MAILBAG Peter King will answer your questions each week in Monday Morning Quarterback: Tuesday Edition. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

3. I think I've got a receiver in mind, and I want you to guess who he is.

First clue: You never got to know him, which is not his fault; he's a team-first guy who never drew attention to himself, even though he put up ridiculous numbers.

Second clue: He's 12th on the all-time receptions list (849).

Third clue: He caught 99 more passes than Hall of Famer Michael Irvin in the same number of seasons played (12), and played on one fewer Super Bowl team than Irvin's three, and caught three more touchdowns passes than Irvin ... yet I doubt he'll ever get in the Hall of Fame.

Fourth clue: He's had two hip operations over the last year and was placed on the reserve/retired list this year, meaning his team doesn't have to guarantee him his base salary this year. A fact of life in today's NFL.

The man: Rod Smith.

It's a sad day for the NFL if Smith isn't going to play anymore -- which, barring a very unlikely recovery by the 37-year-old, is likely. And it's sad beyond the fact that he gave one of the league's annually great offenses in the neighborhood of six catches per Sunday, year in and year out. (Check out the reception totals from these nine straight seasons, from 1997 to 2005: 70, 86, 79, 100, 113, 89, 74, 79 and 85 ... while playing all but three games in those nine years. Eight 1,000-yard seasons in nine years.)

It's sad because he's one of the best people, and hardest-working players, I've met while covering the game nationally. What a gym rat. Fun fact: For 11 straight years, Smith had 100 percent attendance in the Broncos' offseason training program. And Mike Shanahan revered him for what he showed every other player in that locker room.

Last summer, at Broncos camp, I saw this lonely figure working out while the team was practicing. Rod Smith. Trying to get in shape enough to begin practicing. He was one of those guys you knew was doing everything to get back to play. Smith's one of the five or so guys I have vivid memories of who led by their mere presence. George Martin with the Giants, Brian Dawkins and the late Jerome Brown in Philadelphia, Ray Lewis in Baltimore, Darryl Talley in Buffalo, Aeneas Williams in Phoenix and St. Louis, Bryant Young in San Francisco ... bargains because of what they meant to their teams by playing and leading and influencing.

4. I think the fanfare was soft-pedaled incredibly for Zach Thomas leaving the Dolphins. For a player that great to have been released and to have no ceremony involving Wayne Huizenga or ... I don't know, something, anything ... seems a little crass, a little unnecessarily dismissive. This is one of the best defensive players in team history, and he gets whacked and then, nothing. My guess is that he'll end up in New England or Dallas.

5. I think nothing the Falcons did the other day in releasing seven players surprised me, because you cannot live in the past and hope to succeed in the NFL. You say, "How could they let Alge Crumpler go?'' And I would agree -- if he was a healthy Crumpler, he'd be worth $5.1 million on the cap going forward, and an excellent blocking/receiving tight end is worth $5.1 million when the salary cap is $116 million, as it will be in 2008. But the Falcons have to build for 2009 and beyond, and a tight end coming off an injury-plagued year, who turns 31 next season, is not exactly the kind of cornerstone you'd think of when building for the long-term.

Amazing, isn't it, how many dominoes fell when Michael Vick decided to have dogfights in his backyard. A coach, a franchise quarterback, a season-ticket base, a general manager and now a Pro-Bowl tight end. What a story.

6. I think if I'm the Cowboys, I'm franchising Flozell Adams. He's among the top half-dozen left tackles in football, and he's had success in a division with lots of good right-side pass-rushers

7. I think if the Ravens are counting on Steve McNair -- even though he's rehabbing and working out in Baltimore and feeling very good with full range of motion in his battered shoulder -- they are crazy. Time to cut the cord. I don't care if it's Donovan McNabb or Byron Leftwich or Donovan McNabb or Matt Ryan with a one-year veteran solution. They can't go to camp with McNair as their starting quarterback, and I don't think new coach John Harbaugh will let it come to that.

8. I think I'll believe Chad Johnson's a Bengal when training camp opens and he's in the stripes. Not before. Step right up and make an offer -- quietly. The Bengals will listen. They won't listen if it leaks, though.

9. I think this is one quarterback-needy team's ranking of the quarterback class entering the scouting combine. Round one: Matt Ryan (Boston College), Brian Brohm (Louisville). Round two: Joe Flacco (Delaware), Chad Henne (Michigan), Josh Johnson (San Diego). Round two/three, on the border: Andre Woodson (Kentucky, and how the mighty have fallen). Round four: Eric Ainge (Tennessee), John David Booty (USC). Round five: Dennis Dixon (Oregon), Colt Brennan (Hawaii). I can hear June Jones screaming now. That's right. Brennan's going to be a second-day pick.

10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:

a. Re: Valentine's Day: This is something that has bugged me for the last five years or so. Why are "chocolates'' out and "truffles'' in? I will take a Russell Stover chocolate over the priciest truffle any day of the week.

b. Nice job on Colgate-American yesterday, John Feinstein.

c. I'm not a big college basketball guy, but the UConn-South Florida game Saturday was about as good a cliffhanger in the last 10 minutes as you'll ever see.

d. The end of the Rutgers-Tennessee woman's basketball game in Knoxville was as bad for sports, and sportsmanship as the Clemens hearing. With .2 seconds left and Rutgers leading 58-57, the clock mysteriously stopped for 1.2 seconds, long enough for a Tennessee player to get fouled and convert the two winning free throws.

It's absurd that the on-court officials didn't reverse the foul call when they reviewed a replay. It was more absurd that the three officials scurried off the court and out of the arena after the game without explaining what was so obvious to everyone watching. And it was far, far more more absurd that a joint Big East-SEC statement the next day said "the officials discharged their duties properly.''

WILL SOMEONE PLEASE ADMIT A MISTAKE WAS MADE? Were any of the league or game officials raised in a home with a parent who said, "When you make a mistake, admit your mistake and be honorable about it?'' Why couldn't one of the officials, or the timekeeper, or a league supervisor of officials say, "We obviously blew it. Everyone in America saw it.'' A disgrace. A total disgrace.

And finally, how about Pat Summitt, the Tennessee coach, saying after the game, "We found a way to win.'' What she should have said is, "The wrong team won. I regret the error. The right thing would be for Rutgers to have the win they rightfully earned.''

This game revealed a lot about a lot of people. Namely this: It's not important that the right thing be done. It's important that asses are covered, mistakes are whitewashed, and the status quo -- even when it's so obviously the wrong status quo -- is preserved.

e. Re: the Clemens hearing: Clemens is the same as Barry Bonds to me now -- an all-time great who couldn't admit the truth about cheating the game that made him rich and famous.

f. You don't know what a vegan is, Roger? Sheeeeesh.

g. Coffeenerdness: Bravo to Starbucks for announcing a three-hour closing of all stores Feb. 26 so baristas can be retrained. I do not direct this at my Jersey location, but at places country-wide the emphasis on things other than coffee -- like music and sandwiches -- delays why we all walk in the place. Do what you do best, Starbucks, which is get me in and out of the store with my latte in three or four minutes. The other stuff is fluff.

h. The Office returns, post-writers' strike, for six episodes April 10. How, possibly, are we expected to go on with life until then?