Jon
02-28-2005, 03:31 PM
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writers/peter_king/02/28/mmqb/index.html
Will Leinart make leap?
Supplemental-draft rumor intrigues 49ers, rest of NFL
INDIANAPOLIS -- If I heard the idea once, I heard it 15 times at the NFL Scouting Combine: Now that offensive guru Norm Chow is out at Southern California, Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Matt Leinart might enter the NFL through a supplemental draft sometime this summer.
Did this have any basis in fact? I kept asking around, and no one knew. But it was the kind of wildfire rumor you hear in the NFL from time to time, and what gave me an idea it might have a shred of truth was a long conversation I had with San Francisco coach Mike Nolan here late Friday night. He was putting some stock in the Leinart rumor, and he knew what a major impact this could have on the future of his team. He just didn't want to talk about it.
More about that in a minute, but I figured it was worth making a weekend phone call to USC coach Pete Carroll at least. As I was in the middle of running the rumor by him, Carroll interrupted me and said: "Matt has no intention of doing that. He knows the possibility. I talked to him about it a week or so ago because I'd heard this stuff floating around, and he said, 'No, I'm not doing that.'"
Carroll continued: "Matt's the freakin' king of L.A. right now. He's not leaving. Plus, he's got the tendinitis thing in his elbow, and he's not going to throw a football for three months. If he'd have come out into the draft this year, he'd have to be working out for the NFL teams and I'm not sure that thing ever would have gotten fixed. Now he can give it the time he needs, without pressure, to heal for our season.
"It's a good story. It's just not happening."
Leinart, of course, has had a phenomenal two-year run of national championship football at USC -- 71 touchdowns, 15 interceptions, completed 64.4 percent of his passes, the kind of numbers that would have made him a very high pick in this year's draft had he chosen to come out. He might have been taken by San Francisco as the top overall pick. But he chose to return for a third starting season and fourth year at USC overall. Then Chow (who went to Tennessee) and quarterback coach Carl Smith (Jacksonville) left for NFL jobs, replaced by Steve Sarkisian (quarterbacks) and new offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin. Sarkisian coached USC quarterbacks during Leinart's first season, then left for a single, ill-fated year doing the same job with the Raiders last fall.
In a supplemental draft, a player who has either graduated from college after the NFL Draft or who has had illicit contact with a player agent can, if he has had three seasons at a school, choose to declare himself eligible for entry into the NFL Draft. At that time, the NFL picks a date and teams can use their selections in the following year's draft to bid on the player. Supplemental drafts are not that rare. That's how San Diego nose tackle Jamal Williams entered the NFL. And in 1990, Syracuse receiver Rob Moore came into the league that way. He even had a mini-scouting combine at the New York Jets' facility, with coaches and scouts from all over the league flying in to watch him work out. The Jets' offer of their first-round pick in '91 was the highest bid for Moore, and so the Jets acquired him. Good decision. Moore finished with 628 career catches.
Anyway, the reason the Leinart rumor is so intriguing to NFL teams is because of what it would mean to the 49ers, or to some team -- say Miami, Cleveland, Chicago or Tampa Bay -- that is very high in the current draft order. Say, Leinart graduated from USC this summer, which I'm told is possible given the course load he would have to take on. And, say, he declared for the draft. Assume, for a minute, that San Francisco solves its quarterback problem by picking one with the first overall choice in April. And let's say the Arizona Cardinals didn't take a quarterback high in the draft and need one ... or pick another team, perhaps a team Leinart would really want to play for -- Miami or Green Bay or Tampa Bay, whoever. Until the end of the current season, the supplemental draft order is based on the previous year's draft order. So San Francisco again would be on the clock. The team that wanted Leinart would go to the 49ers and try to pry the pick away. Depending on how many teams wanted him, maybe they'd be offered two No. 1 picks for him. Imagine the chance to get Arizona's next two No. 1 picks, in '06 and '07, for your first-round pick in '06. That's why San Francisco would be so intrigued if Leinart chose this path.
