the cause, this strikes me as a further indication that the entire Saints organization is completely and utterly crazy. Their inability to grasp the broad repercussions for their actions is astonishing. Rather than taking responsibility and accepting the deserved consequences, these Saints continue to delusionally deny and fight any sort of punishment and ownership of their actions, even in the face of overwhelming evidence of guilt. This blindness to fact and raging against justice is both pointless and embarrassing. The NFL has far more concrete and conclusive evidence against Jonathan Vilma et al than prosecutors have against Jerry Sandusky. They have more damning proof of willing malfeasance on the part of the Saints organization than there was against Jeffrey Dahmer. Much of that evidence was willingly turned over to league investigators by none other than Saints owner Tom Benson, who gave the NFL full access to all computers and audio/video recordings that could have been protected as private property. I get the whole “us against the world” mentality the Saints players have adopted with vigilance. It’s arguably the only choice they have going forward at this point if they hope to get back to the playoffs. But for Brees to so blatantly play into this is disingenuous. Remember, Brees is at war with the team over being hit with the franchise player tag and he refuses to budge one red cent in order to sign and be with his teammates. He’s been offered (if leaked figures are to be trusted) more money than any offensive player in the history of the game to sign long-term with the team that stepped out on a fragile limb and signed him when nobody was sure if he could ever play again. Further, Brees was a figurehead for the NFLPA in their fight against the power of Roger Goodell. Were he and his fellow Saints so unhappy with Goodell being judge, jury, and executioner, he had the forum and leverage to fight against it just one year ago. Brees and the players chose to accept it, and now he and the Saints must deal with the consequences of that choice as well. I still maintain there is little reason for Brees to agree to the franchise tag and play this season at all. The team is not going to be a legit contender, not without Sean Payton and with several personnel losses that have not been adequately offset by acquisitions. The NFC South is a brutally competitive division, and the NFC as a whole features at least eight teams with legitimate Super Bowl title chances. Why should Brees risk his reputation and health in such a situation when sitting out and watching the team crumble to a 5-11 (at best) finish without him only augments his value on the open market next year. Either the Saints will pour even more piles of money in his lap or someone else will make it worth their while so they can do it. I respect his loyalty to the organization but being loyal to a fault turns a skilled and respected leader into a delusional, quixotic casualty every time. Here’s hoping Drew Brees is smart enough to realize that before he goes down with a sinking ship. 8. The leaders of the major BCS conferences announced they are going forward with a four-team playoff to decide a more legitimate national champion starting in 2014. This is great news but still leaves too much wiggle room for my liking. Until the following conditions are all met, any concoction is just not good enough: -- Teams that do not win their own conference divisions are not eligible. If you can’t win your own division, you sure as hell have no claim to being the best team in the nation. -- Games must be played at legitimately neutral sites. No LSU playing in New Orleans or Florida State playing in Tampa, or God forbid USC playing in the Rose Bowl. I understand the logistical challenges of not knowing where the games might be played, but the fans will travel en masse anywhere. Reserve a handful of stadiums all over the country (St. Louis, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, Houston, Phoenix) and sort it out on the fly. It can be done. -- Any team that plays a non-BCS opponent after the first three weeks of the season is ineligible. Call it the SEC penalty rule. -- Any team beaten at home by another team in consideration is automatically out, unless the road victor has the same situation with another contender. To wit, if Virginia Tech loses at home to Georgia and both are in the running, the Bulldogs get the nod over the Hokies. But if Georgia gets beat at home by LSU and they’re in the running too, then the Hokies still have life. -- Every major conference team must play at least one non-conference road game against another major conference team that plays at least two time zones away. Sorry Oregon fans, the Ducks can’t play every game west of the Rockies in perpetuity. [email protected] or on Twitter @JeffRisdon