Pirate Galaxy » quantity.The career AVs for quarterback Tom Brady and

PHILADELPHIA -- Philadelphia 76ers forward Elton Brand is retiring, the NBA veteran announced Thursday. Custom Football Jerseys Store .The Chicago Bulls?selected the Duke standout with the No. 1 pick of the 1999 NBA draft. Brand shared Rookie of the Year honors with Steve Francis for the 1999-2000 season. He played 17 seasons in the NBA and was in his second stint with the 76ers when he announced his decision to retire.?He averaged 15.9 points and 8.5 rebounds in 1,058 games with the Bulls, Los Angeles Clippers, Dallas Mavericks, Atlanta Hawks and Sixers.Brand was a two-time All-Star when he spurned better offers and signed an $82 million, five-year free-agent contract in 2008 with Philadelphia.He made the announcement Thursday at the Sixers training complex in Camden, New Jersey. Brand said playing in the NBA has been a wonderful journey. Its been an honor and a privilege.Brand had not played in the preseason. He will still collect $1 million from the Sixers. Custom Washington Redskins Jerseys . The Swede became the first golfer to win the PGA Tours FedEx Cup and European Tours Race to Dubai in the same season. "It is still taking a little time to sink in what Ive achieved this week as was the case when I won the FedEx Cup but then it just kept getting better and better as the days went on and I am sure this will be the same," he said. Custom Cincinnati Bengals Jerseys .35 million, one-year contract that avoided salary arbitration. Plouffe batted .254 with 14 home runs and 52 RBIs in 477 at-bats last season, his second as a regular in the lineup. http://www.footballcustomjerseys.com/cus...rseys-858c.html . The 25-year-old Japanese star has officially been posted by his club team, the Rakuten Golden Eagles. In the event you hadnt heard, Rivalry Week is underway in college football. On Saturday, No. 2 Ohio State will host No. 3 Michigan (noon ET, ABC/ESPN App), and naturally, the only appropriate way to view the game is through an NFL prism.The schools provide an outsized segment of the NFL population, even though -- gasp! -- neither plays in the SEC. As such, we thought it would be fun to take a deeper look at the numbers behind their success as NFL talent providers, with a couple massive assists from ESPN Stats & Information senior statistics analyst Jacob Nitzberg and the bottomless database at Pro Football Reference.First, lets review the 2017 draft preview this game will provide. Michigan and Ohio State boast more than a dozen members of the top 150 draft prospects, as ranked by ESPN analyst Todd McShay. Keep in mind that the list includes underclassmen who might or might not declare.As you can see below, Wolverines coach Jim Harbaugh -- a former NFL player and coach -- has nearly triple the number of high-level 2017 prospects that Buckeyes coach Urban Meyer has. (Yes, Ohio State fans, we know many of your best players arent draft-eligible yet, and you lost a truckload of talent to the pros last year.)Michigan junior safety Jabrill Peppers is the highest-ranked prospect in this game (No. 4). Ohio States top prospect, according to McShay, is cornerback Marshon Lattimore (No. 8).Perhaps its a cyclical thing. After all, Ohio State has produced twice as many first-round draft picks as Michigan since the common draft era began in 1967.Full Ohio State and Michigan NFL breakdownOhio States producing more than twice as many current NFL players as Michigan is a product of two factors: the Wolverines talent slump prior to Harbaugh and Meyers immediate success in recruiting and developing NFL talent since he arrived in Coolumbus four years ago. Custom Tampa Bay Buccaneers Jerseys. Five Buckeyes were drafted in the first round last spring, the highest number from one school in 10 years. Overall, NFL teams drafted 12 players from Ohio State in 2016 -- tied for the second-most in the first seven rounds of a draft in the common era.Below is a closer look at Meyers success in getting players into the NFL while at Ohio State, beginning with the 2013 draft.Ohio State draftees under Urban MeyerDespite those numbers, Michigan has produced the two best NFL players from either school, based on Pro Football References Approximate Value. The AV metric attaches a number to each players NFL performance for the purpose of uniform comparison over time. Here is a more detailed explanation, but in essence, it gives us a way to examine quality apart from quantity.The career AVs for quarterback Tom Brady and cornerback Charles Woodson both exceed the top ratings for Ohio State lineman Orlando Pace and receiver Paul Warfield. Hows that for an old-school name drop?Best NFL players from rivalry, according to AV metric?Pace and Warfield are both members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Brady and Woodson almost certainly will get in during their first year of eligibility.Overall, Ohio State has a slight edge in producing Hall of Fame players who spent their entire college careers at one school. When you count players or coaches who have partial ties to each school, Ohio State can boast?10 connections to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, while Michigan has eight.Only Notre Dame (13) and Southern California (12) have more than the Buckeyes. Any way you look at it, these schools are two of the most historic and reliable NFL talent pipelines in the country. ' ' '