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TAMPA, Fla. Lynn Swann Jersey . -- A month after being inducted into pro footballs Hall of Fame, Derrick Brooks will become the newest member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Ring of Honor. The team formally announced Tuesday that the nine-time All-Pro linebacker who led the Bucs to their only Super Bowl title 11 seasons ago will also have his No. 55 jersey retired during a ceremony at halftime of a home game against the St. Louis Rams on Sept. 14. Brooks was the 28th player selected in the 1995 NFL draft and teamed with Tampa Bays other first-round pick that year -- Hall of Famer Warren Sapp -- to form the foundation of a dominant defence that helped transform a struggling franchise once jokingly called the "Yucs" into a perennial playoff contender. "If Warren was the heart of our defence, then todays inductee, Derrick Brooks, was the soul that propelled us to our world championship in 2002," Bucs co-chairman Bryan Glazer said. "On any given Sunday, Derrick easily was the best athlete on the field," Glazer added. "There was no tight end he could not cover, no quarterback he could not chase down for a sack and no running back he could not tackle in the open field." Brooks, wholl enter the pro football Hall of Fame in August, joins Lee Roy Selmon, John McKay, Jimmie Giles, Paul Gruber and Sapp in having his name displayed in the Ring of Honor, which was created in 2009 at Raymond James Stadium. Selmon, elected to the Hall of Fame in 1995, and Sapp, enshrined in Canton a year ago, are the only other players to have their jerseys retired by the Buccaneers. The 11-time Pro Bowl selection recalled Tuesday how when Tony Dungy arrived in Tampa in 1996 -- Brooks second pro season -- the former Bucs coach challenged him and Sapp to become the best players they could be by striving to do for Tampa Bay what eventual Hall of Famers Joe Greene and Jack Ham did for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1970s. "We took it to heart," Brooks said, adding that someone had suggested to him that the Bucs decision to induct him into the Ring of Honor was one of "worst-kept" secrets in town because it comes the same year he joined Sapp as a first-ballot Hall of Famer. "I dont look at it that way. As I told Mr. Glazer, you dont take anything for granted. You dont make any assumptions," Brooks said. "Today is a very important day in my life. To have my number retired is extremely special, too." Brooks didnt miss a game in 14 pro seasons, ending his career with a stretch of 208 consecutive regular-season starts, tied for the 10th-longest streak in NFL history, His 10 consecutive Pro Bowl berths from 1997 to 2007 tied for the second-longest by a linebacker in league history. Jason Worilds Jersey . The Nets continued their winning ways Tuesday by sweeping a back-to-back set for the first time this season, beating the Orlando Magic 101-90 a night after routing the crosstown rival New York Knicks. Antonio Brown Womens Jersey . The Texas Rangers quickly got even, and the right-hander felt like he was starting over when he got back on the mound.The 2014 NHL draft is many things to many people, but Year of the Defenceman it is not. The oddity, of course, is that its a blueliner who is the mid-season favorite to be taken No. 1 overall at the draft in Philadelphia, June 27-28. Barrie Colt defenceman Aaron Ekblad is No. 1 on TSNs Mid-Season Top 50 Prospects rankings. In a survey of 10 NHL team scouts, Ekblad garnered eight No. 1 votes and was No. 2 on the remaining two ballots. The only other players to get a No. 1 vote, one apiece, were Kootenay Ice centre Sam Reinhart and Kingston Frontenac centre Sam Bennett (who was ranked No. 1 by the NHL Central Scouting Bureau in its mid-term rankings). Ekblad and Reinhart both performed admirably for Canada at the 2014 World Junior Championship but the defenceman clearly made a bigger impact, reversing TSNs pre-season polling that had Reinhart at No. 1, by virtue of five first-place votes, compared to Ekblads three. The truth is, from the Ivan Hlinka Memorial under-18 tournament last August through to the Canadian Hockey League Top Prospects game in mid-January, the 6-foot-4, 216-pound defenceman has been on a strong, steady arc. "In the summer, a lot of the projections for (Ekblad) were he might not be anything more than a (No.) 4 (NHL defenceman), that he was neither a real offensive threat or a true shutdown defenceman," one scout told TSN. "But the way he played at the Hlinka, this season in Barrie, the World Juniors and the Prospect game, hes showing a lot more range in his game." While Ekblad will never be a power play quarterback, he can hammer the puck well enough to project as a power play shooter from the point and score goals. Both at the Hlinka and WJC, Ekblad was consistently used in a shutdown role and performed well. Many