Erik Walden: Week 17 Legend

Most teams already know who they'll take, and the clock only runs down a few seconds before the pick is made. I remember one year it took about 5 minutes to make the first pick, and I still have no idea why. I think it was the Raiders picking Jamarcus Russell. Anyway, can you guess how much time will run off the clock before the pick is officially made?

...Marc Bulger, another 6th-round pick? Having one great player in the late rounds is normal. Having two is just weird. How did the teams screw it up this badly?

(Note that Chad Pennington was also from that draft in the first round. He might be better than Bulger, hence the "may have" in the question.)

I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure in the NFL, if a team puts in its 3rd-string QB, it can no longer use its starting QB in that game. Why is that? What unfair advantage would a team have by rotating between three quarterbacks? They have the players available and should be able to use them however they want to.

Things like "If you were a tree, what kind would you be?" or "What do a table and chair have in common?"

Guys like LeBron and Carmelo talk about how it's all about winning for them, yet they always sign max contracts, which means less cap room for supporting talent. So they actually reduce their chance of winning.

I'd love to see some big-name athlete would work for, say, 5 million dollars a year, and let the rest of the money he could've been paid get used on other guys that will help him win titles. I know Tom Brady did something like this a while ago, but he didn't give up as much as he could have.

(I realize this sounds more like a basketball question, but it happens in football too. Peyton Manning already has suspect talent around him, and now he wants to be the highest paid guy in the league?)

BQ: Would you sign a $5 million per year contract even if you could get $15 or 20 million?

...record a TD by passing, rushing, receiving, kick return, punt return, interception return, and fumble return?

Give your first impression of these QB's careers on a scale of 1 to 10. Feel free to use decimals.

Brett Favre

Dan Marino

Donovan McNabb

Drew Bledsoe

Drew Brees

Jake Plummer

Jon Kitna

Kerry Collins

Mark Brunell

Peyton Manning

Steve McNair

Tom Brady

Troy Aikman

Vinny Testaverde

Warren Moon

I know both sides of the CBA negotiations think they can get everything they want, but chances are each side will only get half of what they want. So if the players have three demands:

-16 games per season

-60% of NFL revenue

-Better healthcare

...then the players will get what they want on one of the issues, the owners will get what they want on another one, and the third one will be split in the middle.

So the question is: If you were a player, which demand do you want the most, which one are you willing to let the owners get their way with, and which one are you willing to meet the owners halfway on?

A spike, the championship belt, a Lambeau Leap, a dance, a crossbar dunk, or something else?

Team A is playing Team B in the Super Bowl. You're asked to script the ending to the game, and afterwords I pick the two teams out of a hat. What's your ideal ending? Give me the score before the final drive, then describe the last drive or just the last play. You can add any details of things that happened during the rest of the game too.

Meaning that they come from nowhere to make a huge play that helps their team win, like David Tyree, Tracy Porter, former Rams LB Mike Jones, etc.

I know it doesn't relate to the game at all but I want to see who can guess it.

Tiebreaker: What will their second song be?

Meaning your 3 favorite football moments you've watched. Here's mine:

3. David Tyree's helmet catch and the following Plaxico Burress TD, just because of the sheer awesomeness of Tyree's play and the upset that Burress sealed with the TD.

2. The entire Saints/Vikings conference championship from last year, in the midst of all the Brett Favre hate. The Saints were struggling to get drives going, the Vikings put a lot of good drives together, but the Saints kept finding ways to stay in the game and eventually win it. It was the most intense and exciting game I've ever seen.

1. Nate Poole's last-second TD that helped the Cardinals beat the Vikings in 2003, which sent Green Bay to the playoffs. I remember being at a Christmas party watching the Packers winning what seemed to be a meaningless blowout while CBS kept giving updates on the MIN/ARI game. It was 17-6, then 17-12, then Arizona got the onside kick. And all of a sudden the final score pops up, 18-17. The room goes crazy, people are tearing up, I'm tearing up just thinking about it.

...in order to catch their celebrations on tape and send them to the NFL to be in future commercials?

I always disagree with all of the people who whine about officiating, but I can't get rid of the feeling that the refs will screw up calls in Pittsburgh's favor. First, one of the refs from Super Bowl XL admitted messing up in that game. Secondly, Pittsburgh has a reputation of being a rough, physical team. So for some of the borderline penalties that would get called against Green Bay, if the Steelers did those things people would say, "Oh, that's just Steeler football". Third, Ed Hochuli scares me to death. He always seems to be in the middle of controversies. I have no idea who officiated the NFC game, which means I'd feel a lot better if they got to do the Super Bowl. Someone talk some sense into me, please. And be nice.

Not saying there's any kind of fix, but obviously some matchups make more money for the league. What two teams do you think NFL executives want to see in the championship?

Oregon? Sure, they have a loss, but it was a 3-point loss to the #1 team. That's exactly what you'd expect from the #2 team. They had a much more dominant season overall than TCU and should still be ranked over them.

TCU? They are the only other undefeated team after all. Their schedule was only a little worse than Oregon's and their win over then #5 Wisconsin proved that they're just as good as the rest of the top teams.

Auburn? Sure, they won the "national championship", but they should have lost a lot of their games, especially the Alabama game. They only scored 22 points on Oregon's weak defense; TCU could have easily held them to around 10. TCU would have beaten either team on Monday and should be #1, leaving #2 to Auburn.