Mason's Morsels

Boss Bailey is a Bronco, officially. The team announced at 3:36 p.m. MST on Thursday that the team had signed the unrestricted free agent linebacker — and younger brother of All-Pro cornerback Champ Bailey.

NFL.com first reported that the Broncos had agreed to terms with Boss Bailey on Thursday afternoon.

Boss Bailey has traversed one of the more inspirational paths in recent NFL annals. He overcame two torn knee ligaments just to make it into pro football; he tore a left-knee ligament in high school and one in his right knee during his time at the University of Georgia. He also missed the entire 2004 season with torn meniscus in his right knee, but recovered fully.

He amassed 118 tackles in the last two seasons for the Detroit Lions while only missing one game in that time.

The signing makes the Baileys the third set of siblings concurrently on a Broncos roster, following in the footsteps of Eldon and William Danenhauer — together for four games in 1960 — and Doug and Dave Widell, who shared a locker room from 1990-92.

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Once more, Champ Bailey will start in the Pro Bowl. Once more, he finished the year among the elite at his position, earning second-team All-Pro honors.

Yet the ninth season of Bailey’s exemplary career left him somewhat disheartened. He hadn’t been a part of a losing season since his final campaign with the Washington Redskins in 2003.

Individually, his streak of Pro Bowl bids continued to expand, and with eight in succession, Bailey is beginning to approach the territory at which Hall of Fame status becomes a legitimate possibility many years in the future.

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For the first time since his 2004 arrival in Denver, Champ Bailey did not earn first-team All-Pro plaudits as the Broncos were shut out of first-team All-Pro honorees for the first time since 2002.

Bailey received 11 votes, placing him on the second team behind New England’s Asante Samuel and San Diego’s Antonio Cromartie.

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Among the Broncos, only Champ Bailey found his name on the Pro Bowl roster, which was announced Tuesday afternoon at just after 2 p.m. MST.

For Bailey, it’s his eight consecutive Pro Bowl roster appearance and fourth as a Bronco, which gives him the third-longest streak of successive Pro Bowl nods in franchise annals, behind Steve Atwater and Shannon Sharpe.

Safety John Lynch saw his streak of three straight Pro Bowls snapped.

Wide receiver Brandon Marshall and defensive end Elvis Dumervil were also thought to be possible Pro Bowl selections, but did not see their names on the list. Marshall ranks fifth in the AFC and seventh in the NFL in receptions and receiving yardage, with 86 catches for 1,136 yards so far this season, including 21 receptions and a pair of 100-yard games in the last two weeks.

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After a three-day respite that represented a second bye weekend for all intents and purposes, the Broncos returned to the practice field Monday for a session that lasted just under an hour and was conducted without linebacker Ian Gold and tight end Daniel Graham, although both were in uniform alongside their teammates.

Head Coach Mike Shanahan offered similar prognoses for Gold and Graham, saying that “maybe” each would be able to return to the practice field this week. Gold suffered a knee injury in Thursday night’s loss at Houston, while Graham incurred a high ankle sprain, the same kind of injury that running back Andre Hall played through at Chicago on Nov. 25 before sitting out the loss at Oakland seven days later.

“Exactly when (Graham) will be able to practice, I’m not really sure,” Shanahan said.

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Domonique Foxworth was so taken aback by being named the Broncos’ Walter Payton Man of the Year recipient Friday that he had no clue that he was now a nominee for the league-wide award, bestowed upon one player during Super Bowl week.

“Wow,” he said, laughing. “It hasn’t even crossed my mind. Technically I’m in the running for that?”

Indeed he is, I told him.

“That’s a good one,” he said. “We all know that’s not happening.”

Ah, humility. It’s one of my fellow blogger’s finer traits.

Sure, it means he’ll dismiss his chances of winning the league-wide Payton award.

But I would personally beg to differ and claim that no one could be more deserving this year, not with a flood tide of off-field activites that range from teaching a writing class to promoting collegeincolorado.org and even opening his life to fans via his blog.

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The shrill beep that heralds a text message on my phone roused me from an all-too-brief and fitful slumber at 7:04 this morning:

taylor died … how horrible!

It was the news no one in the NFL wanted to hear, but after the smattering of reports leaking from South Florida over the previous 24 hours regarding Sean Taylor, it was anything but a surprise. When I had told my anesthesiologist girlfriend about the extent and location of his wounds, she seemed amazed that he’d managed to cling to life throughout a day as harrowing as it was sad for his nearest and dearest. Such is the heart of a champion athlete, unbridled until its final beat.

