Whew...what a sports intensive weekend! It was one of those "thank God I'm not still married to the former Mrs Me # 2" type of weekends, because she would've been giving me grief all weekend long for watching sports. Thank God I escaped.
First of all, we had the football geeks holy grail---the NFL draft. Ya know, as a football nut....you have 5 really important dates during the year...in no particular order, they are:
1) The opening day of training camp
2) The opening day of the new season
3) Thanksgiving day---food & football
4) Conference championship day....two games that are ususally great. Screw the Super Bowl, which is now like a national holiday. That's not as big a day for a TRUE football fan.
5) The NFL draft
This is the key day in the off season for all NFL teams. This is where you hope to reload with young talent from the NCAA. This was an especially important day for my beloved Minnesota Vikings (new motto: "45 years without a Super Bowl win")
because they had TWO first round choices. The extra one was courtesy of the trade to Oakland of future Hall of Fame wide receiver//Hall of Fame headcase//Hall of Fame afro sporter Randy "The Weed" Moss. This was the day that the Vikings hoped to recoup what they had lost in the trade--specifically by going out an obtaining a new WR. Most "experts" (loosest possible use of that word) had the Vikings focusing in on USC wideout Mike Williams, who was seen as a bit of a clone of Moss & Cris Carter. However, late word out of the Twin Cities revealed that Vikings coach Mike Tice (new motto: "Looking more like Homer Simpson every single day") had developed a personal attachment to South Carolina WR Troy Williamson. The former Gamecock (huh?) had that one thing that just can't be taught. Speed. And as former Super Bowl coach Jimmy Johnson has taught us:
"Speed kills"
Williamson was grading out as the fastest WR in the draft and Tice and the Vikings braintrust (mutually exclusive words?) decided to go with Williamson over Williams, seemingly based on the speed factor. Expect comparisons between the two receivers to continue over the next 10 years, especially since Williams was drafted by the intra-division rival Detroit Lions.
The Vikings also drafted Erasmus James, who in fact is NOT the guy who wrote the story of old Brer Rabbit, but a defensive end from Wisconsin who projects to being a pass rusher of some reknown. The Vikings also got Marcus Johnson, an offensive guard from Ole Miss and Ciatrick Fason from Florida--yet another RB. All four of these guys look to be potential starters for the Vikes. One thing pretty much every publication has agreed on--the Vikings have done a lot to improve and upgrade themselves this offseason. Dare I say....the Vikes may be one of the co-favorites in the NFC this upcoming season.
Also going on this weekend was the beginning of the NBA playoffs, which ordinarily would raise a big "who gives two shits?" in my house, but since the hometown Miami Heat are the number one seed in the East and look pretty impressive. Giving the devil his due, Heat guard Dwayne Wade is one hell of a player. ("Helluva"?)
The other big sporting event this weekend was the annual Notre Dame "Blue & Gold" game in South Bend. This is the spring football game for the Fighting Irish, and this year it was of special interest because new coach Charlie Weis, in an attempt to continue to reach out to alums of the school, had announced a foursome of special coaches for the game. The Blue was coached by Joe Montana & Chris Zorich....and the Gold was coached by Joe Theisman & Tim Brown. If at this point in the column you are now asking yourself:
"Who are those guys?"
Quit reading. Ahem. Anyway, approximately 25,000 showed up in conditions best described as...uh.....really, really cold. The new offense that Weis is developing was showed only in bits (c'mon--you really didn't expect him to give the opponents a clear view of what he was going to do.....did you?) but the Blue offense still impressed those in the know, scoring 28 points as QB Brady Quinn threw 2 t.d. passes and RB's Darius Walker, Rashon Powers-Neal & Travis Thomas all looked good. Defensively, lineman Trevor Laws was the defensive player of the game (Quinn got the offensive nod) and was joined on the line by Chris Fromme & Travis Leitko in having the type of game that drew notice. One of the highlights of the game was the press conference afterwards, as the four guest coaches really took great delight in talking trash too one another. It was some funny stuff. Joe Montana revealed that Charlie Weis shared a dorm room with a close friend of his back in their college days, and that Weis was known throughout the dorms for one famous gag. It seems that Charlie liked to stretch cellophane across the top of a toilet seat.
This, of course, led to some surprises when students went in for a bathroom break.
This is the leader of Notre Dame's football program. I'm happy to have him.
Later,
Jeff
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