The glove is making the catch

Ben from Alameda, CA
If you were part of the Hall of Fame selection committee for the past seven years, would anything be different?
There would be fewer wide receivers and more grunt-position players elected to the Hall. Also, I'm not a big fan of the contributor category; I think it's diluting the product's quality. Assuming I would have no choice but to accept it, I would set the bar extremely high. I don't think it's high enough.

Morgan from Kaukauna, WI
Logically thinking, the Browns should go Barkley at No. 1 and their top-rated QB at No. 4?
The Browns need to get "The Man" as soon as they can. They don't dare run the risk of losing the guy they want. For them to have come away empty in the Wentz-Goff year is a lesson they should never forget.

Patty from Green Bay, WI
Is help on its way to Lambeau?
This is the help-is-on-the-way time of year. A team's fate next fall will be largely determined by what happens over the next couple of months.

Anthony from Milwaukee, WI
Did the Packers rush to sign Adams? Should they have let him test the free-agent waters? What is a guy that has had three concussions and never had a 1,000-yard season while working with Aaron Rodgers going to get offered by another team?
They moved too slowly on him, and that forced them into a contract that's richer than they should've had to pay. It happens to all teams. I think they recognized their mistake and decided to take their medicine and swallow hard. I'll swallow hard and say they did the right thing.

David from San Francisco, CA
Vic, that video of the floods below your house makes me cringe. I’m not worried about the structure but I don’t get the draw to a place where you build your house on pilings. For someone who grew up in a suburb of Seattle and now resides in an urban San Francisco neighborhood, and hasn't ever experienced the Southeast, can you give me a story which will show me why you love the place you’ve retired?
It fits my eye and my lifestyle. I love where I live. My neighbor refers to Edisto as the "island of misfit toys." It's a flavorful, beautiful, quirky place, and I'm one of the misfit toys. Our numbers are small and we're friends to the degree we feel like family. I guess I always wanted to live in a place where everybody knows your name. I live in the low country. You live in earthquake country. As Coach Noll said, "How do you wish to die?" None of us are getting out of this alive, David.

Ben from Fremont, NE
Vic, is the woman always right? Asking for a friend.
Happy wife, happy life.

Dustin from Orlando, FL
Forget the crows; they are merely a nuisance. A poorly placed guy wire can decapitate a man on a bicycle.
For those of you who didn't find this column in my Jaguars days, here's the story: A reader wrote in complaining about having to fight crows to go to Jaguars games. Obviously, he meant to write crowds, not crows. He went on and on about it: fighting crows in the parking lot, to get to his seat, at the concession stands, leaving the game, etc. It was a slow offseason day so I allowed the misspelling to stand, thinking it might make somebody chuckle. I didn't want to do it; I felt I owed it to him. In my answer, I said I would advise Wayne Weaver of the crow problem. I never thought the crows question and answer would become "Ask Vic" legend, but it did. I still have readers tell me it's the funniest thing they've ever read. Guy wires, the invisible paint they use on TV to show the line to gain, and my friendship with Snoop Dogg were also hot topics. My favorite was the guy from 998 Oaks, Calif. We sure did have fun.

Gertrude from Lake Mills, WI
Do you think the current roster of Packers running backs are anything more than placeholders until a true feature back shows up?
Running backs have a way of coming out of nowhere. I think that could happen with what the Packers have on their roster. I don't see a pressing need at the position.

Dougie from MT
The best advice I ever received: "Beware what you give up in your first year of marriage, because you will give it up forever." Yours?
"Too often we don't learn to say hello until it's time to say goodbye."

Barry from Knob Hill, GA
Do you have any signed memorabilia? I used to have a fair amount of helmets, but I ended up selling them because it seemed a little foolish.
I have two autograph pieces. One is a large, framed picture of Forbes Field that sits above my desk. My sons gave it to me as a Christmas present. Back then, I lived in the same town Bill Mazeroski did, and I would occasionally play a round of golf with him. After one such round, I asked Maz if he'd sign the Forbes Field picture for me. He did, right at the base of the 406-foot mark at the leftfield wall. The 1960 Pirates were my first sports love. My other treasured autograph piece is a Fred Taylor poster commemorating his 10,000 yards rushing. Fred walked into my office one day, plopped down the poster on my desk and wrote meaningfully on it, and then signed his name. Fred might be the most human player I've ever covered. We had a special relationship. He never complained about a word I wrote, and I never felt our friendship compromised what I wrote about him. For a reporter, that's special.

