Deion Sanders in Pro Football Hall of Fame

DALLAS — Deion Sanders arrived at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Dallas after receiving the news about his induction in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton.

At the time he was coaching a youth football game. "It's unbelievable," Sanders said on the NFL Network. "It's hard to describe the feeling. I'm one who never put an emphasis of what someone thought about me. To be held to a high regard and standard by your peers, and different sports writers around the count, I'm honored. I really am."

Sanders was one of two players who was voted in during his first year of eligibility. Running back Marshall Faulk was the second.

"We had a pretty good 90s," said Michael Irvin, who was inducted with the Class of 2007. "Some would say a very good 90s. It is a blessing to see some of the fruit from that hard labor."

"When you talk about shutdown corners, when you talk about somebody who can play man to man all over the field, I mean he's the kind of guy that would play man to man and take you all the way to the bathroom," said Ronnie Lott, a member of the Class of 2000.

Sanders was a cornerback, a kick and punt return specialist and a wide receiver. To this day, he remains the only man to have won both a Super Bowl ring and a World Series ring. Now the fun is just beginning.

"In terms of getting your bust and make sure that you have it the way you want it, you have to spend time with the guys," said Emmitt Smith, who was inducted with the Class of 2010. "He has to figure out if he wants to go in with a bald head or go in with a curl. But either way, he's going in."

Wide receiver Tim Brown failed to make the cut. Former Cowboys defensive end Charles Haley failed to make it as well, despite being the only player with five Super Bowl rings.

"It's a sad day for me and it's sad day, because I know what kind of warrior he truly is," Lott said.
Sanders left the news conference the same way he came in — on the run. His only comments about his induction were heard on the NFL Network.

Sanders brings to 11 the number of Cowboys players who are now in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Haley was a second year finalist and will remain eligible for the next 17 years.

Norma Hunt ready to extend Super Bowl Streak

DALLAS, TX - Spending time with Norma Hunt is a walk down memory lane. She has endless stories about her life with Lamar Hunt, one of the great innovators of professional football.
She was married to him for 42 years. They attended the first 40 Super Bowls together. Today, her streak is at 44 and counting.

"Yes because he wanted me to," Norma says. "We went together for 40 years and we both had a 40 year record but he was never so interested in his record as he was in mine."

When he died in December of 2006, he made sure that his son Clark was taking his mother to the next Super Bowl to keep her streak alive as the only woman to see every Super Bowl game.

"It's a very special streak for her to be the only woman who has seen every Super Bowl," says Clark Hunt, Lamar's son. "One of the last things he asked me before he passed away, was to make sure that my mother made it to the Super Bowl. At that time it was the Super Bowl in 2007 because the streak was very important to him as well."

Norma was married to Lamar Hunt when he helped negotiate the merger of the AFL and NFL. She was there when the Packers beat the Chiefs in the very first Championship game which her late husband would later name the Super Bowl.

"In a league meeting, he mentioned the championship game and someone said to him, what do you mean, championship game and he said, you know, the last game, the final game, the Super Bowl just popped out of him," Norma says.

Her favorite memories of all those games is watching the most valuable player emerge.

"Really, it's seeing the MVP's at the games," Norma says. "That's the thing that sticks with me just as an overall great memory of those games."

Since she has seen all the games, you might think that there are certain elements of the Super Bowl she would like to change but that's not the case.

"Actually, the game has improved incrementally in my opinion," Norma says. "What they do with the game, what they do with the pregame, the halftime entertainment, all of those things have improved over time so dramatically so it's not a matter of going back to old days. It's the good new days because it is absolutely better. Things weren't as smooth. Now the production is unbelievable."

And that's coming from someone who's been every super bowl game ever played. On February 6th, she'll attend her 45th Super Bowl.

Scots Welcome Cheese Heads

HIGHLAND PARK, TX - Across from the high school football stadium in Highland Park sits a indoor practice facility that may get to host a special guest.
Girls from the junior varsity soccer team aren't totally sure who's coming to town, but they know it's big.

