A true NFL farm system, Texans fans like me now, and more on our old friend Corey Simon

The weather this past weekend was beautiful after weeks of hot, hot, HOT and sticky conditions. I'm taking an impromptu vacation tomorrow, which means I probably won't be posting for a few days. While away, MasterRWayne will man the fort. Last year, I took my vacation right before the season started. This year, I wanted to get the vacation stuff done well in advance of training camp and the pre-season. This will give me time to help coordinate the Stampede Blue FFL, get things ready for training camp coverage, and gear up for week one against New Orleans. Here are the hits:

• An annoying feature (or lack thereof) of Mike Florio's PFT is you can't link directly to a post Florio puts up on the site. He does this on purpose because he's usually wrong about the gossip he spews 80% of the time. If I could link directly to his posts, I could create a list of Florio's greatest hits and misses, like when he said Bill Polian attacked a NY Jets employee even though that was a complete lie and never happened. It's annoying because I can't link to posts he makes that are actually pretty good, like this one regarding the collapse of NFL Europa and the possible creation of a new NFL development league:
  With NFL Europa being flushed down the thing that sits next to the bidet, an indoor football source tells us that former Broncos quarterback John Elway plans to push for the Arena Football League to become the new NFL developmental league.

  To get there, the word is that Elway, co-owner and CEO of the Colorado Crush, first plans to target AFL Commissioner David Baker for removal, due to the fact that plenty of the teams are consistently losing money.

  It's an interesting suggestion Florio makes, offering up the AFL as a side-league to the NFL, providing games during the NFL regular season, and having their championship game on the Saturday before the Super Bowl. Interesting idea. Not sure it makes sense in terms of making interesting football, but worth discussing. Without NFL Europa, the NFL is in dire need of a development league. Guys like Adam Vinatieri, who once played for the Amsterdam Admirals, might not have made it to the NFL without the development league.
• Nice fluff article on Josh Thomas. The Colts have a lot of quality depth at DE. It's the depth at DT that scares me.
• Tyjuan Hagler, a player Polian has always spoken highly of despite the fact he has never played Lber in a meaningful game, has moved from weakside LBer to strongside LBer, and will back-up Rob Morris.
• JasonB over at Bleeding Green Nation has a write-up on Corey Simon. JasonB also links to a Coltpower.com article on Corey. Nothing new that we don't already know, but both articles sum up the long and painfully annoying saga that is Corey Simon.
• Tip to MarkV0327: The Top 25 players the last 25 years. Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison better be on that list.
• Texans fans like me now.
• Be sure to check out Canal Street Chronicles, our New Orleans Saints blog, later today for my write-up on Jason David.