My Top 8 NFL Draft Observations

 

1.  The Cleveland Browns made out like bandits in the first round getting two players who were projected to be in the top five.  The Browns took Wisconsin offensive tackle Joe Thomas, with the third pick and Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn, who slipped to the 22nd pick.  The Browns gave up a first round pick next year, which could turn out to be a top five pick, to the Cowboys for Quinn.  Coach Romeo Crennel, assistant coaches and management can't worry about next year.  They need to think about now and hopefully Quinn, Thomas and the rest of the draft will help them move in a positive direction. 

 

 Not caught up in the NFL Draft hype, Thomas and his family went fishing on Lake Michigan Saturday.

 

2.  Watching the draft on ESPN Saturday, all I heard was JaMarcus Russell 'CAN THROW SIXTY-FIVE YARDS IN THE AIR FROM ONE KNEE!'  I remember a few years ago the NFL draft analysts were beaming about another quarterback who could do that.  Kyle Boller.  I remember watching the video of Boller throwing from the 50 yard line over the goal post.  I was in awe, I'll admit it.  But guess what?  I'm not a draft analyst.  I also know that doesn't make a quarterback.  Please lord, don't compare Rusell to Boller. Russell is 6'5 with a combination between a healthy Daunte Culpepper and Vince Young, NOT Kyle Boller. 

 

 65 YARDS IN THE AIR FROM ONE KNEE?  TAKE HIM!!!

 

On Saturday, new Raiders coach Lane Kiffin gave up a fourth round pick for a solid quarterback to help groom Russell in Josh McCown and ex-USC All-American WR Mike Williams.  The Raiders will be better next year.  Maybe not playoffs good, but maybe 6-7 wins.  Their defense is already ready for the playoffs and it will take the offense another couple years to get there. 

 

3.  Detroit Lions general manager Matt Millen did something that he hasn't done, well...in like two years.  He drafted a wide receiver in the first round with Calvin Johnson.  Yes, we all know Johnson is the best player in the draft.  Eh.  Yes, we know Johnson has everything you need (speed to burn, HUGE hands, smart, etc) to be the best wide receiver in the NFL for the next ten years.  Eh.  We also know this is the Lions.  No offensive line.  No quarterback.  The Lions took the best player available, exactly did what they are supposed to be doing, but when there are two glaring needs starting them right in the face (quarterback and offensive line), you need to take one of them.  Joe Thomas and Brady Quinn were right there to make them a better team next year.  Guess what?  Lions aren't moving up until they get a QB and a better offensive line.  Period.

 

 I personally want to see the Lions surround Calvin Johnson with talent, because he is spectacular.

 

4.  The Miami Dolphins surprised everybody on Saturday.  They have quarterback problems.  I know it, you know it, the world knows it.  Daunte Culpepper may never get back to where he once was in Minnesota (that's his words, not mine).  They are supposed to trade for the Chiefs Trent Green.  Has that happened yet?  No.  It could fall through and they could not have a QB at all.  So guess what?  Just draft a solid QB in Brady Quinn. Instead they took a wide receiver and an injured one at that.  Ted Ginn out of Ohio State broke his foot celebrating a touchdown in the national championship game and hasn't been the same since (and now might be out 2-4 months).  Oh yeah, that's worth the ninth pick in the draft.  Dolphins fan were not happy when new Coach Cam Cameron announced they had taken Ginn.  Good luck making Dolphins fans happy Coach.

 

5.  The Houston Texans with the 10th pick in the first round took Louisville defensive lineman Amobi Okoye.  The story about the Nigerian Okoye is an amazing one.  His family moved to America when he was one.  His mother worked as a principal at an elementary school and brought Amobi with her.  She sat him in a first-grade classroom when he was 2 1/2 and he learned to read and write.  He tested into high school when he was 12, graduated at 16 and went to Louisville.  Now at 19, he is the youngest player ever drafted by the NFL.  Okoye's upside is out of this world and he can only get better.  The Texans defense looks to be set for years to come with last year's No. 1 pick, Mario Williams, last year's second round pick and defensive rookie of the year, DeMeco Ryans at linebacker and now Okoye.  The Texans might actually stop the Colts on a drive or two this coming fall. 

