Jim Saccomano

As we sit on the advent of free agency once again, as well as just a couple of months from the annual college draft, everybody has the excitement of being 0-0.

Every team has to live with what it most recently did, and for the Broncos that means the sour taste of a disappointing 7-9 season.  For the Giants, it means being on national late night TV shows and basking in the glow of a world championship, as well they should.

But the one hunk of knowledge that every NFL coach and personnel man knows is that yesterday’s accomplishments, or failures, should be studied, evaluated, learned from, put proudly on a shelf if it is a trophy — but then you have to move on to the new season.

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The press has a very influential role in our society.  It presents the news, reports the news, and tells us what is going on in the world.

And sometimes it instructs us in what we are supposed to think and believe.  When it does that, it is counting on our cooperation in believing what it tells us, with the hope and confidence that we will not think for ourselves and form our own opinions.

Every year about this time I observe an example of this:  the Pro Bowl.

Last Sunday the NFL season ended entirely with the annual playing of the Pro Bowl, the NFL all-star game, which is about to end a 30-year run in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Presently there are discussions about whether or not to extend the contract in Hawaii, and while none of us knows what the result will be, one thing we do know is that the Pro Bowl remains very unpopular with the press, and very popular with the public.

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One of the most gratifying moments of Super Bowl week for fans of the Denver Broncos was the announcement that tackle Gary Zimmerman had been selected for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Zim is absolutely one of the greatest offensive linemen in pro football history, as his selection to the all-decade teams of both the 1980’s and the 1990’s clearly attests.

He had to wait a couple of years longer even than he should have, but there is no question that the voters got it right in naming him to the game’s most hallowed halls.

As great as the news was about Zimmerman, it was just as disappointing that all-time great Randy Gradishar did not get selected.

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I must begin this blog with apologies to all readers who might have expected more communication over the past two weeks.

I worked on the NFL PR staff for Super Bowl XLII in Phoenix, and I had the best of intentions to blog while there and comment on what went on, but the combination of my workload and some technological complications prevented any blogging.

Probably to the reader’s benefit, but that’s another matter.

It was my 24th Super Bowl, so I certainly should have known better than to think I would have any free time.

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