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Maybe it was a shot

Join jaguars.com Senior Editor Vic Ketchman as he tackles the fans' tough questions.

Kevin from Jacksonville:
Do you like the signing of Nate Wayne?

Vic: It's a low-risk deal. Nate Wayne is an accomplished, veteran football player. If he has something left in the tank, it's a good deal. We'll see.

Charlie from Toledo, OH:
Do you know when Matt Jones' jerseys will become available for purchase? I definitely will be the first to buy one.

Vic: They may be purchased on jaguars.com. Orders began being taken last week. Sorry, you're not the first.

Brian from Jacksonville:
I have two related questions that follow up on the one about players becoming head coaches. Does coach Del Rio have a Super Bowl ring from his days with the Cowboys? Has anyone ever won a Super Bowl as both a player and later as a head coach?

Vic: Jack Del Rio's last season with the Cowboys was 1991. They claimed their first of three Super Bowl wins in the 1990's the following season. According to my research, Mike Ditka and Tom Flores are the only men to have won a Super Bowl as a player and as a coach. The generation of coaches prior to Flores and Ditka played when there wasn't a Super Bowl. Chuck Noll and Tom Landry, for example, won Super Bowl titles as coaches and NFL titles as players.

Harry from Jacksonville:
I loved watching Tony Dorsett at Pitt but hated that he went to Dallas. I was really impressed when Washington rookie, Darrell Green, caught him from behind. Who would you say have been the fastest cornerbacks? Is Deion Sanders one?

Vic: Darrell Green was a world-class sprinter in college who held the title of "fastest man in football" for a significant portion of his NFL career. Green caught Tony Dorsett from behind in the 1983 season opener on Monday Night Football. It was Green's first game; Dorsett was in his seventh pro season. Rod Woodson was a college sprinter and hurdler who has to rank as one of the fastest cornerbacks in history. Lem Barney invented the "Bump and Run" and he sure could run. Sanders defined the term "cover corner." Nobody could run with Sanders during his prime years. There have been lots of beep-beep cornerbacks. The latest of that breed is Fabian Washington, who ran a 4.33 (ET) 40 at the scouting combine this past February.

Pat from Orange Park, FL:
You hear about Antonio Gates and Tony Gonzalez being basketball players in college all the time. Who on the Jags do you think could play another sport and what sport would it be?

Vic: Rashean Mathis could play any sport. He's an amazing athlete. I hear he can really hit a softball. Imagine him as a centerfielder.

Phil from Stony Brook, NY:
Are there going to be any celebrities or players at the "Ask Vic" convention this year?

Vic: We polled the "Ask Vic" golfers who participated in last year's event and half of them said don't change a thing and half of them said they would be willing to pay more money to have a celebrity golfer in their group. So, we're going to give everyone that option. You may register to play with or without a celebrity. My intention is to recruit some media guys and former Jaguars players to dress-up our event. We'll be announcing formal plans and begin registration soon.

Nigel from Cedar Hill, TX:
What is the highest an offensive guard has ever been drafted?

Vic: That's a difficult question to answer because some guys have played guard and tackle. For example, Jon Ogden will clearly go down in history as one of the greatest left tackles who ever played the game, but Ogden played guard during his rookie year. He was the fourth player selected in the 1996 draft. Chris Hinton was selected fourth overall in 1983 and Hinton was a guard/tackle. Bruce Matthews was the ninth pick of that draft and Matthews played all three line positions. The one guy who defines the guard position is John Hannah, who was the fourth pick of the 1973 draft. Hannah is the greatest guard who ever played the game, therefore, I'd say he's the best example of the highest-drafted guard in modern-era history.

Brian from Jacksonville:
I have a problem with the fact that no team has signed Troy Brown. Don't feed me this crap about "it's a young man's game." Troy Brown is a total winner. How can teams penalize someone for switching their main position just so he could help a team win a Super Bowl? This guy, at the least, is still a number three receiver. As much as I would love to see him in a Jaguars uniform, I don't think the Jaguars need him that much but I am actually offended that this guy hasn't been picked up by anyone now. You know I'm right.

Vic: It's a young man's game. Deal with it.

Roberto from Atlantic Beach, FL:
If defensive backs are so into reading a quarterback's eyes, why don't QBs use those mirrored visors (for daytime, outdoor games) to hide their eyes, or a tinted one for indoor games?

Vic: NFL rules don't permit the use of mirrored or tinted visors, unless there's a medical reason.

Bill from Panama City, FL:
What is the supplemental draft? Will it affect the regular draft?

Vic: The supplemental draft is for players who missed the regular draft and have applied for and been granted eligibility for the supplemental draft in July. You have to have a reason, however, for having missed the regular draft. You can't use "my dog ate my regular draft application" as an excuse. The supplemental is a seven-round draft. The order is the same as the order in the previous spring's regular draft. To make a pick in the supplemental draft, you have to have a corresponding pick in the same round in the following year's regular draft. If a team, for example, makes a selection in the first round of the supplemental draft, it loses its first-round pick in next spring's regular draft.

Dan from Thousand Oaks, CA:
Nate Wayne isn't going to start is he? I think we have a very solid, young linebacking corps in Peterson, Ayodele and Smith. Why should anyone think differently?

Vic: What do you have against competition? The best man wins. Professional football is a "king of the hill" game.

Ryan from Jacksonville:
Remember that rap song some Jaguars players made a while ago; maybe 1999? Is that available in any way? I would love to own a copy.

Vic: I imagine that sometime during the second half of the Jaguars' 1999 AFC title game loss to the Titans, any plan for mass reproduction of the song "Uh, Oh, Jaguars" was canceled and the original copy was burned. It happens that way when you allow 26 unanswered points. After the game, I sat at a computer terminal trying to think of a headline for the cover of "Jaguars Inside Report." Had it not been for my designer, I might still be sitting there. She said, "How about 'Uh, Oh, Titans?'" I didn't have to think twice about it. At that point, all I wanted was to end the day. A couple of days later, Tom Coughlin got his first look at the headline and came looking for me. "That's a shot," Coughlin said, holding up the paper. "It's not a shot. I just didn't know what else to say," I said. "I know a shot when I see one and that's a shot," Coughlin countered. Maybe it was a shot. Why were they bothering with rap songs? Just win the game.

Nick from Jacksonville:
Where do you get your stats for players? NFL.com's stats on Nate Wayne said he had only 29 tackles last year and only 110 in 2002. Is the discrepancy attributed to the fact that crediting tackles is somewhat subjective?

Vic: Somewhat subjective? No, it's a lot more than that. Tackle stats are out and out lies. I got my stats on Nate Wayne from Eagles.com, which provides the Eagles coaching staff's "official" tackles count. There is no "official" agency for providing tackles statistics. I hate even using them.

Joyce from Jacksonville:
What exactly are "OTA's?"

Vic: Organized team activities, which is another way of saying spring practices.

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