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Former Buffalo Bills running back Thurman Thomas accomplished almost everything a pro football player can, including five Pro Bowls, four Super Bowl appearances, an NFL MVP award and induction to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

And yet, the thing many sports fans remember most about him is a much more embarrassing moment: Losing his helmet before Super Bowl XXVI vs. the Washington Redskins in 1992.

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"I probably need to have a nice dinner with Bill Buckner," Thomas deadpanned.

Many would say Thomas also belongs in the Hall of Shame with the likes of the aforementioned former Boston Red Sox first baseman, Dallas Cowboys defender Leon Lett, golfer Jean Van de Velde and former Michigan

LostLettermen.com, the college sports fan site and player database, regularly contributes to Shutdown Corner. Here's a look at rookie New England Patriots cheerleader Alexa Flutie, daughter of Doug Flutie.

yahoo_alexa_flutieThere will once again be a Flutie on the New England Patriots sideline this season. No, Doug Flutie isn't coming out of retirement at the age of 48.

Instead, the former NFL quarterback's daughter, Alexa, will be making her debut as a rookie cheerleader for the Pats.

Just like her father, Alexa took the long road to make it in the NFL. After just four years in the league, the Patriots released Doug after the 1989 season. He then spent eight years in Canada and won three Canadian Football League titles before getting another job stateside. Doug eventually proved he belonged in the NFL, leading the Bills to two playoff appearances and finishing his career after the '05 season with the Pats.

[Related: Mark Rypien's daughter now Lingerie League QB]

For her part, the 23-year-old Alexa is

As it turns out, holding a football game in the middle of a hurricane is as bad an idea as it sounds.

Division II Virginia Union (alma mater of NBA star Ben Wallace) opened its season Saturday against Raleigh, N.C.-based St. Augustine's College, despite the wrath of Hurricane Irene bearing down on Richmond, Va. About 80 brave souls were in attendance, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, which described the wind as "gust[ing] violently from north to south, shaking the bleachers and whistling across the field." The rain fell sideways, and "felt like pushpins against the skin." Both schools had to petition the NCAA to allow the game to go on, and billed it as "the only game in town" on an afternoon that saw the rest of the Eastern Seaboard ducking for cover.

"We knew there'd be rain," Virginia Union coach Michael Bailey told the Times-Dispatch. "But you don't stop football for rain. You stop it for lightning and tornadoes."

Um, what about hurricanes?

The result wasn't pretty.

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LostLettermen.com, the college sports fan site and player database, regularly contributes to Shutdown Corner. Here's a look at former Raiders running back Bo Jackson.

According to a series of legendary Nike advertisements, Bo Jackson knew pretty much everything: football, baseball, tennis, cycling -- even cricket.

But more than two decades after those ads first aired, who would have thought the former NFL and Major League Baseball star -- the guy who was the subject of so much awe and admiration for his seemingly superhuman athletic ability -- would know banking, too?

These days, you can find the 48-year-old Jackson in the suburbs of Chicago as a part-owner and director of the Burr Ridge Bank & Trust.

The move isn't completely out of left

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LostLettermen.com, the college sports fan site and player database, regularly contributes to Shutdown Corner. Here's a look at former Boise State hero Ian Johnson.

It's hard to believe it was just four years ago that Detroit Lions running back Ian Johnson became an overnight celebrity.

The setting was the 2007 Fiesta Bowl in Phoenix, Ariz. Johnson had just scored the game-winning two-point conversion for Boise State on a trick play in one of the more memorable moments in recent college football history. The shocking ending gave the Broncos an improbable 43-42 victory over mighty Oklahoma and officially put the Broncos on the college football map with the perfect ending to a 13-0 season. As Johnson was interviewed on national television after the game, he dropped to a knee and asked Boise State cheerleader Chrissy Popadics to marry him.

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Since then, Johnson has gone from a sophomore football star to an NFL journeyman

Jim Weber runs Lost Lettermen, a site devoted to keeping tabs on former college athletes and other nostalgia. Recently, he tracked down former Notre Dame receiver/return man Raghib "Rocket" Ismail, about his work with an equipment company.

Raghib Ismail saying a business venture is about to take off is like Brett Favre promising he's retired for good: Both statements should be met with plenty of skepticism.

After all, the "Rocket" has squandered his money in several doomed business ventures, including a cosmetics procedure to allow the skin to absorb oxygen, nationwide phone card dispensers and tourist shops that sold framed calligraphy.

But it seems that after a string of business failures, the Notre Dame legend might have finally struck gold in an unlikely place: Mouthguards.

Ismail first discovered the "performance mouthwear" company Bite Tech in the mid-'90s, while playing for the then-Los Angeles Raiders. He used the company's mouthguards to try to reduce head injuries because of

Jim Weber runs LostLettermen.com, a site devoted to keeping tabs on former college athletes and other nostalgia. Recently, he caught up with injured Rutgers lineman Eric LeGrand.

With the start of the season just six weeks away, Eric LeGrand should be preparing for his senior year on the field at Rutgers. Instead, he's just trying to walk again.

That's how much life changed for LeGrand just over nine months ago, when the 20-year-old defensive lineman lay motionless on the turf following a collision on a fourth-quarter kickoff in Rutgers' win over Army on Oct. 16.

"It felt like I'd got the wind knocked out of me and I was just gasping for a breath," LeGrand said this week from his home in New Jersey. It soon become clear that something was very wrong, as he couldn't move his body and struggled to breath. As LeGrand lay on the field, he worried for his life, and spent the next several days under heavy sedation. "I got onto the stretcher, I saw my mom, I told her everything was going to

Jim Weber runs LostLettermen.com, a site devoted to keeping tabs on former college athletes and other nostalgia. Recently, he tracked down legendary college football play-by-play man Keith Jackson.

Certain phrases uttered by certain broadcasters become so iconic they're bound together for eternity. People will always remember that Walter Cronkite finished his nightly newscast with, "And that's the way it is," and that Edward R. Murrow always closed with, "Good night, and good luck."

When people hear the words "Whoa, Nellie!", they think of one man: Keith Jackson.

But if the retired broadcasting legend had his way, that wouldn't be the case. In fact, he's still trying to figure out how the two got so intertwined.

"I never did use it that much, just a couple times when Grease (Bob Griese) and I were (broadcasting) together," Jackson, now 82,