Which, evidently, he's not going to do. But I'm not sure, even with his strong statements in this column, this is the last Carroll has heard of this rumor.
Stat of the Week
Cal quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who might be the Niners' next quarterback, completed 23 straight passes in a game against USC last fall.
Factoid That May Interest Only Me
Last week, after reporting to his new team, the New York Mets, ex-Red Sox first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz was asked if he would miss the drama of the Boston-New York rivalry. "It wasn't what everyone made it out to be," Mientkiewicz said. "The Twins-White Sox is just the same to me."
I will wait till you stop laughing.
Ready?
Last year, the Red Sox and Yankees played 19 times during the regular season. Each game was a sellout. They played seven times in the postseason, all of which were sellouts. So 26 games, and not an unsold ticket. A little bit of passion, too. Just a little. Before the first regular-season meeting of the year at Yankee Stadium, a neighbor of mine went to a Manhattan ticket broker looking for five box seats for a bachelor party. His tab for the five seats: $2,100. Before Game 7 of the ALCS in New York, box seats were being brokered for $750.
Last year, the Twins and White Sox played 19 times. Zero sellouts. Average attendance in the 19 games: 24,955. Average empty seats at the Metrodome in the 10 Minneapolis games: 32,673. Average empty seats at U.S. Cellular Field in the nine Chicago games: 12,441.
My guess is you probably could have scalped five seats to one of those games for $21, not $2,100.
Doug, between the hoarded final-out-of-the-World Series ball and your opinion of this rivalry, I'm starting to have some serious questions about your sanity.
Quote of the Week
"We're like the Jackson 5. To everyone on the outside, it looks like we're tight as hell. Then we go home, and it's Jermaine in this room, Tito in that room, and Randy ain't talkin' to no one. When you get up close, it's all dysfunctional."
-- Indianapolis running back Edgerrin James, to SI's Mike Silver in a column about the interpersonal dynamics of the Colts' offensive stars.
Aggravating/Enjoyable Travel Note of the Week
You know the NFL Scouting Combine is getting a little bit out of control when TV stations from Wisconsin start covering it, and when a comely young writer from Maxim is on hand to get to know the new NFL prospects.
There is simply no end to the madness that is NFL coverage. I first covered the combine in '91, when about 10 or 12 media folks loitered in the lobby of a downtown Indianapolis hotel adjacent to the RCA Dome, catching players and coaches as they walked to and from meetings and workouts and physicals. As recent as '00, it was still a pretty low-key event. I remember asking Plaxico Burress if I could spend some time with him for a column that year. He said fine, and we talked for two hours.
Now, the players have maybe 10 or 15 minutes for the hoard of at least 300 media members. The prominent prospects are hustled off to sessions with the NFL Network. What used to be an opportunity to get to know the players you might be covering for the next 10 years has turned into a drive-by. The other day, I wanted to get a couple of questions answered by Michigan wide receiver Braylon Edwards after he finished his session in the press room at the Indiana Convention Center. "Walk and talk, walk and talk," an NFL aide said. So about 10 of us race-walked with Edwards as he sped toward the NFL Network room, microphones and one mini-cam and ears all straining to catch his words; five autograph collectors jockeyed with us to catch Edwards' attention.
So you're in college, and you want to cover an NFL beat? Advice from the combine: Get some shoulder pads and sharpen your elbows.
Ten Things I Think I Think
1. I think these are my quick-hit thoughts of the NFL weekend:
a. Charles Woodson is a disaster-in-progress. I'm trusting the Raiders knew they had a fish on the line when they franchised the terminally disappointing cornerback, and that they'll be able to get something in a trade for him. I wouldn't have this guy on my team for $1 million a year, never mind $10.5 million, which is the franchise number for corners.
b. I believe the biggest salary injustice in the NFL is that, right now, Woodson is on the '05 salary rolls to make $1 million more than Brett Favre ($3 million roster bonus, $6.5 million salary).
c. Maurice Clarett. Hindenberg.
