Phlegmatic

One of the more interesting NFL draft prospects this year is safety Myron Rolle. Scouts are suggesting that he's likely to go in the second or third round. What makes him stand out is that he's a Rhodes Scholar. He could have entered the draft last year, but chose instead to do a Masters in Medical Anthropology at Oxford.

I'm curious to know which college he is at. Does anyone who is closer to the university than I am have an idea? Google came up blank.

On January 19th 2003, the Oakland Raiders were the best team in the NFL.

Then their starting centre, Barrett Robbins had a complete mental breakdown and went missing in Mexico. The Raiders lost Super Bowl XXXVII 21-48 to a Tampa Bay side coached by the man who had coached the Raiders in the previous season.

Since that date, the Raiders have a worse record than any other NFL team. This weekend things got even worse.

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Some of you may remember my posts on the subject of Michael Vick, former Atlanta Falcons quarterback and his activities in the breeding of dogs for dog-fighting. Here's my last post on the subject:

http://philmophlegm.livejournal.com/35140.html

Since then, Vick has served his time in prison, and been reinstated into the NFL (with certain conditions attached). He has signed with the Philadelphia Eagles to be a back-up quarterback.

He plays his first pre-season game for the Eagles this week. As predicted, there may well be angry protests. Bizarrely though, the first such protest will be a pro-Vick one...

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Incredible footage of the roof of the Dallas Cowboys' practice facility collapsing during near-tornado strength winds. Nobody was killed, but one assistant coach suffered a broken back and was "lucky not to be paralysed".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMX5BRAiApk

Although nobody liked the Raiders' first round pick (except for the Raiders), the pick that attracted the most derision (and banging of head from yours truly) was their second round pick, a safety from the University of Ohio, Mike Mitchell. The established draft experts like Ourlad's, Pro Football Weekly's Nolan Nawrocki, NFL Network's Mike Mayock and ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr had rated him at best a 7th round pick. The Raiders were roundly criticised for picking a player that no other team would have drafted before the 7th round.

Then more details emerged. If you Google for Mike Mitchell, you can find a few local newspaper reports of Mitchell visiting different teams. He says he actually visited ten teams for private workouts. Even more startling, Mitchell claims that Jerry Angelo, Chicago Bears general manager, called him to tell him not to stray too far from his phone, because they planned to take him with the 49th pick. This may or may not be true, but when the Raiders picked him with the 47th pick overall, Chicago traded away their no.49 pick in return for extra later selections and Angelo said on TV that this was because the players they wanted at 49 had been taken.

So could this be a case of the draft 'experts' being wrong? We'll see. Mitchell has an impressive highlights video on YouTube, but of course that only shows the good plays - the big hits etc - and not the plays where he gets beaten by a wide receiver or run over by a running back.

...until the draft!

I've got my scouting guides to hand and lots of NFL gossip websites open in front of me.

Excitement!




Followed by despair...

From profootballtalk.com:

On Monday, the NFL Players Association posted on its web site quotes from various players regarding Sunday’s election of DeMaurice Smith to the position of Executive Director. Today, the union has circulated some of the quotes via e-mail.

Said Saints quarterback Drew Brees: “I think it gives us a real sense of pride, knowing that we unanimously selected our next Executive Director.”

Said Jets running back Tony Richardson: “We are unified, we are one team moving forward and that’s what we need. We need unity back in our union, confidence back from our men, and it sends a great message that we are all on the same page.”

Said Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck: “You want to be unified when you’re on the field and I think it’s no different when it comes to union issues.”

Said Panthers receiver Muhsin Muhammad: “I’m extremely excited that the union is unified. We have a true leader, a new direction, and it’s something different. I’m excited that we all came out of that meeting unified, with new energy and ready to head in a new direction.”

Said Redskins receiver James Thrash: “I think the unanimous vote shows how our players and our union are unified.”

Said free-agent kicker Matt Stover, player rep for the Ravens: “I believe that when we came out, we were a unified group. That was key for me, to make sure that my players knew that when we came out, no matter who was there, that we were very unified with regards to DeMaurice or any of the other candidates.”

So there you have it. Union. Unified. Unity. Unanimous."



The actual result: Smith got 20 votes, Troy Vincent got 6 votes and Trace Armstrong and David Cornwell got the other 6. After the election, someone proposed a motion (which was passed) to call the result unanimous.


Uh?

Don't do poetry that much, but this'll do:

The Autumn Wind, by Steve Sabol

The Autumn Wind is a pirate
Blustering in from sea
With a rollicking song he sweeps along
swaggering boisterously
His face is weather beaten
He wears a hooded sash
With his silver hat about his head
And a bristly black moustache
He growls as he storms the country
A villain big and bold
And the trees all shake and quiver and quake
As he robs them of their gold
The Autumn wind is a Raider
Pillaging just for fun
He'll knock you 'round and upside down
And laugh when he's conquered and won.