In Denver, it reopens wounds that have healed for some in Broncos Country, but have only begun to scab over for others.

Another death by gunshot.

Maybe I’m wrong, but my brain repeatedly circles around to an idealist’s notion, that all killings at the barrel of a gun are ultimately preventable. It certainly isn’t part of the natural order of things for vibrant, healthy 24-year-olds like Taylor and Darrent Williams to leave the world like this — or for the thousands of others who die in similar fashion, leaving friends and families mired in grief after such senseless extinguishment of life’s glowing flame.

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On the field, Champ Bailey appears well on his way to an eighth consecutive Pro Bowl trip. In the fan voting, that appears to be just as much the case.

Bailey currently outpaces all other cornerbacks in the voting, with 183,109 votes so far. He is the only Bronco currently in the balloting lead at his position.

Bailey is not only the top vote-getter among all cornerbacks, but is outpacing all but one defensive player in either conference — that man being Indianapolis defensive end Dwight Freeney, who was recently lost for the season with a Lis Franc injury in his left foot.

Pro Bowl voting continues through Dec. 11, with the all-stars announced on Dec. 18.

The Broncos will have to make do without safety John Lynch.

After being limited in practice on Thursday and Friday as he recovered from the pinched nerve he incurred against Green Bay last Monday, Lynch was one of the eight players scratched for today’s game against the Detroit Lions.

Joining Lynch on the sidelines will be fullback/running back Mike Bell, safety Curome Cox, defensive tackle Amon Gordon, guard Isaac Snell, tight end Chad Mustard, wide receiver Javon Walker and defensive end Jarvis Moss, whose season ended last Thursday when he fractured his fibula and tore ankle ligaments in practice. However, he has not yet been moved to injured reserve.

Hamza Abdullah, meanwhile, will make his return to the lineup after missing the last five games with a strained hip flexor. With Cox inactive, Abdullah is one of three pure safeties active for the game, joining Nick Ferguson and Steve Cargile. Cornerback Domonique Foxworth, however, is expected to see substantial action back at safety, as he did last week following Lynch’s injury and back in December 2006 when Ferguson was lost for the season.

Detroit’s inactives players included running back Tatum Bell, whom the Lions acquired from Denver in the Dre’ Bly trade eight months ago. Joining him are cornerbacks Dovonte Edwards and Tony Beckham, guards Blaine Saipia and Manny Ramirez, defensive ends Ikaika Alama-Francis and Kalimba Edwards and quarterback Dan Orlovsky, who is in uniform per the NFL’s rules regarding third quarterbacks.

Now, John Lynch can only wait.

After suffering a pinched nerve on Monday, the 15-year veteran sat out Wednesday’s practice while awaiting the results of an MRI examination he underwent Tuesday.

“I’m just waiting on all the information to come back,” Lynch said as he walked off the practice field following the afternoon session. “They’re waiting on a specialist out in Los Angeles who did my neck surgery (Dr. Robert Watkins) to kind of check it out and see what he has to think. But I think everything’s good. We’ll see.”

Lynch categorized the injury as a “little stinger,” and said that his arm went numb after incurring the injury in the first quarter Monday night. He categorized it as the most serious problem with his neck since he underwent surgery on it in early 2004, just before he was released by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and subsequently signed with the Broncos.

“It’s a concern because I’ve had little episodes since I’ve been here, but this is the first big one I’ve had (since coming to Denver), so it’s a little bit of a concern,” he said.

But, he emphasized, he was “feeling all right,” and said that he could run around the field.

“Things bounce back really quickly,” Lynch said. “I’m feeling a lot better.”

Lynch, defensive tackle Sam Adams and wide receiver Javon Walker were the only players on the 53-man roster to not practice Wednesday; Walker is recuperating from knee surgery while Adams is held out of practice each Wednesday. Running back Travis Henry made it through the full practice after sitting out last week and on Monday night with bruised ribs, while cornerback Champ Bailey also went through the full session after struggling with a quadriceps injury during the last two weeks.

“It felt good,” Bailey said after Monday night’s loss. “That’s the good thing. I finished the game. I was a little worried about that, but I finished strong and I feel confident about next week.”

Defensive tackle Antwon Burton (ankle), guard Montrae Holland (shoulder) and linebacker D.J. Williams (shoulder) were also listed on the injury report Wednesday, but each made it through the full day’s work.

In Michigan, the only Detroit Lion who did not practice at all on Wednesday was former Broncos first-round pick George Foster, who was sidelined with an ankle injury.