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It didn’t take an expert watching Tim Tebow play quarterback for Florida over the last four years to see that he was a great college player and a good and decent human being. It also didn’t take a genius to guess that he’d have trouble translating his ample skills to the National Football League, at least if he wanted to continue playing quarterback.

While he was a great scrambler and he could buy enough time in college where his long windup didn’t hurt him he wasn’t going to get away with windmilling his throws playing against elite competition every week.

Those beliefs seemed to be confirmed when Tebow went to the Senior Bowl and promptly struggled – not only with his throwing but with taking snaps from center.

Give Tebow credit for paying attention. In a recent story published at Bleacher Report he indicates a realization that he’s got shortcomings and that he is and plans to continue working on them.

That same story, however, indicates that he won’t throw at the NFL Scouting Combine.

Huh?

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We’re closing in on two weeks since the Saints beat the Colts in the Super Bowl and my body is slowly adjusting to the next six months without football.

One of the things I keep reading in the days since what I thought was a pretty exciting game between two very good teams and two great quarterbacks is that the interception Peyton Manning threw on his way to the game-tying touchdown drive somehow cheapens his legacy as a star quarterback.

I’ll grant you, Manning has, at times, struggled in big games. But to say throwing a pick-six against New Orleans somehow detracts from him being one of the top quarterbacks of all-time is ridiculous.

First of all, this wasn’t an all-time great Colts team all season long. Sure, they were 14-0 before the coaches pulled the starters against New York. But Indianapolis won eight games by one score or less. Other than a four game stretch of dominance from their third game to their sixth game, when they won games by 21, 17, 22 and 36 points, the Colts generally played competitive games this year. This was a very, very good team, but any belief that this was a dominant bunch was misguided.

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Well, for better or for worse the 2010 Hall of Fame inductees have been named. The debates over the merit of those inductees are taking place on other articles on this site.

Now, as per normal, it’s time for us to start looking ahead to next towards 2011.

Many great candidates – Shannon Sharpe, Cris Carter, Andre Reed, Tim Brown, Dermontti Dawson, Charles Haley, and Richard Dent, among others – were held over for at least another year.

Meanwhile the 2011 crop brings several more first time nominees. The most oft-mentioned of that crew is Deion Sanders, the brash, trash-talking cornerback who played in Super Bowls for Dallas and San Francisco after being drafted by Atlanta in 1989. In his first year of eligibility he could join three other top five picks from that 1989 draft in the Hall – Troy Aikman, Derrick Thomas and Barry Sanders.

A trio of upper echelon running backs in Marshall Faulk, Curtis Martin and Jerome Bettis also will take their first turns in front of the Hall voters. Each is in the top 10 all-time leading rushers and both Faulk and Bettis have Super Bowl rings.

Among offensive linemen Willie Roaf gains eligibility.

The list would have been even more crowded if Priest Holmes and Junior Seau hadn’t changed their minds on retiring after 2005. But there’s plenty of competition for slots in the Hall again next year.

Do any of these guys make it on their first go-around? Or do the voters make this collection of players, which is good but not quite as star-studded as this year’s Emmitt Smith/Jerry Rice class, wait while clearing some of the logjam that has collected in recent years?

As always, we’re looking forward to seeing your thoughts.  But first, here’s ours:

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Drew Brees, not Peyton Manning, displayed the poise and leadership of a Super Bowl champion Sunday night in Miami, leading his New Orleans Saints to their first Vince Lombardi trophy.

Brees completed 32 of 39 for 288 yards and two scores, winning the MVP trophy in the meantime.

His career is far from over and he’s got a lot more history to write in the years ahead. But I asked the question two weeks ago – will Drew Brees make the Hall of Fame? His last four seasons have certainly been trending in that direction.

Super Bowl performances like the show he put on tonight certainly won’t hurt his cause. Sure, it took Tracy Porter’s pick of Manning late in the game to seal the deal. And Sean Payton’s onside kick was a gutty call. But Brees’ performance was nearly flawless. My guess is he leads the Saints to many more playoff victories over the next few years as well.

If he does it’d be hard to keep him out of Canton in a decade, give or take a year or two.

I don’t know if it means I know something or if it was a case of the blind squirrel finding a nut, but I nailed the conference championships, picking the Colts to beat the Jets both straight up and against the spread while guessing the Vikings would beat the spread but lose a close one to New Orleans. That puts me at 7-3 straight up and 6-4 against Vegas lines for the playoffs. And so on to the Super Bowl.

Straight up: Colts
Spread: Saints +5

The Super Bowl presents another intriguing match-up between two high-powered offenses going against defenses that have been vulnerable at times this season.

Among the most interesting aspects of this tilt will be the quarterback duel between Peyton Manning and Drew Brees – a match-up that brings back memories of Staubach vs Bradshaw or Montana vs Elway. With Dwight Freeney injured and either out or playing at less than full strength and the Saints sporting a very good offensive line, I expect Brees to have plenty of time to throw. The same should be true of Manning, who is rarely sacked.

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