d. My buddy Don Banks had the best line of this, and many, NFL Combines. While observing Brian Billick during the coach's Friday press-conference-athon, which I think may still be going on. "If Brian Billick were struck mute today," Banks said, "he would last two days before dying. Tops."
f. I'm rooting for Don Orlovsky, the UConn quarterback, who is trying to sneak into the first three rounds. Looks doubtful. Orlovsky missed the Senior Bowl with a viral infection and is still trying to recover. Love to see him end up as No. 3 in Green Bay for a year or two observing Favre.
g. First time I ever saw Bill Parcells hold court at the combine. He actually seemed to like it. Maybe that's because he needs to like it. The guy's getting shredded in Dallas right now.
h. I'm surprised at the level of rancor over the Drew Bledsoe signing in Dallas. Two years, $5 million. That's the basic deal. Who's a better and cheaper starting NFL quarterback right now? And though Bledsoe's not a top-10 quarterback anymore, he can be in the middle of the NFL pack if coached well and leaned on. Which is a lot better than Dallas has now.
i. Good for you, Jerome Bettis. Excellent decision. One more year, a year of maybe 125 carries, will be good for you and good for the Steelers.
j. I knew the SI Swimsuit Party, held annually the Saturday night before the Super Bowl, was good for something. Aaron Rodgers tells me that's where he got to know Alex Smith. Now the two men are in in direct competition to be the first quarterbacks picked in the draft ... and maybe to be the first player picked.
2. I think I'll have to fall on my sword over the prediction two weeks ago that the Patriots would not release Ty Law, but rather would get something in trade for him. My mistake. In the end, four things doomed New England. One: Law is 31, and he was coming off a '03 groin injury and a '04 broken foot, which he's still recovering from; no one could safely predict he'd morph back into his old shutdown-corner self, though if that was his biggest problem the Patriots still would have been able to get something for him. Two: Trading for him would mean a team would have to give up a draft choice AND assume the final year of his contract, at $9.8 million in pay. Which leads us to ... three: With the Poston brothers as Law's agents, you're pipe-dreaming if you think they'd have been able to do a deal to make it worthwhile for a team to deal a pick and spend such a big chunk of their cap on Law. Four: The Patriots could have waited this out had they thought they could get some significant action on the line for Law, but this is the week teams have to be down to the '05 salary-cap limit of approximately $85.5 million; with Law's scheduled $12 million salary taken off the rolls, it gives New England flexibility it didn't have in free agency and while re-doing other contracts. Now, if some team really wanted Law, and if some team wasn't afraid of dealing with the Postons, this thing could have happened. But the sheer weight of it all made getting something for Law pretty difficult.
3. I think the one thing you should all keep in mind as you read scads of combine coverage -- it's out there; some of the Web sites devoted to the draft absolutely amaze me -- is the fact that on draft day, much of what is seen here is forgotten. For now, guys go up and down draft boards, but on April 23, how a guy plays football is more important. Teams have learned from combine mistakes (remember Mike Mamula getting vastly over-valued after his great combine a decade ago?), and though they respect what they see here, it's no longer the end-all in their deliberations for their picks.
4. I think Tim Ruskell is a darned good hire by the Seahawks as president of football operations. I've always respected him, from the time I got to know him in the Bucs' pre-good days a decade ago. A grinder. Hard worker who got to know the salary cap and talent-judging with the Bucs. Seattle didn't need a star. the Seahawks needed a talent-cultivator, and when Scott Pioli wasn't available, they got the next-best guy.
5. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:
a. Barry Bonds is out of his mind.
b. Fitting, over the past few days, that a Christian convention, a cheerleading competition and the NFL Scouting Combine were held at the Indiana Convention Center. Ain't that America?
c. Saw "The Gates" with Paul Zimmerman and our respective better halves. Nice. Unusual. Great to see Central Park so packed with people and transformed into a pretty sight in the middle of a harsh winter. An enjoyable experience. But art? I don't see it. Then again, I think I slept through Comparative Arts 101 at Ohio University 29 years ago.
d. Disappointed, slightly, with House last week. Anticlimactic ending about the baseball player, but overall still a B-plus episode. Interesting to hear how many people out here in the hinterlands agree about House, though. Such a good show.
e. Coffeenerdness: The one idiotic thing about Starbucks is how the company allows its name to be used on all these satellite Starbucks stands you see around the country. At the Indiana Convention Center, there is a Starbucks stand I would say somewhat approximates the company's quality. The espresso there was watered down and nothing like a real-store quality. If you're going to put the name up, Seattle, take some small bit of pride that the drink is going to be the same as it is in a real store.