 

 A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss.

 

6.  As SportsIllustrated.com's NFL Draft website is titled, the New England Patriots are Not Standing Pat.  Bill Belichick is not about to let the Tom Brady era just slip away.  By grabbing Randy Moss from the Raiders for a fourth round pick, the Patriots have added now four receivers this offseason.  Wes Walker in a trade with Miami, Donte' Stallworth and Kelly Washington as free agents and now Moss.  Also with the addition of defensive tackle Adelius Thomas from Baltimore in the offseason, New England used nearly all of their picks to help shore up the defense.  What does all of this mean to the rest of the NFL and more notably the Colts?  The Pats will be ready come next year to take back what has been there's three times this decade.  The Vince Lombardi Trophy. 

 

7.  I love ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit, don't get me wrong.  I remember back in November.  Ohio State had just beaten Michigan to secure a place in the national title game.  Herbstreit then blurted out something that has stuck in my mind for the last six months.  'THE CLEVELAND BROWNS NEED TO TAKE TROY SMITH WITH THEIR FIRST PICK TO SOLIDIFY THE QUARTERBACK POSITION IN CLEVELAND FOR YEARS TO COME!!!'  Yeah, what?  Smith is, what, 5'9?  I know he's not the 6'1 he is listed at, I can promise you that.  Heisman Trophy winner Smith went with the last pick in the fifth round to the Baltimore Ravens.  Smith will get to learn from a great in Steve McNair, but can he be a starting quarterback in the NFL?  Only time will tell.  But Herbie...he wasn't worth the No. 3 pick in the draft.  You should know that.

 

8.  The groan you heard when the Packers selected Tennessee defensive lineman Ustin Harrell with the 16th pick in the draft was from the state of Wisconsin.  We knew the Pack needs help on defense...like, everything except linebacker.  Brett Favre isn't going to be around for much longer.  We want to see some help offensive help in the first round.  The preferred pick, RB Marshawn Lynch out of california, was picked by the Bills earlier in the first round.  I understand the Green Bay brass didnt want to reach for Miami tight end Greg Olsen or any of the solid wide receivers they could get farther down the line.  From all indications though, Harrell was a stretch.  He was projected late first, early second round, but Harrell is a monster and should definitely help shore up the line.  The Packers did fill a couple of needs with a running back, Brandon Jackson out of Nebraska, and a wide receiver, James Jones out of San Jose State in the third round.  The Packers also got help at Safety later in the third round by taking Aaron Rouse out of Virginia Tech.

 

Sidenotes:

     ** - The 49ers are big winners.  By trading for Seahawks WR Darrell Jackson, and drafting two great players in the first round to fill needs (OT Joe Staley Central Michigan and LB Patrick Willis out of Mississippi), San Francisco could be in the running for the NFC West very soon.

     ** - By drafting Michael Bush (not the Edgewood tennis player, the Louisville running back), the Raiders have a backfield worth noting.  Lamont Jordan was back there last year, but by grabbing Dominic Rhodes from the Colts and now Bush, the Raiders might give Russell and/or McCown a sporting chance come fall.  Or maybe Robert Gallery could get his lazy butt a jump rope and help the team out.  Talk about a waste.

     ** - We Packer fans know about Justin Harrell now, but I am sorry, Favre really missed out.  No Marshawn Lynch.  No Ted Ginn.  No Robert Meachem.  None of the elite DB's.  Harrell best become all world and not Jamal Reynolds.  You remember him right?  First round defensive lineman out of Florida State.  Yeah, talk about awful.

