One more football matter: Barry Sanders will most likely be voted into the Hall of Fame this week. His career has long been surrounded by that horribly tantalizing question, "what if?" During his playing years, the question referred to Sanders being stuck on the mediocre Detroit Lions. What if he had had an offensive line like the Dallas Cowboys' front five? What if he had played for a coach like Mike Shanahan, who seems to be able to turn any third-rate back into a 1,500 yard rusher? What if he had had a quarterback who was close to pro bowl caliber?

Once he retired, the question became: what if he kept on playing for two, three, four years, kept playing past his peak, as Emmitt Smith has done? How many yards was he capable of?

Now, as the permanency of his retirement has finally sunk in, we should stop asking such questions and look instead at what he actually did -- rush for the third-most yards in history, post 10 straight 1000 yard seasons (he only played for 10 seasons), and have a stellar career average of 5.0 yards per carry -- second only to the other great running back who left in his prime, Jim Brown.