6. I think the most impressive guy I saw at the combine was Braylon Edwards, the Michigan receiver. Not in a football sense, because I saw him do nothing footballish here. Confident, knows what's important to NFL teams, has already sold them on his value. There is no way he is getting out of the top five of the draft, and there is no way Mike Williams can surpass him. Interesting, though, that Minnesota coach Mike Tice asked Williams in his interview with the team this weekend, "How do you feel about replacing Randy Moss?" Minnesota, assuming it stays at No. 7 (Oakland's pick, acquired in the Moss deal, to become official Wednesday), won't have a chance at Edwards but will have a shot to get the 6-foot-5 Williams.
7. I think the folks criticizing the Vikings for "not getting enough" for Moss are nuts. The way of the NFL is the egoless New England way right now. How many teams do you think were interested in Moss? How many teams wouldn't touch him with a 10-foot pole? I can assure the doubters out there that, assuming Minnesota was absolutely certain it was going to get rid of Moss this offseason (something I believe strongly), the Vikings got the best deal for Moss they could.
8. I think, and I hate to say this because Muhsin Muhammad is a very good guy and a great football player, Chicago is where receivers go to die.
9. I think you should take the gold watch, Jerry Rice.
10. I think Pete Carroll sounded awfully comfy about his college-football life when I spoke to him Saturday night. He had just gotten back from a Nike junket in Aruba, and I'm sure free agency and the salary cap are the furthest thing from his Southern California mind right now. Lucky man. I said to him at the end of the conversation: "Pete, looking forward to covering you again someday soon." Without missing a beat, he said, "You're coming back to cover college football?"
Will Leinart make leap?
Supplemental-draft rumor intrigues 49ers, rest of NFL
INDIANAPOLIS -- If I heard the idea once, I heard it 15 times at the NFL Scouting Combine: Now that offensive guru Norm Chow is out at Southern California, Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Matt Leinart might enter the NFL through a supplemental draft sometime this summer.
Did this have any basis in fact? I kept asking around, and no one knew. But it was the kind of wildfire rumor you hear in the NFL from time to time, and what gave me an idea it might have a shred of truth was a long conversation I had with San Francisco coach Mike Nolan here late Friday night. He was putting some stock in the Leinart rumor, and he knew what a major impact this could have on the future of his team. He just didn't want to talk about it.
More about that in a minute, but I figured it was worth making a weekend phone call to USC coach Pete Carroll at least. As I was in the middle of running the rumor by him, Carroll interrupted me and said: "Matt has no intention of doing that. He knows the possibility. I talked to him about it a week or so ago because I'd heard this stuff floating around, and he said, 'No, I'm not doing that.'"
Carroll continued: "Matt's the freakin' king of L.A. right now. He's not leaving. Plus, he's got the tendinitis thing in his elbow, and he's not going to throw a football for three months. If he'd have come out into the draft this year, he'd have to be working out for the NFL teams and I'm not sure that thing ever would have gotten fixed. Now he can give it the time he needs, without pressure, to heal for our season.
"It's a good story. It's just not happening."
Leinart, of course, has had a phenomenal two-year run of national championship football at USC -- 71 touchdowns, 15 interceptions, completed 64.4 percent of his passes, the kind of numbers that would have made him a very high pick in this year's draft had he chosen to come out. He might have been taken by San Francisco as the top overall pick. But he chose to return for a third starting season and fourth year at USC overall. Then Chow (who went to Tennessee) and quarterback coach Carl Smith (Jacksonville) left for NFL jobs, replaced by Steve Sarkisian (quarterbacks) and new offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin. Sarkisian coached USC quarterbacks during Leinart's first season, then left for a single, ill-fated year doing the same job with the Raiders last fall.