     ** - Well, so much for being a fan of Adrian Peterson anymore.  My Sooner was drafted by the Vikings with the 7th pick Saturday and I never want to see him again.  Kidding.  Sorta.  I have always talked about buying his jersey when he gets to the League.  I am NOT buying that one.

 

 NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!

 

Virginia Tech Lingering Questions and the Victims

 Victim Ryan 'Stack' Clark.

The family of the Virginia Tech massacre, Cho Seung-Hui, said they were 'hopeless, helpless and lost' today through a statement.  The statement by Sun-Kyung Cho, sister of Seung-Hui Cho, on behalf of herself and her family:

'On behalf of our family, we are so deeply sorry for the devastation my brother has caused. No words can express our sadness that 32 innocent people lost their lives this week in such a terrible, senseless tragedy. We are heartbroken.

We grieve alongside the families, the Virginia Tech community, our State of Virginia, and the rest of the nation. And, the world.

Every day since April 16, my father, mother and I pray for students Ross Abdallah Alameddine, Brian Roy Bluhm, Ryan Christopher Clark, Austin Michelle Cloyd, Matthew Gregory Gwaltney, Caitlin Millar Hammaren, Jeremy Michael Herbstritt, Rachael Elizabeth Hill, Emily Jane Hilscher, Jarrett Lee Lane, Matthew Joseph La Porte, Henry J. Lee, Partahi Mamora Halomoan Lumbantoruan, Lauren Ashley McCain, Daniel Patrick O'Neil, J. Ortiz-Ortiz, Minal Hiralal Panchal, Daniel Alejandro Perez, Erin Nicole Peterson, Michael Steven Pohle, Jr., Julia Kathleen Pryde, Mary Karen Read, Reema Joseph Samaha, Waleed Mohamed Shaalan, Leslie Geraldine Sherman, Maxine Shelly Turner, Nicole White, Instructor Christopher James Bishop, and Professors Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, Kevin P. Granata, Liviu Librescu and G.V. Loganathan.

We pray for their families and loved ones who are experiencing so much excruciating grief. And we pray for those who were injured and for those whose lives are changed forever because of what they witnessed and experienced.

Each of these people had so much love, talent and gifts to offer, and their lives were cut short by a horrible and senseless act.

We are humbled by this darkness. We feel hopeless, helpless and lost. This is someone that I grew up with and loved. Now I feel like I didn't know this person.

We have always been a close, peaceful and loving family. My brother was quiet and reserved, yet struggled to fit in. We never could have envisioned that he was capable of so much violence.

He has made the world weep. We are living a nightmare.

There is much justified anger and disbelief at what my brother did, and a lot of questions are left unanswered. Our family will continue to cooperate fully and do whatever we can to help authorities understand why these senseless acts happened. We have many unanswered questions as well.

Our family is so very sorry for my brother's unspeakable actions. It is a terrible tragedy for all of us.'

How did Cho Seung-Hui pick out Emily Hilscher and Ryan Clark?  Could they have exchanged glances on their way to or at breakfast?  Had they met each other in the past?  Was it planned?  We may never know. 

What sent Cho over the edge?  In the past day or so, we've found out he was made fun of constantly in high school.  His first time speaking in front of a class, students thought he had food in his mouth, couldn't understand what he was saying and everybody started laughing and said 'Go back to China!'  Very nice.  Could somebody have set him off?  Highly doubtful.  This was a long time in the making.

How did Cho select Norris Hall?  Was it because it was one of the biggest buildings on campus and knew there would be many students in the hall at the time?

A couple things have upset me about all of this.  One co-worker said 'this should be a learning experience.'  No, that's wrong.  The learning experience was Columbine.  Or was supposed to be.  Has America not learned anything?  Watching 'Bowling for Columbine' last night, the obvious reason is guns.  Guns need to be off the street.  America has, by far, more guns than any other country in the world.  As some Canadians say 'America has such a short fuse that whenever anything goes wrong, they shoot somebody instead trying to defuse the situation some other way.' 

