All aboard for tonight’s NFL Draft

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All aboard for tonight’s NFL Draft

Sports

Wednesday, 21 April 2010 12:54

Ken Jackson
Sports Writer

The NFL is doing a marvelous job of keeping us on the edge of our comfy recliners, and there isn’t a meaningless exhibition game for another three months.
Leading into Tuesday, it was all about the schedule, and holding it back, and then announcing it, and telling me what hours of the fall and winter I’m gonna have to pay special attention, because some reeeeally big games are going to be played.
To which I say: big deal. Does it matter who you play? Just go execute better than the guy across the line from you and win.

But, if you wonder what the real price of drama is, because the folks at ESPN and the NFL Network have been selling the heck out of it, then you’ll be watching The Draft, starting with tonight’s first round festivities.
(That is, unless you’re watching — or covering — a softball district tournament. Ol’ Pedone has been in deep funk mode all week.)
There’s three profiles of people who watch the NFL’s annual cotillion in New York. There’s the fan who wants his team to take a specific player, that one guy whose enormous talent will change the fortunes of his team for the next 10 years, or until that player’s first major injury, whichever comes first. The fan must watch all day to be sure his chosen player remains on the board.
There’s the guy who wants to see how this crop of rookies changes the landscape of the league. (“Has Tebow been picked yet?”)
And then there’s me, the guy rooting for chaos, hoping that all of Mel Kiper’s and Todd McShay’s predictions over the last month are dead wrong.
I just want to see the looks Jimmy Claussen, Eric Berry, C.J. Spiller and Tim Tebow (“And here he is, praying with impoverished kids from New Jersey...”) give when they realize they have to find new girlfriends in places like Buffalo, Detroit and Cleveland.
Hey, Carlos Dunlap! I hear Arizona is lovely, with the weather and the ladies and all — but you’re going to Green Bay! Hope you like flannel!
Those guys might be on the figurative hot seat, but you can’t say “pants on fire” without bringing up Ben Roethlisberger, henceforth known as “Big Ben” because his last name’s annoying.
Tell me this story hasn’t gotten old, quick.
Simply put: Roger Goodell shouldn’t be suspending him. He can’t be.
Big Ben hasn’t been convicted of anything criminal. He hasn’t been charged – or even arrested, for that matter.
But, because he’s been found guilty of stupidity, the league and the Pittsburgh Steelers have to do something like suspend him. After all, they’re the Steelers, for cryin’ out loud! The gold standard of the NFL and a bastion of all that is good in society!
Sometimes, you need a clue hammered into your brain. You’d think going face-first over his motorcycle handlebars into a Chrysler four years ago would have done the trick. Nope. Neither did the near-miss in Lake Tahoe last year.
Who knows if this, or watching the Steelers essentially fire Santonio Holmes for behaving badly, will do the trick.
Please, Steelers, do the right thing and suspend him. You can even have some fun with it. Go on the NFL Network live with Commander Goodell holding 17 number cards in a hat. Big Ben draws two, and suspend him those weeks of the season. Maybe he’ll get lucky and draw the bye week.
Do it Sunday; after the draft we’re going to need more pro football suspense. The preseason starts in August and that’s a long way away.
...
I actually attended a football game last week. It was of the flag variety played by ladies. Harmony and Osceola duked it out for the OBC championship and they really got after it. Probably had to do with the rivalry.
Their game five years ago had the same title riding on it, but the pulse was quieter, as they were the only county squads fielding flag teams then. It was Osceola’s second year of it. Harmony had just opened, yet they qualified for the district playoffs against Orange County schools twice their size.
It’s taken only five years, but every other county school now fields a team; Celebration joined the ranks as an independent this year.
While some schools couldn’t field baseball or golf teams this year, and despite going up against track and softball, every county school matched its best female athletes against each other on the football field this season.
How cool is that?
...
If Mike Fields thinks it’s freakish, then it’s noteworthy.
On April 9, his Harmony baseball club beat Palm Bay, 22-6, by clubbing seven home runs, three by Will Tilford.
“I never had a kid hit three out in a game, even Bobby Kiser,” said Fields, who rarely lets the same kid swing away three times.
“I didn’t have another first baseman. Every ball that got up in the air went out. First time for everything I guess. Too bad we couldn’t save some of those hits for districts.”
This came right after the team’s spring break trip to Washington, D.C., where they saw the sights and played two games, winning both, just part of why Fields felt it was a successful trip.
“It was really fun, we even brought back the same number of kids we left with.”