"It's the Packers and Bears, no the Bears aren't playing, Packers and Bears, no it's the Steelers and the Packers," they all argued.

The reason everyone is so excited on this campus is that the NFL has picked this facility as a potential workout location for the NFC Champion Green Bay Packers. It's their contribution to Super Bowl week and they're proud of it.

"Oh yeah, highland park hosting an NFL team to workout is a great thrill yeah," says Highland Park head football coach Randy Allen. "That's a big recognition."

The NFC team was supposed to work out at Valley Ranch but that changed when the Cowboys indoor practice facility collapsed in May of 2009.

So while Highland Park is hosting soccer practice this week, next week if the weather gets bad, it'll be home to the Packers.

"The whole community is excited about," says Highland Park JV soccer coach Tom Pollock. "I think we can give up our space for a little bit of time to let Aaron and the guys come in and get their work done, sure."

"Highland Park paid for this facility and we like to use it as much as we can," says Highland Park nose guard Bradfield Biggers. "If we can help out the Packers, I'm a big Packers fan."

"It's a very new facility and it's like an honor that we can share with them, a high school team and a pro team," says Highland Park defensive lineman Clay Crews.

If the Packers do practice here, it still doesn't guarantee anyone a ticket to the game.

"Well I asked them about it, but they said there was no ticket involved in this deal," says Allen

Green Bay's workout schedule hasn't been finalized yet but everyone here is hoping the Packers will use this facility at least once.

Brothers Become Entrepreneurs in High School

MURPHY, TX - When it comes to starting a business, Corey and Brandon Wesley from Murphy, Texas are way ahead of the game.
The two are brothers who started their own line of hair products as high school students at Plano East.

"This right here is Corey's do dab," says Brandon. "His name is on the front. I'm on the back. But this is a great product."

"This is the wave pomade, the most popular one," says Corey. "This is a locking wax, and these two are shampoo and conditioner."

"He's cutting his hair constantly, every other day and always complaining about different greases, different brushes," says Brandon. "He wants waves all the time. So one day my mom said why don't you make your own product."

"Other products that I used, they were too thick so I wanted something thinner and I thought that would work," Corey says. "I told my mom and the chemist to fix it up for us and it worked."

That was the beginning of Corey do dab which they started selling on line 13 months ago at coreysdodab.com.

"At first I didn't know how it was going to work out, but as soon as it got together, it was pretty good," Corey says.

Both are active in sports and both are quarterbacks. Corey has two more years left at Plano East and is currently playing basketball.

Brandon was the quarterback at Plano East last year. Now he's the quarterback at Bucknell where he won rookie of the year honors.

The two have become celebrities in their own right, hosting product demonstrations at beauty supply houses, trying to get their product rolling. "We're the most interesting brother combination at our school," Brandon tells a small crowd at demonstration.

"For them to have the vision to want to their own product and to see it be as successful as it has been," says Renee Wesley, their mother. "They're learning great lessons."

"Most people are pretty surprised to see us come in there and have our own product," Brandon says.

They package their product at home and handling their own shipping. Through friends, they've also begun selling in California and Pennsylvania. The parents have also convinced them to save the money they make.

TCU Celebrates Perfect Season

FORT WORTH, TX - TCU's celebration to honor their football team filled Daniel Meyer Coliseum. 7,500 fans showed up to relive a season that they will never forget.
"I was a horned frog when horned frogs weren't cool," says Jim Vaughn of Granbury.

They talked about having a team good enough to win a championship.

"We could have beaten the hell out of Auburn," Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief told the crowd. "We could have beaten the hell out of you, you, you, you, you! Go Frogs!"

The last time TCU football got this kind of notoriety was 1938, that's the year they won the national championship. They didn't bring home a national championship trophy, but the Rose Bowl trophy is as close as they could come.

"The top of our pyramid, by the way we did color it in, I want you to understand, it says champs," says TCU head coach Gary Patterson. "We did color it in. The bottom line is they did everything they could do to be that, so in my mind, and since I’m keeping the pyramid, it's colored in."