Somebody else told me that I should get rid of the links to the plays Cho wrote in English class because it 'glorified' what he had done.  This is my response; e-mail CNN.com, MSNBC.com, FOXNEWS.com, AOLNEWS.com and ABCNEWS.com and tell them to get rid of the links.  The thousand people that will read my journal doesn't quite compare to the one hundred million that will read the plays through their sites. 

Talking with a high school senior here in Madison last night, I realize that kids are still the same.  Kids are still mean. Kids still make fun of each other.  It's very sad that, it seems, this played a part in a massacre that killed 32 people.  This senior said 'I'll admit it, I do it.  I've made fun of kids.'  This is one of the good students, not one you would expect to participate in this kind of behavior. 

After watching and reading a lot of the coverage this week, the one thing I will take away from this disaster is how many amazing students were taken off this earth far, far too early.  Below is a list of the victims from CNN.com (not sure if I'm supposed to do this but I'm doing it anyways).

Ross Alameddine 'Intelligent, funny, easygoing'	Jamie Bishop German teacher, Fulbright Scholar	Brian Bluhm Faith in God
Ryan Clark 'The Spirit of Tech'	Austin Cloyd 'A warm young lady'	Jocelyne Couture-Nowak Helped open French school
Kevin Granata Loving father, at the top of his field	Matt Gwaltney 'Best guy to take home to your parents'	Caitlin Hammaren 'Leader among our students'
Jeremy Herbstritt 'Studious kid' who loved to chat	Rachael Hill A volleyball player who loved shoes	Emily Hilscher Animal lover, 'friendly and helpful'
Matthew La Porte 'Beautiful,uplifting spirit'	Jarrett Lane 'Caring heart,' 'full of spirit'	Henry Lee 'An extremely bubbly guy'
Liviu Librescu Holocaust survivor	G.V. Loganathan Supportive adviser had 'elegant style'	Partahi Mamora Halomoan Lumbantoruan Pursuing his dream
Lauren McCain Mastered Latin, was learning German	Daniel O'Neil 'Destined to be extremely successful'	Juan Ramon Ortiz 'An extraordinary son'
Minal Panchal Wanted to be an architect like her father	Daniel Perez Cueva 'Beautiful smile'	Erin Peterson Basketball team 'big sister'
Michael Pohle 'Just a great kid'	Julia Pryde 'The nicest person you ever met'	Mary Read Wanted to 'spread her wings'
Reema Samaha Creative dancer	Waleed Shaalan A father and husband	Leslie G. Sherman 'She was so happy'
Maxine Turner Preparing for May graduation	Nicole Regina White An international studies major

Virginia Tech Massacre

My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre. 

After listening to 'John and Andy,' two roommates of Cho Seung-Hui talk on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 tonight, it's hard to imagine they could have done anymore than they did.  Cho had stalked 'at least three girls' that they knew of, said he was going to commit suicide, 'never' had anybody visit him, never spoke more than a couple words at a time, took pictures of girls underneath their desks without them knowing, and on and on.  John and Andy called the police and also told their dormitory R.A. 

Should the campus have been shut down after the first double murder at 7:15am?  Should Cho have been kicked out of school after writing plays talking about killing people?  Hindsight is always 20/20 but with professors, girls and roommates calling the police, all the warning signs were there.  Incredibly sad. 

 The Killer Cho Seung-Hui

** Read Cho Seung-Hui's plays titled Richard McBeef and Mr. Brownstone here.

** On a personal note, my college doubles partner, Nick Mueller, is an assistant tennis coach for the women's team at Virginia Tech. 

A Top 8 that is mostly sports....

My Top 8 on....well....lots of stuff.

 The new HBO show 24/7 documents the couple months before Osca de la Hoya vs Floyd Mayweather in May.

