Nine offensive tackles were taken in the first four rounds of this year's NFL draft.

Dwight Freeney would like to extend a personal welcome to each of them.

Of course with the Colts' whirling dervish of a defensive end, there's always a spin.

"I'm licking my chops," Freeney said, likely envisioning an even better season than he had last year, when he had 131/2 sacks and helped lead his team to the Super Bowl.

"When you have a rookie offensive tackle, I can't wait," he said. "For an offensive tackle, you're not good until you're in like your eighth year. You have to get beat up for a while to learn what to do and what not to. It's when you're about in your fifth through 10th years as a offensive tackle that you're in your prime.

"All these rookies coming out? They don't know anything. I can't wait."

If that's the case, Freeney might want to circle Oct. 17 on his calendar. That's when the Colts play a Sunday night game at Washington, and the Redskins presumably will have the fourth overall pick, Trent Williams, lined up at left tackle. He will be protecting the blind side of Freeney's fellow Syracuse alumnus Donovan McNabb.

Predictably, though, Freeney gets even more pleasure out of driving young quarterbacks into the turf.

"I couldn't wait to hit Mark Sanchez," he said. "And I can't wait to hit Tim Tebow even more."

Freeney has reached a significant milestone in his career. He turned 30 in February, an age when many players see their speed and statistics begin to decline. To combat that, he's a workout freak who frequently sleeps in a hyperbaric chamber, uses an electrical muscle stimulation machine at home and for the past few months has restricted his diet to buffalo steaks (seasoned only with sea salt) and green grapes.

He eats that three meals a day, prompting the manager at the Four Seasons hotel in Westlake Village, Calif. — Freeney's summer home of choice on the West Coast — to joke that they keep an entire herd of buffalo on the grounds to keep the Colts star fed.

Freeney had double-digit sacks last season for the sixth time in his eight years as a pro. But he also felt the effects of age. He suffered an ankle injury in the AFC championship game against the Jets when he pulled up to avoid clobbering Sanchez. There was real doubt as to whether Freeney would be able to play against the Saints in the Super Bowl, and he couldn't practice in the week leading up to the game.

But Freeney did play and had a memorable sack in the second quarter. He beat Saints tackle Jermon Bushrod to the inside and used one hand to rip Drew Brees down from behind.

It was one of the few highlights for Freeney, who said his ankle might have stayed loose in the third quarter if he hadn't had an extra-long wait for The Who's halftime show.

"My ankle completely seized up at halftime," he said. "I didn't start feeling decent until the fourth quarter."

So rockers in their 60s threw him off his game? Poetic justice. To them, he's just a rookie.

• Faith Hill recently shot her opening to NBC's "Sunday Night Football" at a studio in Hollywood.

Whereas last season's version was essentially a concert intermingled with game footage, the latest intro features more than a dozen of the NFL's most popular players and a little movie magic.

Shot at the studio were scenes of the Bears' Brian Urlacher pinballing his way through the columns at Soldier Field (and cracking one with a mighty collision), the Eagles' DeSean Jackson running to the top of the famed "Rocky" steps, the Vikings' Adrian Peterson sprinting past ice fishermen on a frozen lake and Freeney swim-moving his way through a cornfield.

Freeney called being included in the commercial "a very select thing, an honor."

"The Pro Bowl is still bigger because you're getting voted in by your peers," he said. "But with this, someone — whoever it is that makes those decisions — decided that you were one of the elite guys."

Among the other players who will be featured are Peyton and Eli Manning, Larry Fitzgerald, Hines Ward, Tony Romo, DeMarcus Ware, Drew Brees, Charles Woodson and Ray Lewis.

"We're basically highlighting that 'Sunday Night Football' resonates throughout America, the biggest stars play on Sunday night," SNF producer Fred Gaudelli said. "That's the message we're trying to send."

• NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell plans to hit several training camps this summer, traveling between them with John Madden on his "Madden Cruiser" bus. The trip is still in the planning stages.

It was Goodell who proposed the idea to Madden, now a special adviser to the commissioner, but the Hall of Fame coach instantly took to the plan.

"You talk about a captive audience," Madden said. "I have got 40 years of ideas I want to run by him."

Sam Farmer covers the NFL for the Los Angeles Times.

sfarmer@tribune.com