Sunday Live Thread!

Neither of these were necessarily worthy of their own post, so instead, I'll combine them into a general live thread post.

1. Today's Gabbert family profile from the Post-Dispatch is lovely.

With hundreds of eyes upon him at the University of Missouri's March 17 pro day, Blaine Gabbert's first throw out of the shotgun wasn't terrible. But it wasn't a great one.

"He got lazy," said a voice in the crowd, matter of factly. "He didn't bend his knees."

Was this Mizzou coach Gary Pinkel thinking out loud? A Carolina scout taking notes? Rex Ryan of the New York Jets addressing his offensive coordinator?

None of the above. Try 10-year old Brett Gabbert, Blaine's youngest brother.

"It was the cutest thing," said Matt Biermann, longtime coach, mentor and family friend of the Gabberts. "But it also drives home to me the essence of all three Gabbert boys."

Namely, that they are all into their football, particularly the art and science of playing quarterback. Leading the way is oldest of the brothers - Blaine - the Mizzou quarterback who's four days removed from being a top-10 pick in the NFL draft.

2. Question about the voting for this year's Wall of Excellence class that starts tomorrow: how should the tiers be drawn up?  My initial thought was as follows:

Tier I: Pre-1950s
Tier II: 1950s-1960s
Tier III: 1970s-1980s
Tier IV: 1990s
Tier V: 2000s
Tier VI: Coaches/Administrators

This is the general process we've followed to date, and to be sure, I've come up with 7-9 names for each tier that deserve celebration and observation (which is the point of The Wall and The Rafters to begin with, at least for me; even more than who wins the votes, I love shining the spotlight on as many good players as possible).

But I got a reader e-mail a little while back that intrigued me.  Should we shine a brighter spotlight on those from each of Mizzou's three successful coaching tenures -- Faurot, Devine, Pinkel?  This would result more in something like...

Tier I: Faurot (mid-1930s to mid-1950s)
Tier II: Devine (late-1950s to early-1970s)
Tier III: Pinkel (2000s)
Tier IV: Other (pre-Faurot, 1970s-1990s)
Tier V: ? (Voting runners-up, maybe?)
Tier VI: Coaches/Administrators

Honestly, the tiers would be a little unbalanced this way (some would have 5-7 names, some 8-10), but I don't necessarily have a problem with that.  Thoughts?

(We could also set up some sort of "two offensive players, two defensive players and a wildcard" thing too. I'm open to suggestion on this one.)