1.  Watching 24/7, HBO's first of four shows previewing the Oscar de la Hoya vs Floyd Mayweather fight, I can only come to one conclusion;  the Mayweather family is not right in the head.  Floyd, Sr. has been in jail for lord knows what, Floyd calls Oscar a p*ssy a few dozen times at the press conference and within the last 5 weeks before the biggest fight of his life he is hanging out with 50 cent in Vegas.  Oscar is in Cabo San Lucas working his tail off and all Mayweather can say is 'I'm going to beat his ass.'  Very nice.  My money is on de la Hoya.

 The Boss.

2.  Love love love The Sopranos, but with only 7 more episodes after Sunday's episode I can see why things are starting to move quickly.  The first part of the last season, last Spring, if that makes sense, was slow.  Already in the first two episodes, Tony has been beat up by his brother-in-law, Tony seems to be losing all his respect for his cousin/nephew Christopher, people are getting shot all over the place, New York boss, Johnny Sac, has died of cancer, etc.  I mean, hello, spreading this stuff out is always good, but I guess we can forget about that with not much time left in the show.

3.  Love or hate the Cubs, you have to feel for Mark Prior and Kerry Wood.  Who has their voodoo dolls and is poking them in their right arm every other week?  What was supposed to be one of the best 1-2 combo's of this decade has crashed downed to almost nothing.  Prior made a start in the minors last week only to, get ready for this, leave with a pain in his right shoulder.  Very sad. 

4.  With less than a coupleweeks until the NFL Draft, I'm surprised to hear and see all the promotional garbage that Brady Quinn is throwing towards the NFL.  Jamarcus Russell is far and away the best quarterback in the draft and if the Raiders are thinking about anybody but Russell the Raiders shouldn't be in the NFL anymore.  Quinn didn't do anything for the Irish and it's hard to see him being anything but a mediocre QB in the NFL. 

5.  The Milwaukee Bucks just keep losing and losing which is fine by me, but do they really deserve the No. 1 pick in the draft?  I mean, come on.  I have two words for you.  Andrew Bogut. 

 Better than Andrew Bogut?  Push.

6.  If any of you were thinking that the team that gets the No. 1 pick in the draft should take Kevin Durant instead of Greg Oden, you are flat-out wrong.  Oden, even as a 36 year old....I mean, 19 year old, has only to fine tune his offense to become a completely dominant player in the NBA.  Durant is fantastic but Oden is the player all the NBA teams want.  I pray for the team that gets the No. 3 pick in the draft.

7.  The Yankees Alex Rodriguez is playing out of this world to start the season.  I'm happy for him.  As long as he leaves the Yankees at the end of the season, he can hit 75 homers this year and guide them to the World Series.  Just as long as they don't win it.

8.  ESPN's Andy Katz has his preseason Top 25 college basketball poll out for next year.  A little early, but what the hell, college basketball is great year round.  One thing Mr. Katz, where is Wisconsin?  Just because we lose Alando Tucker doesn't mean the Badgers will fall to the middle of the pack in the Big 10. 

 Come on Andy.  Have you seen what Bo can do? 

Manchester United into the Semifinals of the Champions League

 The final score said it all.

Manchester United rolled to a 7-1 win over Italian club Roma on Tuesday night in Manchester to move into the semifinals of the Champions League.  Roma defeated the Red Devils 2-1 in Italy a week ago, but couldn't hold the English power as they put on a clinic. 

"It was a fantastic performance. The play, (the) penetration (was) absolutely superb," United manager Alex Ferguson said. "We can't wait for the semifinals now."

Also on Tuesday, Chelsea moved past Valencia with a 90th minute goal from Michael Essien.

 The best player in the world scored two goals on Tuesday.

With Liverpool up 3-0 going into today's game vs Dutch club PSV, England could have three teams in the semifinals of the Champions League.  The other quarterfinal match-up pits German club, Bayern Munich, vs Italian super club, AC Milan.  The teams battled to a 2-2 draw in the first leg. 

 Chelsea's all-everything Michael Essien.