It’s Valentine’s Day evening, or as we call it here at CHFF, “not football season.”

 

Sigh.

 

How can people celebrate love when “American Gladiators” is the closest thing to football on our brand new widescreen TV sets?

 

A pox on love! Love is dead! Oh, the humanity!

 

Oh well. While we try to deal with the reality of a dark football-less period, here’s a question-and-answer session with the facts at large as we look back at the 2007 season and generally wish it was September already.

 

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A: Feels like a maybe, but after further review it’s a definite yes.

 

Zach Thomas, reportedly to be released by the Dolphins this week, was a seven-time All-Pro selection – and that right there is probably enough to get him into the Hall of Fame. Seven times voted as the absolute cream of the crop, and at a position of greatness. Combine it with his annual domination of the tackle numbers, and you’ve got a great Hall resume for a defensive player.

 

In addition, while the Dolphins never won anything while he was there (a strike against), Thomas was on six top-five scoring defenses in 11 healthy seasons. And when he finally broke down in 2007, the defense totally fell apart – a tribute to his presence.

 

The case for Thomas is pretty much ironclad, and his likeability on the field will work in his favor as well. The fact that the Dolphins couldn’t put anything together with Thomas and Jason Taylor together for a decade is a damning indictment of the organization.

 

 

Johnson averaged 94.6 YPG last year in an injury-shortened 9-game season, and his numbers project out to 107 catches, 1,512 yards and 15 TDs. All this production from a guy who caught 103 passes in 2006 (with only five TDs) in his second year in the league – pretty impressive.

 

Houston's offensive line is on the upswing, and QBs Matt Schaub and Sage Rosenfels (who may go elsewhere) both proved they can play last year.

 

Fantasy geeks: while everyone else is using early picks on second-tier RBs, take Johnson, listen to your buddies calling you names, and bask in the 100-1,500-12 stat line Johnson will produce if healthy.

 

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We’re all for defensive Hall of Famers, but the inclusion of Fred Dean this year is a puzzler. He was a consensus all-NFL pick three times, and was by all accounts a great pass rusher. But he played much of his career as an off-the-bench sparkplug – he only started 82 of his 141 career games, and is unofficially credited with 94 sacks in 11 seasons and 28 sacks officially in four seasons (not impressive numbers)

 

And this was a guy who was traded in his peak – in midseason! – for very little. The playoff-bound Chargers traded their No. 1 pick to San Francisco midway through 1981 for San Fran's No. 1 and No. 2. Now, the Niners won the title that year with big input from Dean, and he deserves all the credit.

 

But he had a short peak, and was a part-time, one-dimensional player even when he was on,  like a great three-point shooter in the NBA that couldn’t do anything else.

 

Making it all so much odder is the fact that he had never even been a finalist since becoming eligible in the early 1990s. Then, BOOM! He’s in the Hall.

 

There are so many other similar players to Dean – Coy Bacon was a similar player, and played longer and better, and the unquestionably superior Derrick Thomas is still waiting for the call.

 

Very strange stuff, and if there were any passion in NFL circles about the Hall process, Dean's election would be a hot-button issue. But no one seems to care, so, congratulations, Fred Dean! You’re a Hall of Famer.

 

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We mention this because it’s the second year in a row that a regular-season also-ran led the playoffs in rushing yards. Maroney was considered a bust by some (including his teammates) during New England's perfect regular season, but delivered in the playoffs with 280 yards.

 

In 2006, Dominic Rhodes of the champion Colts led the way in the postseason. In 2005, Shaun Alexander of the Seahawks – who did dominate that regular season – also led the postseason in rushing. In 2004, New England's Corey Dillon topped the playoff rushing list. In 2003, it was Stephen Davis of Carolina. In 2002 it was Michael Pittman, in 2001 it was Marshall Faulk.

 

Rhodes, Dillon and Pittman did it for Super Bowl winners, the other four for Super Bowl losers.

 

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According to our tentative research into other sports (gross!), 12 baseball players and 14 basketball players have exceeded the $100 million career earnings mark. But football appears to be a couple of years away from its first $100 million man, probably Peyton Manning.

 

Consider Brett Favre. He has been the MVP of a contending/championship team for 15 years, but has he made $100 million? We doubt it. Although it’s near impossible to figure out what NFL players actually make thanks to the salary cap, Favre made short money his first three years, then got a five-year, $19 million contract for 1994. In 1997, that was ripped up for a six-year, $45 million deal. In 2001, he signed a lifetime contract.

 

It breaks down like this:

Adding it all up, that’s $85-95 million he’s made in salary/bonus over a career that’s as well-paid as it could be.

 

Peyton Manning has probably made almost as much in his 10-year career, and will certainly be a $100 million man – but the next one could be a decade away, and it’s brother Eli who's the leading candidate. He got big money up front as a No. 1 overall pick, and if he plays another decade he’ll surely crack the $100 million mark.

 

Could it possibly get any better for the Mannings?

 

By the way, here are the top five salary earners among the Big Four team sports:

A: Yes.

 

First, he only went 9 yards over the milestone number, which has long been diluted by the 16-game season.

 

Further, his team (the Raiders, if you didn’t know) went 4-12, he only started six games, and his four 100-yard games all came against non-Quality Opponents, mostly after the Raiders were seen only by the fans in the stadiums.

 

Still, the Raiders were smart to re-sign him to an extension – over his career, he’s a 4.2-yard per carry runner behind Oakland’s laughable offensive lines.