1. A couple of weeks ago, I contemplated what would have happened if Elvis had become an NFL owner. Well, as Paul Harvey would say, here’s the rest of the story from MDRI (Mr. Dry Ribs insider) George Klein, lifelong friend of the King.

Klein told me that back in the late ’60s and early ’70s that Elvis was approached about becoming a part-owner of a proposed NFL team in Memphis.

“Mike Lynn, who went on to become general manager of the Vikings, wanted Elvis to be part of a presentation to NFL owners,” Klein said. “He told me he’d give Elvis six or seven percent ownership, and that Elvis wouldn’t have to perform at the games or sing the anthem. He just wanted him for the presentation to the owners. The Saints had used (jazz greats) Pete Fountain and Al Hirt in their presentation and had gotten a team.

“So I had Mike write a basic one-page proposal, and he put in a very nice folder for me to give to Elvis. When I gave it to Elvis, explained what it was and after he read, he acted if I had given him one of the best gifts ever. He was so excited that he couldn’t stop showing the proposal to everybody … to Priscilla (his wife), to all his friends. Then he said, ‘I’ve got to run this by Colonel Parker (Elvis’ manager).’

“Colonel Parker told Elvis to turn down the deal, that if ticket sales got bad for the team, that they’d probably make him sing at halftime or before the game. He told Elvis, ‘Concerts and casinos are what we’re about. Not this.’ Elvis came back to me very down and told me, ‘Tell them, I can’t do it. My manager won’t let me.’ That was a tough for Elvis to turn down. He loved football.”

2. And speaking of NFL football and Memphis, we now have a franchise. His name is DeAngelo Williams.

If you saw the Carolina Panthers rookie and former University of Memphis star scoot 98 yards with a kickoff for a touchdown in Thursday’s exhibition victory over the Dolphins, you realize that DeAngelo can be another Penny Hardaway. He can have the same effect on Memphis sports fans that former U of M basketball star Hardaway had on this city back in the mid-’90s, when he jumped to the Orlando Magic.

At the time, Memphis didn’t have an NBA team. There wasn’t even a dream of one. So when Hardaway went to the NBA, made the all-rookie team, then was a first-team All-NBA choice his second season when the Magic went to the NBA Finals, his popularity skyrocketed in Memphis.

He was this city’s NBA franchise. He was the reason you looked at NBA box scores. Or stayed up late to watch NBA highlights on ESPN’s “SportsCenter.” Now that we have an NBA team, and as Hardaway’s career faded because of recurring knee and leg problems, we don’t think of Hardaway the same way.

This city has a cross-section of NFL fans. A lot of them like the Colts because of Peyton Manning. Some like the Titans, but Memphis never fell in love with them, even after they stopped in here for a year in the late ’90s, wiped their feet in the Liberty Bowl for a season while their stadium was being built and moved on to Nashville.

That’s OK. With apologies to former Melrose star Cedrick Wilson, who has a national championship ring (Tennessee in ‘98) and a Super Bowl ring (defending Super Bowl champ Pittsburgh), the Bluff City now has DeAngelo. Our NFL franchise.

3. The fact that the University of Oklahoma is erecting a statue outside of its football stadium honoring former Heisman Trophy winner Steve Owens got me thinking. What statues need to be erected outside the appropriate college stadiums?

Some are no-brainers, like a statue of the late Johnny Vaught and Archie Manning outside of Ole Miss’ Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. And why isn’t there a statue of Gen. Bob Neyland outside of Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium? Notre Dame has so many heroes that it should forget a statue, and just erect an Irish-style Mt. Rushmore with Knute Rockne and company. Memphis needs a statue outside the Liberty Bowl of the late Rex Dockery.

Florida needs one of Steve Spurrier spiking his visor. LSU needs one of the Tiger Stadium timekeeper whose quick finger gave the Tigers enough time to beat Ole Miss in 1972 on Bert Jones’ TD pass at the game-ending horn. Nebraska needs one of Tom Osborne, which should be realistic because he was stiff as a statue when he was on the sidelines. Southern Cal needs one of O.J. Simpson hunched in the back of Al Cowlings’ ‘93 white Bronco. Louisville needs one of Bobby Petrino, secretly looking for other jobs. Cal needs one of Kevin Moen flattening a Stanford trombone player to score the winning TD in that bizarre 1982 finish.