Random Sports Trivia: Who has recorded the highest vertical in NFL Combine history? (Answer at the end of the post.)
Draft weekend, I can't get enough of it. Except for Mel Kiper Jr., I can get enough of him, and I did. I love the draft because everyone gets their hopes up for next year, or they curse their management and coaches for making terrible selections. Anyways, I'm no analyst, although I most likely have more football experience and more knowledge of how the game is actually played than Kiper, so I'm not going to sit here and give grades and stuff. But I will say a few things I liked, laughed at, and scratched my head about this past weekend.
First, I think the battle for lowest IQ in pro sports is between two very contrasting people, Al Davis and Ron Artest. I don't mean to offend any Oakland Raiders fans out there (thats a joke you see, because hardly anyone reads this, and because even less people, who can read, are still fans of the Raiders after Davis passed up Crabtree for Heyward-Bay). Also, a Rockets' fan actually told me he thinks Artest might be slightly retarded, so I absolve myself of defaming the Rockets' forward, and of offending any mentally disabled people who don't want to be associated with Artest.
Graham Harrell didn't get drafted. This makes me feel good. Actually, it makes me feel good on many levels (not sexually). Let it be known, I despise Harrell. Okay, despise is a strong word, but still I'm the anti-Graham Harrell fan, so much so that I even let his brother know it once. (True story, his brother became an assistant coach where I played high school ball after I graduated, and while visiting and talking with my old coaches (and Graham's brother, although I didn't know it was him yet) I said "I dislike Graham Harrell with a passion," with his brother about five feet away. Granted, I didn't know it was his brother when I said it, but I didn't apologize after I found out, and he wasn't even mad, and my coaches thought it was hilarious.) I played against him in high school three times, two of which we lost; however, those two were regular season games, and the game we won was a semi-final game in Texas Stadium, which also happened to be one of the greatest comebacks in ALL of football history. If you don't believe me, I'll try to get the video on here sometime, but otherwise just imagine this: Down 14-3 with roughly 4:30 left in the game and its 4th and 24 on our 12, a few answered hail marys and an amazing one-handed onside kick recovery later and we pull it out. Here's why I can't stand the guy. After the game and during the post game hand shakes, Graham grabs our defensive coordinator by the collar of his shirt and starts yelling (and cursing) at him and telling him that he knows who should have won the game and that we got lucky. Need I mention our head coach had to tell his head coach (and DAD) to get his son off of our coach. This is just one of the many classless things he has done in the times I have played against him or watched him play. Other things include untying and retying his shows on our bench after running out of bounds while and flipping the crowd off at Tech after getting booed. Believe me, my angst doesn't stem from jealousy, I've played against the likes of Matthew Stafford and Kevin Kolb, just to name a couple, and I geniunely hope those guys are succesful in the NFL. But I can't say the same for a guy who, in my personal opinion, is classless when he wins and loses.
Random draft stuff:
-When I first saw this, I really thought he said International Football League (fast forward to 7:00 mark to his interview with Erin Andrews):
-Herman Johnson OG (Denton High, LSU) was drafted in the 5th round by the Arizona Cardinals. Which makes 4 players from my home town of Denton, TX to currently be in the NFL. The other three, Jarvis Moss DE (Denton Ryan, University of Florida, Denver Broncos), Derek Lokey NT (Denton Ryan, University of Texas, Kansas City Chiefs), and Anthony Aldridge (Denton High, University of Houston, Denver Broncos).
-I was really hoping Michael Tauiliili (ILB Duke) would get drafted, more so, that he gets on the field so I can see see the sawesomeness that is the end of his last name printed on a jersey.
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So I said I wouldn't talk about draft grades or analyze the picks, but I do feel compelled to talk about my Cowboys just a little bit, and moreover, to my compadre Cowboys fans. I can't honestly say anyone should be as excited as they were after last years draft. No big name players, no first day players, and what seemed to be like a lot of reaches for picks. Anyways, here are a few tidbits and pieces of advice to help see the silver (and blue) lining in the Cowboys draft cloud:
-Disregard all draft grades, especially those by Mel Kiper Jr.
-Just because Parcells had a great draft ('05) and good draft ('03) doesn't mean the Cowboys can't draft without him. He had an average ('04) and very subpar ('07) draft as well. Not to mention, the Cowboys had a great draft last year without him. Parcells' drafts.
-You can argue the Cowboys didn't address their needs, and ask why take a project in McGee in the Fourth round or a kicker in the fifth round. And honestly I still don't agree with those two picks, but hopefully McGee proves me wrong and at least with K David Buehler the 'boys won't have these god awful kickoff stats anymore. If you're too lazy to check out that link, Cowboys were last in touchbacks with a whopping zero, 2nd to last in kickoff distance, and 1st in kickoffs out of bounce. Also, we needed depth at a lot of positions and better special teams play. You can still say that a lot of the guys were supposed to go a little later than we selected them, but if they can end up providing solid depth and better special teams play, I'm happy.
-By the way, check out the beast that is David Buehler.
-Also, you have to include Roy Williams in this years draft, and surely he is better than any receiver we could have drafted with the 20th pick. I know he had a rough year last year, but hopefully this will give you some hope, (he might not have T.O. speed, but he did run a 4.42 in the combine, and he has better hands, lets just see if he can put it together this year):
I hope you're now seeing the Cowboys draft and upcoming season as a glass half full, even if it's just a shot glass. (Fill the shot glass with tequila if you're still pessimistic.) Also check out bloggingtheboys.com for some solid Cowboys coverage.
Random Sports Trivia Answer: Gerald Sensabaugh, Cowboys newly acquired Safety. 46 inches!
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Song of the Post
(In honor of Austin City Limits Festival 2009!)
Corduroy - Pearl Jam
