In honor of Mother's Day--Sports Biggest Mama's Boys!

[Gang Green Girl]

It was the simplest of salutations, yet it said so much.

The Cowboys' Preston Pearson was sitting on the bench in Super Bowl X against the Pittsburgh Steelers when the camera zoomed in real tight on his mug. He looked straight in the camera and said, "Hi, Mom. Super Bowl."

That was Jan. 18, 1976. Pearson may not have been the first athlete to acknowledge his mother in this way, but it was the first time I had seen it. It was like he was saying, "Hey, Mom, thanks for driving me to practice and washing my uniform and holding your breath when I got hit. Thanks to you, I'm playing in the Super Bowl."

After Pearson's televised hello, it seemed every time I watched a game for the next 10 years, some player said, "Hi, Mom" into the camera. It became the standard response to a cameraman pushing his glass into a pro athlete's face.

This warm greeting has given way to self-aggrandizing shrieking, usually something along the lines of "They can't stop me!" Or, "I told you! I told you!" Or, "That's what I'm talking about!" For real.

But thankfully there are still some pro athletes who honor their mothers, and in so doing, continue a tradition that dates back at least to baseball's original mama's boy, Lou Gehrig. So, in honor of Mother's Day, we present 10 of the most devoted sons in sports history.

Lou Gehrig