yahoo-tarkentonYes, it appears to be true. Fran Tarkenton, former quarterback with the Minnesota Vikings and New York Giants, a true Hall of Famer on the field but sometimes less so in the business world, believes that if he was in charge of the mediation sessions between the NFL owners and players, he'd have all the issues sorted out in two minutes.

No, really. That's what Tarkenton recently told Dino Costa of SIRIUS Mad Dog Radio.

I'm really emotional about this. With everything going on in the world, we've got the tragedy in Japan and what's happening in all the Middle East when all these people want freedom, and it's a wonderful thing.  And here we have the most successful sports franchise in the world, the National Football League. We don't want to give this up.  And we understand in professional football, teams win, individuals don't.  And it's time for these owners and time for these players to sit down together, get the lawyers out of the [room], lawyers don't help things.  Lawyers muck up

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CARSON, Calif. --The subtle "art" of tracking the rising and falling pre-draft stock of NFL prospects is one that keeps a lot of people employed. Whether it's actually a meaningful exercise is quite another story. We've all seen enough smokescreens to, in the immortal words of Marvin Gaye, "believe none of what you hear, and half of what you see" when it comes to this or that player supposedly shooting though the roof or falling through the elevator shaft on draft boards. That a pre-existing injury concern could impede a team from totally buying into a guy before they see a medical re-check and get him in for a private workout isn't a surprise, but the extent to which some people claim to be able to divine just where each NFL team is in its selection process is curious at best and fraudulent at worst.

In the 2011 draft class, perhaps no player has seen more of this phenomenon than Clemson defensive end Da'Quan Bowers, who was seen by many pundits as a potential top-3 pick before a

CARSON, Calif. — Over the next few days, we'll be featuring a lot of interesting content from the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., home of Athletes Performance and football trainer Travelle Gaines. Gaines, who is currently working with such names as Da'Quan Bowers and Terrell Owens, has helped at least half of the players estimated to go in the first round of this year's NFL draft. Before we get into specific training methods per position, let's meet Travelle — one of the bigger names in the industry. I first asked him about his road to the top and what the day-to-day is like in his work.

We then talked about Missouri's Blaine Gabbert, who Travelle's also been working with, and the challenges for quarterbacks coming from spread offenses

Stay tuned for a lot of interesting stuff about football training for both draft prospects and NFL veterans.

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With the ascent of DeSean Jackson of the Philadelphia Eagles, and with more multi-receiver sets becoming a play-to-play part of the NFL, more and more teams are looking for a smaller speed receiver to function more as a primary weapon as opposed to an ancillary threat. It's possible that no receiver in the 2011 NFL draft class is better set to benefit from his new focus than Boise State's Titus Young.

Averaging over 15 yards per reception throughout his career with the Broncos, Young finished his 44-game stretch at Boise State with 198 receptions for 2,999 yards and 25 touchdowns. He also gained 1,435 yards and scored two touchdowns on 55 kick returns, 76 yards on 11 punt returns, and 341 yards and eight touchdowns on 42 carries.

We were recently able to talk with Titus about everything from his new deal with adidas, to the pre-draft evaluation process, to the things that make Boise State's offense different. This is part two of the interview; you can read part one here.

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With the ascent of DeSean Jackson of the Philadelphia Eagles, and with more multi-receiver sets becoming a play-to-play part of the NFL, more and more teams are looking for a smaller speed receiver to function more as a primary weapon as opposed to an ancillary threat. It's possible that no receiver in the 2011 NFL draft class is better set to benefit from his new focus than Boise State's Titus Young.

Averaging over 15 yards per reception throughout his career with the Broncos, Young finished his 44-game stretch at Boise State with 198 receptions for 2,999 yards and 25 touchdowns. He also gained 1,435 yards and scored two touchdowns on 55 kick returns, 76 yards on 11 punt returns, and 341 yards and eight touchdowns on 42 carries.

We were recently able to talk with Titus about everything from his new deal with adidas, to the pre-draft evaluation process, to the things that make Boise State's offense different. This is part one of the interview; part two will be up shortly.

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In a labor battle where each side seems determined to prove that it can be smaller and more ridiculous than the other on a regular basis, the simple act of a team receiving its Super Bowl rings has now been thrown into limbo.

Bill Pennington of the New York Times reports that as long as the current lockout is in place, players and owners are prohibited from contacting each other. Therefore, the Packers' management can't consult with the players on the design of the rings the team won the right to wear when it beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 31-25, in Super Bowl XLV.  And since the two sides can't talk, there's apparently no way for both sides to wind up at the White House long enough to meet President Obama (who might be too busy dealing with his bracket to talk to them in the first place — and who may try to get involved in the labor fight, to the presumed dismay of both sides). Teams usually receive their rings in June ceremonies, but the design obviously takes time.

To put it