Sports Families honored one day late.

Yesterday on Sports Radio 790 The Zone, to honor Father's Day we had a topic of the greatest father and son combo in sports and then expanded the topic to include families.

Some of the families that were mentioned included the Williams sisters (I pointed out that this was supposed to be a sports list and not a designer/actress list and I think the joke went over everyone's heads), the Ripkens, the Steinbrenners, the Mannings, the Winslows, Fitzgeralds, Griffeys, and Andersons.

I decided to compile my own list.... MY top ten sports families.

10.Mannings. I am a bit sick of the Mannings being shoved down my throat but they did have two No.1 picks as well as back-to-back Super Bowl MVPs. But Eli, Cooper, Peyton and Archie never won the big one in college. And I watched Eli get sacked a few times by UGA. Eat that SUCKA! Maybe if Peyton keeps producing funny commercials I will move the Mannings up the list.

9.Bure. Pavel was the Russian Rocket and dated Anna Kournikova. Valeri was lesser known and married DJ from Full House. She was Kirk Cameron's sister.... bonus points?

8.Staal. Jordan and Eric are on the Stanley Cup, Marc and Jerad are also in the NHL. Momma and Daddy must be proud.

7. Simms. Phil Simms won two Super Bowls, including the 87 SB MVP, twice a Pro-Bowler, number retired by the Giants and then spawned two sons, Chris (after a career at Texas, the Prince has bounced around the NFL, but might start at some point this season with Denver) and Matt (was QB at Louisville, but has transferred out). He has kind of a Manning thing going on, but he is higher because HE WON SOMETHING on the NFL level and anything his sons do is gravy. (I just had to put them ahead of the Mannings though because of Archie-and-Olivia overkill)

6.Capel. Father Jeff was the head man at ODU and now is an assistant with the Bobcats. Jason played at UNC and now works in the broadcast booth. Jeff III of course was on Duke and hit the 40foot runner that you ALWAYS see when ESPN shows Duke/UNC highlights. Jeff went on to coach with Dad at ODU before becoming an assistant then head at VCU, only to go out to Oklahoma. Last season the Sooners were No.1 for a while and had Blake Griffin want to go play for Jeff III. He is one of the "best young coaches" and look for him to be Duke's head coach when Coach K walks away.

5. Ripken. Between Cal Senior and Bill, not a lot to write home about. But throw in Cal Jr., and suddenly this family is No.5. Cal and Billy used to turn doubleplays with Dad watching in the dugout. Sr., also ended Jr's consecutive innings streak, but not the game streak. Throw in the fact that Cal changed the way shortstops were thought of and you have a Hall of Famer and a Hall of Fame family.

4. Bailey. Champ, Boss and Kenny make this list probably ONLY because of their UGA ties. Champ honestly did EVERYTHING at UGA and he is STILL the best Corner in the NFL (sorry Nnamdi). Too bad Washington gave him up for FREAKING CLINTON PORTIS and all of his glasses and alteregos and Miami attitude. I also saw Boss jump higher than humanly possible to block about 19 FG attempts my senior year. Also a very nice guy. He was in one of my sociology classes at school and from there he recognized me at Kroger. nice guy. Hope he gets over his injury problems and sticks in the league.

3.Sutter. There are 12? of them (seemingly) and they WERE all hockey players but are now all coaches and GMs. The sheer numbers have them high on this list.

2.Boone. You start with All-star Ray Boone, who has a son Bob Boone, a four-time all-star, who then has two sons, all-star Aaron (just ask RedSox fans about him) and Bret Boone. Bob was a 7X gold glover, 4X allstar and is in the Phillies Wall of Fame. Ray is in the San Diego Hall of Champions (and the leader of the local lumberjack chapter). Aaron hit the ALCS walk-off game 7 home run in 2003 and then married a Playboy Covergirl. Bret MIGHT have toyed with the juice but did win two silver sluggers, three All-star selections and four gold gloves.

1.Long. Howie, Hall of Famer. Chris No.2 pick in 2008 draft. Kyle has the potential to be a first round baseball draft pick, but elected to attend FSU. Howie Jr is set to go to UVa and play lacrosse. I've already spoken highly on the Longs on this blog and on www.790thezone.com. Check out the archives to the right of the page for more on the NEW first family of sports!

Happy belated father's day everybody!