Bob Hayes was one of the greatest athletes in history, an Olympic gold medalist, the fastest man in the world in the 1960s and a good wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys.

But now that he's a seniors committee nominee for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, it must be said: He doesn't merit induction in Canton.

Hayes took the NFL by storm as a rookie in 1965, catching 46 passes for 1,003 yards and leading the league in touchdown catches with 12. In 1966 he was even better, with 64 catches for 1,232 yards and a league-leading 13 touchdowns.

But then something happened: Opposing coaches realized that they'd never be able to match up a defensive back one-on-one with Hayes, so they started to employ zone defenses. And that pretty much worked. Hayes' receiving yards steadily decreased, and after being a Pro Bowler in each of his first three NFL seasons, he never was again.

Pro Football Talk may not know it yet, but there's almost no chance that Charlie Batch will be a Steeler at the end of this weekend.

PFT is reporting that the Steelers could consider keeping four quarterbacks, since Batch should be healthy by week four or five. Because they need an experienced backup for early in the season, they'd keep Byron Leftwich. Because he wouldn't miss much time, they'd keep long-time backup Batch and Dennis Dixon would make the team as the developmental quarterback.

That sounds plausible, but it's not going to happen. With Leftwitch looking good in his preseason stints, there's no compelling reason to keep Batch on the active roster. As Ed Bouchette pointed out, the Steelers could waive him with an injury settlement and run the risk that he'll still be available if Roethlisberger or Leftwich was injured later. While you may think that someone would quickly sign Batch, do remember that the Steelers actually waived him before the first game of the 2005 season, then re-signed him before week two (and released Nate Washington to sign Batch), so it is something Pittsburgh has done before.

There have been plenty of hints that former Titans offensive coordinator Norm Chow and quarterback Vince Young didn't see eye to eye, but now we have the final confirmation.

When the Titans were looking to draft a quarterback, Chow was obviously involved. After seeing both Young and Matt Leinart's workouts, Chow was sure the Titans should take Leinart. His opinion was probably somewhat swayed by the fact that he'd coached Leinart at Southern Cal.

"Everyone knew who I wanted and... the minute that they took Vince I told my wife, 'I think my days are numbered here.'"

The Titans tried to get Young to fit in Chow's offense, but it didn't really work, which is why he's now at UCLA and Mike Hemindinger is trying to fix the Titans' offensive problems.

But the funny thing is that while Chow views the drafting of Young as the beginning of the end in Tennessee for him, Leinart hasn't proven him right. He does have a slightly higher quarterback rating (71.2 to 69.0), but Young has more touchdowns (31 to 15), more wins (18 to 7) and a playoff appearance. Young may have his problems, but he'd probably kill for the chance to throw to Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald.

The man pictured to the right is Will McDonough, and apparently he's Tom Brady's right-hand man. McDonough's is a fascinating and interesting, if not completely curious, story about a young man who started off as an intern with the New England Patriots back in 1997, and eventually worked his way to the top of the Tom Brady enterprise. All while maintaining a cloak and dagger lifestyle, and staying completely out of the public spotlight.

Luke O'Brien at Boston Magazine chronicles the story of McDonough and his meteoric rise to the top, and how he's handled much of Brady's personal affairs, from helping the star quarterback assemble a team of financial advisors and modeling agents, to allegedly introducing him to his current squeeze, Gisele Bundchen.

Although his duties are shrouded in secrecy, McDonough is a de facto manager; he brokers deals and acts as a gatekeeper. Brady seems to trust him implicitly. McDonough has had a major hand in the quarterback's metamorphosis-and along the way has become an important man in his own right. One weekend, the Boston College grad might be hobnobbing with hedge fund managers. The next, he could be jetting to a celebrity-studded party. Always, he remains deeply connected to Brady as both a business associate and a best friend. Their relationship raises eyebrows, not least because of its clandestine nature. On the Patriots' payroll until this past February, McDonough has now left the team to handle Brady's affairs on his own. He has no official title. His business card simply lists his name, phone, and e-mail. It's all so East Berlin.

After consulting with every doctor this side of Doogie Howser, Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman has made a rational, well-researched decision.

Or maybe he's continuing to prove that he's absolutely crazy.

"I'm going to play," Merriman said via text message to the Union-Tribune. "I'll deal with it when it's time to get surgery."

You read that correctly. Merriman, after being told by at least five doctors (counting the one employed by the team) that he needs knee surgery, is going to put off the surgery and play for the Chargers this season.

Merriman has two torn knee ligaments, and he's already acknowledged that he could be risking his career by continuing to play.

There's no question that every NFL player faces a certain amount of risk every time they put the pads on and play. It's a wonderful sport, but it's also extremely violent and unpredictable.

There's another part to this story, too.

Jay Feely is a veteran kicker with a solid percentage looking for a job. The Kansas Chiefs boast one of the worst special teams units in the NFL, which is especially limited in kickoffs and field goals. So this seems like a pretty good fit? Right? Well, that's what the Chiefs thought, so they brought in Feely on Monday to compete with Nick Novak and Colin Barth, both of whom have been severely underwhelming in the preseason. Novak missed the only field goal attempt the Chiefs had in their 24-0 beatdown by the Dolphins last Saturday, and neither of them look good in general.