Tristan from Durham, NC
Vic, before the Packers-Panthers game in December, I asked you how to tell when a team's arrow was pointed down, and you told me it was a Potter Stewart. Well, I went to that game, sat down quietly and watched. You were right; I knew it when I saw it. I enjoyed the game, but I didn't need to see the end of the game to know the offseason had begun, and I left the game disappointed but content. Thanks for giving me perspective.
Never argue with your eyes.

Bill from Staten Island, NY
Since it's the offseason and knowing you are a golfer, I wonder if you have any thoughts regarding the advance of golf equipment, in particular, the ball.
It's over the top. The ruling bodies should cap technology. In my storage room, I have an old bag full of clubs I used long ago. One of the clubs is a Taylor seven-degree "Pittsburgh Persimmon." It was the ultimate in driver technology when it hit the pro shops in the 1980's. Today, it's comical looking and feeling. It's unhittable compared to today's colossal drivers. How can we compare eras with this kind of equipment discrepancy? Football has a similar problem. I give baseball credit for maintaining continuity.

Mike from North Hudson, WI
Vic, of all the decades you covered football, which decade is your favorite and why?
It's probably the '70's, not because of what happened on the field but because of what happened off it. In most ways, today's game is more exciting, compelling and entertaining than the one I covered in the '70's. For a young reporter, the '70's were heaven. Pro football was overtaking baseball as America's most popular sport, and the NFL treated reporters as kings. "Write anything you want, just spell the name right." That was the PR motto that helped make the NFL the most popular sports league in the country. I've talked about the five o'clock club. It was the highlight of the day; coaches gave us scoops. My goal was to write something every day that was fresh, new and would distinguish my reporting, and I counted on the coaches to assist me in those efforts. Those days are gone. I feel blessed I had a chance to experience them.

David from Capitol Heights, MD
What do you think about the way Eagles fans treated Vikings fans at the NFC Championship game?
It's not cute anymore. The Eagles are finally a championship franchise. It needs to act like a champion and put a stop to that crap.

Chad from Troy, MI
"Those that played in the pre-1978 rules changes era must be treated completely different from those that have played in the pass-friendly era." I've been debating this same argument with wide receivers with my friends at work. How would you compare wide receivers from the two eras?
The wide receiver position, in my opinion, has two eras: the gloves era and the pre-glove eras. No player should ever drop a pass while wearing today's gloves. The pre-glove era receivers not only didn't have sticky gloves to aid them, there was no defenseless-receiver protections. They had to catch a slick ball knowing they were going to get clobbered the moment the ball touched their cold, slippery hands. These days, we ooh and ahh over these one-handed catches. The glove is making the catch.

Brian from Yakima, WA
Vic, do the front office personnel losses the Packers have suffered make you think the team is at a disadvantage in personnel acquisition in comparison to other teams?
No, the important work was done. This is fine-tuning stuff now and that's the job of the cross-checkers, Brian Gutekunst being the No. 1 cross-checker.

​Chris from Fitchburg, WI
Any chance "Video Ask Vic" comes back?
I posted a video in Monday's column. It was the first such attempt. Now that I know it can be done, I can consider doing some "VAV" stuff. On another front, we've changed the comments platform. I was getting complaints about the previous platform. I think everyone is familiar with the new platform; the only negative is it requires we permit advertising. Let's give it a shot. Let's be new!

Dan from Sebastopol, CA
Is the combine more important for coaches in player evaluation over game tape?
No, most coaches disregard the gym class stuff. They go to the combine to interview the players they've already identified as prospects to draft. The coaches know who can play. Now they want to know who can be coached.

Barry from Hayward, WI
Vic, what would the league have to do to make you turn your back on professional football?
When the league bans three- and four-point stances, I'll probably find other things to do on Sundays in the fall. That day is coming. It's just a matter of when and will I still be alive?