"It's not the same," he said. "When I came in, my generation was different. We respected the guys who came before us. I learned about the guys who paved the way. Now you have a lot of young guys who don't care about the past. They couldn't name some of the past great players. They (couldn't) care less."

"If Warren Sapp doesn't go into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot, you'd better check the IQ of the voters. No disrespect to anyone, but he's the favorite guy I've ever coached."

"It's one of the most amazing comebacks that I've seen. ... He's really putting some good tape together in his individual workouts ... the explosive movement appears to be coming back. Change of direction, confidence, stamina, all those things day after day after day a running back has to do are coming to him. That's what's really exciting."

"I think his advisers pulled a PR stunt," Allen said. "I don't think it portrays Chris well. That's not the Chris I've talked to on the phone. But I can't worry about that. We have too many players who are trying to help this team win and those are the players we're going to focus on."

"I like Chris Simms. I don't necessarily agree with everything he said. But I'm going to coach the quarterbacks who are here. I am really excited about the guys who are here. I wish Chris and his situation well. But that's the last I'll address it. He made his statements and unfortunately that's all I can say. I like Jeff Garcia and I prefer talking about him, Brian Griese and Luke McCown at this point."

This week we saw Michael Strahan and Jonathan Ogden retire ... two men who will see their way into Canton, OH. One of the greatest offensive tackles and defensive ends in our time should both enter the Hall in 2013.

If'n that weren't the only guys on that list.

Add in a certain guy by the name of Brett Favre (who now owns most of the quarterback records), Larry Allen and Warren Sapp ... not to mention the possibility of Junior Seau ... and and we could have one of the best classes in HoF history.

There are even a few fringe guys like Steve McNair, Rod Smith, Bryant Young and Priest Holmes who will get some love, but probably won't make it in -- at least not in '13.

But what a class that could be? There is a cut-off of five inductees (not counting ones from the Senior Committee) that can go in a single year ... meaning a name or two won't make the cut. Favre, Strahan, Ogden, Sapp and Allen each have won a Super Bowl. They have all kinds of Pro-Bowls on their resumes and several have records to boot ... making them the five favorites to get in (Seau could push Sapp out of that loft).

Former Gators coach Steve Spurrier had some stern words of advice for Buc holdout running back Earnest Graham on Thursday. ...

"Hopefully Earnest Graham will get his butt back out to practice real soon,'' Spurrier said of the former Gators back. "Earnest needs to get back out here and I guess he'll be out here next week.''