Patterson accepted a photo from the Rose Bowl committee taken during the fly by and they handed him the Rose Bowl Trophy a second time.

Nine days ago, Patterson had two more years added to his contract which now extends through the 2018 season. That's eight more seasons and that lead the fans to a chant of "eight more years!"

"If I live through it, I’ll be here for 20 years," Patterson said after the gathering. "This will be my 14th season and everyone has been on the same page. Like I've told people, the greatest thing about Fort Worth and TCU, as a whole university, we're trying to be a national champion."

Jake Kirkpatrick leaves TCU having won the Rimington award as the nation’s top center. He and his wife Callie are expecting their first child before the end of the month.

"I've been trying to keep the baby in until Jake is settled and so now we're just ready to have a baby," Callie says.

"We made it past the season and winning the Rose Bowl was nice but having this baby is going to be one of the best moments in my life," Jake says.

Andy Dalton's parents were on hand to see a send off for their son who leaves as the winningest quarterback in TCU history.

"It's been exciting," Andy's father Greg said. "We haven't come down yet i don't think."

"It's just been such a fun ride," Andy's mother Tina said.

Andy Dalton and Jordan Jones will be married in July. For the seniors, it may have been the last gathering for the entire team.

"There will still be some other things," Dalton said. "We'll all come back but it's kind of crazy that it's all over with now."

TCU football image changing on a national scale

PASADENA, CA – It was the return of greatness for TCU football. Tears of joy were flowing during a celebration that could have lasted all night after the Horned Frogs won their first game ever played in the Rose Bowl.

If it wasn’t for the perception of TCU as a member of a non-qualifying BCS conference, the Horned Frogs might have had a shot at playing for a National Championship.

“If you want to understand the emotion behind why TCU has won ball games, why we’ve done the things we need to do, you need to know where we came from,” says TCU head coach Gary Patterson. “If you know where we came from, you understand why we play with a chip on our shoulder.”

No longer are they in the shadows of other big time college football programs. Instead, they’re the ones bucking the system and enjoying the national spotlight.

“I'm extremely impressed and it doesn't matter what conference they played in,” says ESPN broadcaster Brent Musburger. “To put together back to back undefeated regular seasons, and do it in the fashion that they have done it, from my standpoint, I've got a lot of respect for them.”

TCU is getting used to playing on the big stage. Back to back appearances in a BCS bowl game will do that. It's slowly changing the national perception of a small private University that has less than 10,000 students.

TCU to put it in a word, is now a hot school,” says Bob Schieffer, a TCU graduate and CBS News anchor. “It's a school that some people used to think of as some little bible college out in some place where nobody knew where it was. All of sudden, people know where TCU is and they know what it is. I mean, this has helped the recruiting even for the journalism school.”

“Let's not forget that, they were left behind by the Big 12 and now the Big 12 is being left behind by college football and there is TCU is at the top,” says ESPN’s Ivan Maisel. “It's got to make all those guys feel really good.”

“I think that they've arrived at a point where people are willing to take them seriously as a national contender,” says Dallas Morning News columnist Kevin Sherrington. “I don't think that's a joke anymore.”

“Most of America, college presidents, media and fans, still separate the college football landscape into automatic qualifying teams and leagues and non automatic qualifying, and TCU in that regard still comes from the wrong side of the tracks,” says Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist Gil Lebreton.

That will change in 2012 when they join the Big East Conference. At 13-and-0, TCU recorded their first perfect season since the school won a national championship in 1938 but there won't be a championship this year.

“ I've always thought that a championship should be determined on the field of play where you go head to head to find out who is best and not go by the polls,” says College Hall of Fame coach Hayden Fry. “So many of those people that vote on those polls, have never had a jock strap on in their life.”

“I've never been a whiner, I've never been somebody that's been out there griping about how it is, and I'm not going to start now,” says Patterson.

But TCU did prove that they belong on the national stage.