In a supplemental draft, a player who has either graduated from college after the NFL Draft or who has had illicit contact with a player agent can, if he has had three seasons at a school, choose to declare himself eligible for entry into the NFL Draft. At that time, the NFL picks a date and teams can use their selections in the following year's draft to bid on the player. Supplemental drafts are not that rare. That's how San Diego nose tackle Jamal Williams entered the NFL. And in 1990, Syracuse receiver Rob Moore came into the league that way. He even had a mini-scouting combine at the New York Jets' facility, with coaches and scouts from all over the league flying in to watch him work out. The Jets' offer of their first-round pick in '91 was the highest bid for Moore, and so the Jets acquired him. Good decision. Moore finished with 628 career catches.
Anyway, the reason the Leinart rumor is so intriguing to NFL teams is because of what it would mean to the 49ers, or to some team -- say Miami, Cleveland, Chicago or Tampa Bay -- that is very high in the current draft order. Say, Leinart graduated from USC this summer, which I'm told is possible given the course load he would have to take on. And, say, he declared for the draft. Assume, for a minute, that San Francisco solves its quarterback problem by picking one with the first overall choice in April. And let's say the Arizona Cardinals didn't take a quarterback high in the draft and need one ... or pick another team, perhaps a team Leinart would really want to play for -- Miami or Green Bay or Tampa Bay, whoever. Until the end of the current season, the supplemental draft order is based on the previous year's draft order. So San Francisco again would be on the clock. The team that wanted Leinart would go to the 49ers and try to pry the pick away. Depending on how many teams wanted him, maybe they'd be offered two No. 1 picks for him. Imagine the chance to get Arizona's next two No. 1 picks, in '06 and '07, for your first-round pick in '06. That's why San Francisco would be so intrigued if Leinart chose this path.
Which, evidently, he's not going to do. But I'm not sure, even with his strong statements in this column, this is the last Carroll has heard of this rumor.
Stat of the Week
Cal quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who might be the Niners' next quarterback, completed 23 straight passes in a game against USC last fall.
Factoid That May Interest Only Me
Last week, after reporting to his new team, the New York Mets, ex-Red Sox first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz was asked if he would miss the drama of the Boston-New York rivalry. "It wasn't what everyone made it out to be," Mientkiewicz said. "The Twins-White Sox is just the same to me."
I will wait till you stop laughing.
Ready?
Last year, the Red Sox and Yankees played 19 times during the regular season. Each game was a sellout. They played seven times in the postseason, all of which were sellouts. So 26 games, and not an unsold ticket. A little bit of passion, too. Just a little. Before the first regular-season meeting of the year at Yankee Stadium, a neighbor of mine went to a Manhattan ticket broker looking for five box seats for a bachelor party. His tab for the five seats: $2,100. Before Game 7 of the ALCS in New York, box seats were being brokered for $750.
Last year, the Twins and White Sox played 19 times. Zero sellouts. Average attendance in the 19 games: 24,955. Average empty seats at the Metrodome in the 10 Minneapolis games: 32,673. Average empty seats at U.S. Cellular Field in the nine Chicago games: 12,441.
My guess is you probably could have scalped five seats to one of those games for $21, not $2,100.
Doug, between the hoarded final-out-of-the-World Series ball and your opinion of this rivalry, I'm starting to have some serious questions about your sanity.
Quote of the Week
"We're like the Jackson 5. To everyone on the outside, it looks like we're tight as hell. Then we go home, and it's Jermaine in this room, Tito in that room, and Randy ain't talkin' to no one. When you get up close, it's all dysfunctional."
-- Indianapolis running back Edgerrin James, to SI's Mike Silver in a column about the interpersonal dynamics of the Colts' offensive stars.
Aggravating/Enjoyable Travel Note of the Week
You know the NFL Scouting Combine is getting a little bit out of control when TV stations from Wisconsin start covering it, and when a comely young writer from Maxim is on hand to get to know the new NFL prospects.