Incredible Raiders game last night. Somehow they managed to be leading the Jets 13 - 10 with seconds to go. Brett Favre just about got the Jets in position for their stand-in kicker Jay Feeley to attempt a field goal that would tie the game. It would be a 52 yard field goal, which would be his career long.

And he missed it.

However, Raiders interim head coach Tom Cable had called a time-out moments before the kick, so the play didn't count. Coaches do this to try and psych the kicker. At least, that's the theory. My view is that it just gives the kicker a practice shot. And of course, Feeley made the kick on his second attempt to tie the game with five seconds left. The game went into overtime (first to score wins).

A few exchanges of possession later, there were only two and a half minutes left in overtime, and therefore the possibility of the first tied game in the NFL since 2002. A few good passes from young Raiders quarterback Jamarcus Russell (yes...'Jamarcus' really is his name), but then the drive stalled, and on fourth down, the Raiders had the ball on the Jets' 40-yard line. Most teams would have punted here, but Tom Cable opted to send in the Raiders' kicker Sebastian Janikowski to attempt a 57 yard field goal...

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The Raiders, "professional sport's most dysfunctional franchise" fired their head coach, Lane Kiffin today. I'm waiting for the team's press conference on nfl.com. Kiffin will hold his own press conference tomorrow. This'll get nasty.

Impressive thing number 1.

Just how good the quality is on the NFL's high definition streaming video service. OK, I had to pay $200 for 16 Raiders games, but I've just been watching the Raiders / Chiefs game on a 24" monitor in true HD over a bog-standard 2mbps broadband connection, and the quality is staggering. The compression was even good enough that I was able to watch last week's game against Denver (not that it was particularly fun to watch for a Raiders fan) on my work laptop using my 3G card.


Impressive thing number 2.

Just how good the Raiders' defence was tonight after last week's debacle.


Impressive thing number 3

When your starting running back gets injured in the first quarter and you still manage 300 yards rushing, you know you've got a damn good running game. Darren McFadden is going to be a big star.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d804ed94f&template=without-video&confirm=true


The correct outcome I think.

I've been away for a few days. There will now follow a selection of posts concerning what I have been doing.

These will cover such topics as flying, public transport in general, Football Manager 2008, Facebook, virtual teams, Berlin, German history, memorials, property prices, bonuses, jellyfish, American football, Wembley Stadium, Allied Carpets, crowd control, horses and jaguarundi.

If none of this is of the faintest interest, then don't bother reading further.

"After consulting with his family over the weekend, Michael Vick ask that I announce today that he has reached an agreement with Federal prosecutors regarding the charges pending against him. Mr. Vick has agreed to enter a plea of Guilty to those charges and to accept full responsibility for his actions and the mistakes he has made. Michael wishes to apologizes again to everyone who has been hurt by this matter. The legal team and Mr. Vick will appear in court in Richmond on August 27th."

We might be nearing the endgame. Vick's two remaining co-defendants have both now pleaded guilty and have admitted to killing eight dogs with Vick.

Vick's lawyers are now in plea-bargain mode with the federal prosecutors. The offer on the table is believed to involve a 12-18 month prison sentence.

The NFL does not do lifetime bans. But if he was convicted, there is some thinking that any suspension would only start after his release. Furthermore, there would be two suspensions - possibly one year for involvement with dog-fighting and one year for gambling (NFL players are strictly forbidden from any sort of gambling). That's as far as an official NFL suspension could possibly go (anything further might risk upsetting the players' union because it would not be within the terms of the collective bargaining agreement). However, the new NFL commissioner would certainly be able to informally ask all 32 teams not to consider hiring Vick at that point.

One of his co-defendants pleaded guilty. Vick himself pleaded innocent.

Most of his sponsors have dropped him.

His team has suspended him.



In the meantime, one piece of Michael Vick merchandise you can buy is this...

http://www.vickdogchewtoy.com/

I haven't seen this news story in the British press yet, so I thought I'd share it with you. I warn you though, it really isn't for the faint-hearted. And I'm really not joking.

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2 Bengal cats (snow marble, to be precise)

3 towels, only one of which has a dalek on it

1 pair of cyberman cuff links

5 live-journal icons, some of which are animated

2.5 hours of falconry

1 Iron Maiden live double album

1 Johnny Cash album

1 copy of Children of Hurin

2 astronomy books (both of which have Patrick Moore involved, but only one of which has Brian May)

1 talking dalek (small)

1 Bush Tucker Man DVD

2 Quarterbacks

1 Saab 9-5 2.3litre turbo (not strictly mine, but then Bunn could have bought something really dull)

1 3-1 win against Boston

Oh, and:


1 Premiership title

Philmophlegm is annoyed today.

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