So it may have surprised Feely a bit, and certainly did surprise his agent, when he got dumped by the Chiefs the following day. On Tuesday, the Chiefs had all three kickers kick 30 field goals. Feely, who had just come in, only hit 24, the least of the crew, and was summarily released. Let me put this in perspective. Brett Favre was in camp at Green Bay this season for longer than Jay Feely was with the Chiefs. He probably didn't even have time to get barbecue. I'm not even sure if his hotel had time to clean his room.

Head coach Herm Edwards is having a rough go of it with field goal kickers. Last year he released Lawrence Tynes, which is fine, because it's not like he ended up doing anything important. But then, kickers shouldn't be that big of a deal, right? I mean, it's not like Edwards is the kind of coach that relies on field position and field goals to win a game, preferring to slug it out and not let your opponent have good field position, right? Wait. That's exactly what Edwards is. So even if you subscribe to the theory of punting over scoring, Edwards doesn't have the personnel to actually implement that kind of strategy. This should end well.

In our Redskins training camp battle look-see, I went with the gripping punter competition. Derrick Frost is the inconsistent incumbent. Durant Brooks was drafting in the 6th round of April's draft.

Many feel that Frost has done enough to hold onto his job, but that isn't stopping coach Jim Zorn from taking this down to the wire. Both will punt in Thursday's game against the Jaguars:

"They are going to both punt in the game," head coach Jim Zorn said. "That's how we're going to do it. It's getting down to the nitty-gritty now."

Uh, the "nitty gritty"?

Frost has done a great job with his punts this preseason (even booming a 65-yarder). His punt average is much better than Brooks', but his net yardage isn't. Both have pinned three of their punts inside the 20-yard line.

I think Frost keeps his gig just because of experience. Or, as Gary Fitzgerald of the Redskins official site wonders:

It could even come down to holding on field goal attempts. Frost and Brooks both hold for [FG kicker] Shaun Suisham.

Three years ago, despite advanced warnings, Hurricane Katrina caught the Saints, New Orleans, and our government off guard. If that weren't bad enough, all three of those entities responded embarrassingly.

But if Gustav, the feisty Euro metrosexual tropical storm which has devastated Haiti (see right) and is currently heading towards the Gulf Coast, decides to touch down and wreak havoc on New Orleans again, the Saints will already be prepared.

"What we do is really predicated on when it's supposed to arrive, and the good news with a hurricane is there's advance warning," Payton said. "So we'll have a plan; it's currently in place. And having gone through this once before, we'll be thoroughly prepared."

Gustav was recently downgraded from a hurricane. And considering the margin of error in predicting storm patterns, Louisiana might not get anything more than a swift thunderstorm. Still, it's good to know that the Saints have thought ahead this time, and are prepared for any contingency plans that need to be implemented. Said contingency plans probably don't involve working out in a parking lot in San Antonio, and so that's already a step up.

That being said, as Sean Payton notes, the first concern in the Gulf Coast when news of a potential hurricane comes shouldn't be the football team. If Gustav proves even half as troublesome as Katrina, New Orleans residents will probably wish their leadership was as on-point as the Saints'. For that, we turn to Washington, and are unfortunately and inevitably met with a sea of disinterested faces.

The longest rookie holdout in team history has finally ended, and Derrick Harvey is officially a member of the Jacksonville Jaguars, at least if you believe what John Clayton is reporting at the WWL (via PFT).

A month of stalled negotiations came to an end when Harvey and the Jaguars found creative ways to get around the differences between the seventh pick and the ninth picks in the draft. According to a source, Harvey will receive guarantees of $17,177,500.

His base package will be $23.8 million over the five years. The key tradeoff that ended the holdout was the ability to get $6.2 million of incentives and escalators based on playing time. A source said those escalators and incentives have less of a trigger than the picks above and below him.

Ironic isn't it? Sitting out to get bigger incentives? Or maybe it's not ironic, I can't even really tell anymore. What it is is "too little too late" in terms of Harvey making a timely appearance on the team. He'll still play some, but Paul Spicer is clearly locked and Reggie Hayward has been playing well.

Bear in mind though that Clayton is saying Harvey's contract can get as high as $ 33.4 mil if he makes the Pro Bowl, which means that he should at the very least push the veteran for playing time, assuming he can get caught up. Still, though, missing all of camp and enraging a pretty tranquil fan base just in the name of boosting incentives seems a little ridiculous.

The Baltimore Ravens have been struggling all preseason with their quarterback situation and it isn't getting any easier as news surfaced today that "there is a growing fear" last year's starter could miss the entire season.

Kyle Boller, who started eight games in 2007, could miss all of '08 after he banged up his shoulder during the August 12 meeting with the Vikings. An MRI on the shoulder turned out to be worse than expected and he isn't showing a lot of movement around the practice field.

Boller was unable to throw Tuesday and struggles to raise his arm over his head. While jogging onto the field in sweatpants and a baseball cap, Boller never moved his right arm and crossed his left arm across his body to scratch his right ear.

"He's got MRIs that are being looked at," head coach John Harbaugh said.

This would obviously be a blow to the Ravens weakest position, but lets be honest, Boller wasn't exactly booking flights to Hawaii for the Pro Bowl. If he's out, Harbaugh will have to pick either second year Troy Smith or rookie Joe Flacco to be the brains of the offense. With Smith still not 100 percent from a stomach virus that kept him out of Saturday's game, Flacco will be the man this Thursday in the preseason finale against the Falcons.

"I've prepared myself," Flacco said. "If that's the case, then I get another chance to work with all the guys and we'll see what happens. I just want to get better and develop more chemistry with the receivers."