There is simply no end to the madness that is NFL coverage. I first covered the combine in '91, when about 10 or 12 media folks loitered in the lobby of a downtown Indianapolis hotel adjacent to the RCA Dome, catching players and coaches as they walked to and from meetings and workouts and physicals. As recent as '00, it was still a pretty low-key event. I remember asking Plaxico Burress if I could spend some time with him for a column that year. He said fine, and we talked for two hours.
Now, the players have maybe 10 or 15 minutes for the hoard of at least 300 media members. The prominent prospects are hustled off to sessions with the NFL Network. What used to be an opportunity to get to know the players you might be covering for the next 10 years has turned into a drive-by. The other day, I wanted to get a couple of questions answered by Michigan wide receiver Braylon Edwards after he finished his session in the press room at the Indiana Convention Center. "Walk and talk, walk and talk," an NFL aide said. So about 10 of us race-walked with Edwards as he sped toward the NFL Network room, microphones and one mini-cam and ears all straining to catch his words; five autograph collectors jockeyed with us to catch Edwards' attention.
So you're in college, and you want to cover an NFL beat? Advice from the combine: Get some shoulder pads and sharpen your elbows.
Ten Things I Think I Think
1. I think these are my quick-hit thoughts of the NFL weekend:
a. Charles Woodson is a disaster-in-progress. I'm trusting the Raiders knew they had a fish on the line when they franchised the terminally disappointing cornerback, and that they'll be able to get something in a trade for him. I wouldn't have this guy on my team for $1 million a year, never mind $10.5 million, which is the franchise number for corners.
b. I believe the biggest salary injustice in the NFL is that, right now, Woodson is on the '05 salary rolls to make $1 million more than Brett Favre ($3 million roster bonus, $6.5 million salary).
c. Maurice Clarett. Hindenberg.
d. My buddy Don Banks had the best line of this, and many, NFL Combines. While observing Brian Billick during the coach's Friday press-conference-athon, which I think may still be going on. "If Brian Billick were struck mute today," Banks said, "he would last two days before dying. Tops."
f. I'm rooting for Don Orlovsky, the UConn quarterback, who is trying to sneak into the first three rounds. Looks doubtful. Orlovsky missed the Senior Bowl with a viral infection and is still trying to recover. Love to see him end up as No. 3 in Green Bay for a year or two observing Favre.
g. First time I ever saw Bill Parcells hold court at the combine. He actually seemed to like it. Maybe that's because he needs to like it. The guy's getting shredded in Dallas right now.
h. I'm surprised at the level of rancor over the Drew Bledsoe signing in Dallas. Two years, $5 million. That's the basic deal. Who's a better and cheaper starting NFL quarterback right now? And though Bledsoe's not a top-10 quarterback anymore, he can be in the middle of the NFL pack if coached well and leaned on. Which is a lot better than Dallas has now.
i. Good for you, Jerome Bettis. Excellent decision. One more year, a year of maybe 125 carries, will be good for you and good for the Steelers.
j. I knew the SI Swimsuit Party, held annually the Saturday night before the Super Bowl, was good for something. Aaron Rodgers tells me that's where he got to know Alex Smith. Now the two men are in in direct competition to be the first quarterbacks picked in the draft ... and maybe to be the first player picked.
2. I think I'll have to fall on my sword over the prediction two weeks ago that the Patriots would not release Ty Law, but rather would get something in trade for him. My mistake. In the end, four things doomed New England. One: Law is 31, and he was coming off a '03 groin injury and a '04 broken foot, which he's still recovering from; no one could safely predict he'd morph back into his old shutdown-corner self, though if that was his biggest problem the Patriots still would have been able to get something for him. Two: Trading for him would mean a team would have to give up a draft choice AND assume the final year of his contract, at $9.8 million in pay. Which leads us to ... three: With the Poston brothers as Law's agents, you're pipe-dreaming if you think they'd have been able to do a deal to make it worthwhile for a team to deal a pick and spend such a big chunk of their cap on Law. Four: The Patriots could have waited this out had they thought they could get some significant action on the line for Law, but this is the week teams have to be down to the '05 salary-cap limit of approximately $85.5 million; with Law's scheduled $12 million salary taken off the rolls, it gives New England flexibility it didn't have in free agency and while re-doing other contracts. Now, if some team really wanted Law, and if some team wasn't afraid of dealing with the Postons, this thing could have happened. But the sheer weight of it all made getting something for Law pretty difficult.
