Note to readers: I'm going to be out of the office all week to be with my family in Northern California. I'm hoping to be back on the blog next week, and look forward to "seeing" you then.

In the meantime, have a good thought for my sister, Robin, and her family as her husband is very ill.

Take care,
Danny O

Not to worry: I haven't taken Danny O'Neil captive. We just wanted to give you a chance to watch some of the Super Bowl commercials, just in case you need to get up for a snack during the breaks in the game.

Many of the Super Bowl commercials have been released early. What do you think about that phenomenon? Would you rather wait until the game to see the ads? In case you do want to see the ads, here are a few (with more after the jump). You can also watch commercials from previous years, and we'll have the 2012 ads during the game. Come back after the game to vote for your favorite.

Cortez Kennedy has been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the result of voting conducted on Saturday in Indianapolis.

Kennedy was a finalist for the fourth time, and his election means that he received at least 80 percent of the votes from the 44-member panel.

"I cried," Kennedy said when reached at his Orlando home after the news. "It was so emotional to get that call to the Hall."

Kennedy played 11 seasons in the NFL, all with Seattle. He was named the leagues' Defensive Players of the Year in 1992, a season in which the Seahawks went 2-14.

Kennedy appeared in eight consecutive Pro Bowls. Walter Jones is the only Seahawk ever to appear in more.

Kennedy will be the seventh man who played for the Seahawks to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, but the second to be inducted as a Seahawk.

Steve Largent was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1995, and while he was acquired in a trade from Houston, Seattle was the only team he played for.

Carl Eller, Franco Harris, Warren Moon, Jerry Rice and John Randle were all former Seahawks inducted into the Hall of Fame as well, but each played most of his career elsewhere.

Kennedy was selected by the Seahawks No. 3 overall in the 1990 draft.

Unlike Patriots, NFL slow to adopt 'Moneyball' principals
By Seth Bornstein, Associated Press science writer

Hey, you know what's awesome? Reading another article about just how freakin' smart those New England Patriots are. Yeah? You don't say?

And don't look now, but those Patriots are more willing than all those other stodgy NFL curmudgeons to look at the game in a new way.

Excuse me while I barf.

The article mentions that running backs tend to be overvalued in the game, and points to the Patriots as a team that didn't put too much emphasis on this position. This flies in the face of two facts: 1) The Patriots used a first-round pick on Laurence Maroney in the not-too-distant past. 2) The Patriots haven't won a Super Bowl since they had Corey Dillon, who was certainly not "just any running back." He once held the NFL's single-game rushing record.

A good deal of the article talks about the statistical research that points to the fact that going for it on fourth-and-2 is worth it. This seems to be a reference to November 2009 when Patriots coach Bill Belichick went for it on fourth down in a game against the Indianapolis Colts. It didn't work, but those statistical slaves -- who focus on process over result -- insisted it was the right decision.

Fine. Whatever. But the point is that the Patriots don't always go for it on fourth-and-2 like stats wonks would like. They don't even usually go for it.

The Patriots have an extremely disciplined front office. They generally avoid paying premium prices for players, preferring more economical options. They are ruthless in the accumulation of draft picks. They also won the Lotto by getting Tom Brady in sixth round.

But Bill Belichick is not Billy Beane. He's not sitting there with some revolutionary approach to analyzing football strategy in terms of down-and-distance like the article's headline would suggest.

Former Seahawks star Cortez Kennedy hoping for Hall of Fame call
By Tim Reynolds | Associated Press

Well, Steve Largent isn't the only Seahawk in the Hall of Fame if you want to get technical. Quarterback Warren Moon -- inducted in 2006 -- played for the Seahawks. So did John Randle, Franco Harris and Carl Eller. Mike McCormack, who was inducted as an offensive lineman, played a critical role in Seattle's front office from 1982 to 1988.

Kennedy played 11 seasons, all for the Seahawks.

The vote is Saturday. There are 44 members who vote on the finalists, and a player needs 80 percent of the votes to be inducted. We'll keep an eye out, and I'm sure Cortez will keep his phone on.

Ray Rice isn't going anywhere.

That was the message from Baltimore's brain trust this week. It became clear that the Ravens' running back will be back with the team with either a long-term deal or the franchise tag.

Ravens say Ray Rice will be back
By Jeff Zrebiec, The Baltimore Sun

The party line in Chicago sounds similar with regard to running back Matt Forte. He led the Bears in both rushing yards and receptions in 2011, and the running game certainly isn't going to become less important after Mike Martz's departure as offensive coordinator.

Matt Forte decision looms for Bears
ESPNChicago.com

And that brings us to Marshawn Lynch, who is younger than Forte, 9 months older than Rice and can make the argument that he might be even more important to his team given the emphasis Seattle coach Pete Carroll has placed on building a physical ground game.

In the past five years, there have been a grand total of two running backs who received the franchise tag from their respective teams: Darren Sproles (San Diego, 2009) and Brandon Jacobs (New York Giants, 2009). That's it.

Teams can begin designating franchise players later this month, and there's the distinct possibility that three running backs could receive the tag.

Why?

Well, there are two reasons really:

1) DeAngelo Williams' contract in Carolina. He signed a five-year deal to remain in Carolina worth a total of $43 million. Almost half that $43 million total was guaranteed. Rice, Forte and Lynch are all well within their rights to argue that they've been more productive than Williams.

The problem is that teams are also within their rights to point out this second fact:

2) The franchise-tag cost for a running back is expected to be about $7.7 million, according to a report from the league's own Web site. That's down from $9.6 million in 2011 and $8.2 million in 2010.

Why pay a running back a contract that averages out to more than $8 million per year when you can apply the franchise tag for less?

When the negotiations get down to brass tacks and bare knuckles with those three running backs, the reality of that franchise tag is going to become some very significant leverage for teams.

Patriots' perplexing Deion Branch back in the Super Bowl
By Danny O'Neil | The Seattle Times

Seattle was done with Deion Branch.

That became clear midway through his fourth -- but not final -- season as a Seahawk. By Seattle, I mean the city, not the team. It had gotten so bad that he couldn't even celebrate a touchdown without inspiring animosity.

"If y'all want me, y'all know where to find me," he said to a television camera in Dallas after scoring against the Cowboys.

I interpreted that as a player who had seen his playing time slashed making it clear that he was still capable of performing at an elite level, and if the coaches wanted him, well they knew they could see where to find him: in the end zone catching touchdown passes.

I returned to Seattle after that game, got in my car to drive back from the airport and heard Mitch Levy on KJR Sports Radio (which was then just 950 AM not having expanded to 102.9 FM), and he was declaring that if Branch said what Levy heard him say, and if Branch meant what Levy thought he meant, he should be cut.

What Levy -- and plenty of others thought -- was that Branch was essentially telling the rest of the league, here I am, come and get me.

And by the time Branch actually left -- which was four games into the 2010 season -- the biggest surprise wasn't that he was gone, but that Seattle still managed to get a fourth-round pick for him.

And so Branch returned to New England where he was considered -- then and now -- as a consummate professional, the embodiment of how that team brings the most out of players.

In Seattle, he is considered a signature mistake, an overpaid, underproductive player who was vertically challenged to boot.

Was he the biggest bust of the Tim Ruskell era? I don't know. It's hard to say he's a bust considering he did produce, just not at the level he was paid to. But I do know he became one of the least liked players.