scouts believe now he has top-pairing NHL potential, a big body who can skate, move the puck, defend, contribute offensively and play both sides of special teams while munching a lot of minutes. After the WJC, Ekblad scored four goals (including a shorthanded marker) and one assist in one game. "Hes not a superstar by any means," another scout said, "but hes going to be a very good NHL defenceman." Some scouts have taken note of Victor Hedmans emergence, the second overall pick in the 2009 draft, as a top-minute defenceman for Tampa this season and see many similarities in Ekblad. Ekblad is far and away the top defenceman in this draft. Only one other blueliner - Red Deers Haydn Fleury, at No. 6 – cracked TSNs Top 10 prospects. In fact, only five defencemen - Ekblad, Fleury, Kingstons Roland McKeown at No. 17, Swift Currents Julius Honka at No. 18 and Sarnias Anthony DeAngelo at No. 26 – are in TSNs Top 30. The latter three are likely first-round picks, but not by any means guaranteed. Relative to recent years, the death of top-echelon defencemen is striking. Last year, eight of the top 18 picks were defenders. In 2012, eight of the top 10 picks were blueliners. Scouts do not believe this years draft class has the same high-end sizzle and overall depth as last years group that was headed by Nathan MacKinnon, Seth Jones, Jonathan Drouin and Aleksandr Barkov. And it would be fair to say theres more anticipation for the 2015 draft class, headed by highly-touted Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel, amongst others, than this year. But the scouts also cautioned that the top-end prospects this year are still excellent talents, just not necessarily potential stars. TSNs No. 2-ranked Reinhart didnt really do anything to "lose" No. 1 status from the pre-season as much as Ekblad simply elevated his game. Reinhart has played very well in the WHL and logged significant minutes for Canada at the WJC. A centre in junior, some scouts believe hell be best suited to wing in the NHL. Reinharts chief assets are an extremely high hockey I.Q. and skill level as both a goal-scorer and playmaker. Hes not physically overpowering and his skating is not dynamic but a seemingly innate ability to be in the right place at the right time to make plays is his trademark. Kingstons Bennett, the only player other than Ekblad and Reinhart to get a No. 1 vote, is No. 3 on the TSN list. The competitive centre who has some of the same qualities as his Kingston general manager Doug Gilmour can be both a productive offeensive force but also does quality work without puck, earning rave reviews for his complete approach to the game. Cam Thomas Jersey. Oshawa General winger Michael Dal Colle checks in at No. 4 on TSNs list. The rangy forward has a pro shot and was a top five prospect on eight of 10 scouts ballots, including one vote as the second-best prospect available in this draft. No. 5 on TSNs list is Prince Albert Raider centre Leon Draisaitl, who is destined to be the highest-drafted German player and, for now, the top European prospect on the TSN list. But Draisaitl seems to be trending in the wrong direction. He played poorly at the WJC and didnt perform particularly well in the CHL Top Prospects game. But hes still a big-body, two-way centre. The second half of the season could mean more to Draisaitls ranking than any prospect in the draft. The balance of TSNs Top 10 is top heavy with wingers. Only two-way defenceman Fleury, at No. 6, interrupted a run on wingers: Peterborough Petes power forward Nick Ritchie is No. 7, followed at No. 8 by Niagara Ice Dog Brendan Perlini, whose assets are size, speed and an NHL shot. The No. 9 slot belongs to Finnish winger Kasperi Kapanen, the son of former NHL winger Sami Kapanen, and the Top 10 is rounded out by Calgary Hitmen power winger Jake Virtanen, a strong skater who drives the net and can play the physical game. There appears to be a lot of volatility in this years mid-season rankings. NHL scouts dont seem as fully sold on this years first-round prospects, especially those ranked from No. 11 through to 30. One of the issues is size. Many of the more skilled prospects - Swedish forward William Nylander at No. 11, the son of former NHLer Mikael Nylander, Denmarks Nikolaj Ehlers, a forward with the Halifax Mooseheads at No. 15, No. 22 Russian Nikolay Goldobin, a forward in Sarnia, No. 23 Czech winger Jakub Vrana , No. 24 Swiss forward Kevin Fiala, Sarnia offensive defenceman DeAngelo at No. 26, No. 29 Windsor winger Josh Ho-Sang and No. 30 forward Rob Fabbri of the Guelph Storm - are all listed as sub-6-footers by NHL Central Scouting. And while scouts dont dispute the individual skill level of prospects like Nylander, Goldobin, Vrana, DeAngelo, Ho-Sang and No. 25 ranked Nick Schmaltz of the USHLs Green Bay Gamblers (headed for University of N
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