3. I think the one thing you should all keep in mind as you read scads of combine coverage -- it's out there; some of the Web sites devoted to the draft absolutely amaze me -- is the fact that on draft day, much of what is seen here is forgotten. For now, guys go up and down draft boards, but on April 23, how a guy plays football is more important. Teams have learned from combine mistakes (remember Mike Mamula getting vastly over-valued after his great combine a decade ago?), and though they respect what they see here, it's no longer the end-all in their deliberations for their picks.
4. I think Tim Ruskell is a darned good hire by the Seahawks as president of football operations. I've always respected him, from the time I got to know him in the Bucs' pre-good days a decade ago. A grinder. Hard worker who got to know the salary cap and talent-judging with the Bucs. Seattle didn't need a star. the Seahawks needed a talent-cultivator, and when Scott Pioli wasn't available, they got the next-best guy.
5. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:
a. Barry Bonds is out of his mind.
b. Fitting, over the past few days, that a Christian convention, a cheerleading competition and the NFL Scouting Combine were held at the Indiana Convention Center. Ain't that America?
c. Saw "The Gates" with Paul Zimmerman and our respective better halves. Nice. Unusual. Great to see Central Park so packed with people and transformed into a pretty sight in the middle of a harsh winter. An enjoyable experience. But art? I don't see it. Then again, I think I slept through Comparative Arts 101 at Ohio University 29 years ago.
d. Disappointed, slightly, with House last week. Anticlimactic ending about the baseball player, but overall still a B-plus episode. Interesting to hear how many people out here in the hinterlands agree about House, though. Such a good show.
e. Coffeenerdness: The one idiotic thing about Starbucks is how the company allows its name to be used on all these satellite Starbucks stands you see around the country. At the Indiana Convention Center, there is a Starbucks stand I would say somewhat approximates the company's quality. The espresso there was watered down and nothing like a real-store quality. If you're going to put the name up, Seattle, take some small bit of pride that the drink is going to be the same as it is in a real store.
6. I think the most impressive guy I saw at the combine was Braylon Edwards, the Michigan receiver. Not in a football sense, because I saw him do nothing footballish here. Confident, knows what's important to NFL teams, has already sold them on his value. There is no way he is getting out of the top five of the draft, and there is no way Mike Williams can surpass him. Interesting, though, that Minnesota coach Mike Tice asked Williams in his interview with the team this weekend, "How do you feel about replacing Randy Moss?" Minnesota, assuming it stays at No. 7 (Oakland's pick, acquired in the Moss deal, to become official Wednesday), won't have a chance at Edwards but will have a shot to get the 6-foot-5 Williams.
7. I think the folks criticizing the Vikings for "not getting enough" for Moss are nuts. The way of the NFL is the egoless New England way right now. How many teams do you think were interested in Moss? How many teams wouldn't touch him with a 10-foot pole? I can assure the doubters out there that, assuming Minnesota was absolutely certain it was going to get rid of Moss this offseason (something I believe strongly), the Vikings got the best deal for Moss they could.
8. I think, and I hate to say this because Muhsin Muhammad is a very good guy and a great football player, Chicago is where receivers go to die.
9. I think you should take the gold watch, Jerry Rice.
10. I think Pete Carroll sounded awfully comfy about his college-football life when I spoke to him Saturday night. He had just gotten back from a Nike junket in Aruba, and I'm sure free agency and the salary cap are the furthest thing from his Southern California mind right now. Lucky man. I said to him at the end of the conversation: "Pete, looking forward to covering you again someday soon." Without missing a beat, he said, "You're coming back to cover college football?"