By GREGG PATTON, The Press-Enterprise

Every college player with a chance at the NFL has to decide from his own specific situation when the time is right to declare for the draft.

But considering the career expectancies of professional football players and the risk of injury, no one should begrudge a college athlete leaving early -- in particular, a running back.

Barry Bonds made headlines again when he was sentenced last week, but we are close to a time when he disappears from view altogether.

The play caught Buffalo by surprise.

Anyone who watched the Chargers self-destruct through their recent six-game losing streak was probably caught by surprise, too, when Eric Weddle took a short snap out of punt formation and ran the team out of trouble and -- just maybe -- back into dreaming distance of the postseason.

History may not be especially kind to Landon Donovan.

Down the road, the world soccer community will likely remember the Galaxy's victory in MLS Cup 2011 Sunday night as "the David Beckham team."

But make no mistake, the Galaxy is Donovan's team, and has been for seven seasons since he arrived in 2005.

When your team has an elite quarterback, you expect him to make a difference.

Philip Rivers has been doing exactly that for the Chargers -- in uncharacteristically negative fashion.

SAN DIEGO - San Diego Chargers legend Junior Seau turned up at practice earlier this week, getting introduced to the team as the newest member of the franchise's Hall of Fame.

"That's our family -- we're hoping for good things," said the retired linebacker, who spoke to the players, but kept the details of his chat in-house.

Random notes, idle thoughts and ADs who live in glass houses ...

-- No one with a healthy sense of skepticism can be surprised anymore when college athletes with little in the way of material possessions take money, meals and most anything offered to them.

LOS ANGELES - The University of Southern California's charge back to college football's upper tier under Pete Carroll the last decade likely brings to mind Heisman Trophy winners like Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush.

Scores in the 40s were the norm, with a few 50-point explosions thrown in just for fun, and the occasional 60-pointer turning up almost by accident.

There's good news if you want to see Kobe Bryant play basketball and you live in Besiktas, Turkey, or even are planning a trip to, say, Istanbul in the fall.

The Kobester might be in action there, as he reportedly settles into negotiations with a Turkish club team.

Gentlemen, start your NFL drafts.

That's all that really matters, isn't it?

After four months of "news" from a galaxy far, far away, also known as the football labor dispute -- details that few fans paid serious attention to -- NFL players are expected to agree any minute now to an agreement approved by the owners.