May Entry

Steelers
You can see some things coming a mile away. Such is the case with the Steelers taking Iron Head’s kid out of OSU late in the first round of the recent NFL Draft. There’s a reason Pittsburgh is always competitive – they know what they are doing and keep it simple.

Blood Lines
The same goes for the Eagles landing Clay’s kid in the fourth round. I’d bet my next paycheck he overachieves at the next level. You take a kid like that in the fourth round on blood lines alone. What’s the risk?

Seneca II
By the way, I also like the V-tech QB (Taylor). I would have taken him had I been the Browns in the middle rounds. That’s the other dude I saw play and liked – as much if not more than the guys taken early.

Browns Draft
As for the Browns’ draft – I have no idea. I never saw any of their picks play. Remember – that’s my first rule of sports. The two kids above I saw play enough to tell you I believe they will be good pros and had hoped the Browns had snatched them up. The same goes for the red-headed TCU quarterback (Dalton) – who the Bills grabbed in round 2. I didn’t think any quarterback in this draft was worth a first round pick, and yet, a ton of them went early. We’ll see in a couple years if these draft gurus and player personnel wizards got it right and I’m just full of S#@. I don’t do this for a living. But I do have common sense.

Trading Down
I don’t have problems with Cleveland trading down if they didn’t think there was a perennial Pro-Bowler at 6 available. Let’s hope they are right. I do know if you can’t stop the run, you have NO chance of winning in the NFL. Even the Colts, who won a Super Bowl with a porous rush defense a few years back, actually stopped the run some in their post-season run that season. So taking a huge D-tackle 1 makes sense if he and Rubin stuff the run consistently the next few years. I don’t have hopes the end out of Pitt will get them 10 sacks a season because it’s never been done in this town since I landed from Europe in ’68. But here’s hoping this crew got it right. I would get the kid some immediate help on the other side so all isn’t on his shoulders next fall. That would be asking too much of a 22 year old. I’ll explain further soon.

Here's How You Tell
One final thing on the Browns – here’s how I will know if their new coaching staff
(#5 in 12 years) gets it: if Mohammad Ali, Robiskie’s kid and E. Wright are on this roster when September gets here. If they are considered relevant pieces of the puzzle come Fall '11, we might as well prepare for a sixth try in 14 years with another group of wizards at the helm two or three years from now.

Daddy Wants $180,000
I’m told C. Newton’s wants the #2 jersey, currently held by the Panthers’ starting QB (Clausen). What more do you need to know about this kid and why it was lunacy to take him #1 overall? It’s like playing the lottery. It’s a long shot at best this kid will be anywhere near worth the pick. How soon before we hear stories about Newton having poor work habits or his new teammates thinking he’s arrogant? This is a classic case of where the football people needed to be overruled by someone with common sports sense whispering in the owner’s ear to just say “NO” to Newton. Look for this guy to be a terrific locker room presence and the first one in and last one out at the facility every day. Right!

Nick is Right
By the way, I am starting to believe what one of my boys keeps telling me – that there is a Notre Dame bias out there. It sure seems that way when it comes to QBs. Clausen gets picked in round 1 just one year ago and the Panthers are ready to cast him aside for a head case and BQ is sitting at 3 in Denver and can’t sniff a #1 gig anywhere in this league even though 1/3 of the current starters are two consecutive bad outings away from wearing a ball cap once again and taking notes on game-day.


Banging That Drum Until it's Addressed
Back to the Browns - as for not drafting a stud receiver – relax. They can’t be that stupid. They will trade for or sign a couple quality veterans at some point. For starters, Steve Smith would be an excellent fit. That would be my first move when the smoke clears (agreement is reached)


Tribe Mystery
Don’t ask me to explain what the Indians are doing. They have one young (Tomlin), who throws in the mid to high 80s, and who has started his career with 17 consecutive starts where he’s gotten them to the 5th inning or better. Over 90% of the guys in the HOF didn’t do that. They also have the Jack Hannahan’s and Shelly Duncan’s of this world giving them clutch hitting – time after time. You get the point. I still think they will come back to earth, but if they keep this up for another couple weeks, they could play .500 ball the rest of the way and finish with around 90 wins – which would be enough to win this lousy division. Remember they play these bad teams within their division a ton with this silly unbalanced schedule. Enjoy it – no one saw this coming. It will be interesting to see if and when they are in the hunt come late July if ownership gets them another piece of the puzzle or two to make a serious run for October and beyond.

OSAMA
OBL is finally dead. Now, let’s clear up a couple facts some morons in the media don’t get. First, of course the Pakistani’s knew where he was. They put him there and told him to stay put. The dude was parked yards away from their version of West Point for Pete Sake in a huge compound with 12 foot walls and barbed wire. Nice. And second, there was no chance in hell he was going to be taken prisoner even though some in the media have actually reported our military had orders to “capture” OBL. Yea, and extremely good looking broads come cheap. This was a “kill” mission – simple as that. An assassination if you will. Did you really think we would take him alive and give him a world-wide arena to spew his garbage for the next 10 years? Even a soft democratic president understood this one. And credit Obama for going in with Navy Seals instead of a safer bombing mission of some type. Having boots on the ground meant more risk, but made identification a lot easier. And most importantly - made it clear this was all about "two taps to the head" mafia style. Good for you BA. Now if the Navy Seals could double up and silence a couple loud-mouth broads on “The View,” we’d all hang flags out in front for a month instead of just one week. There’s one in particular that truly gets under my grill – Joy Behar. I don’t believe in spousal abuse, but if I had to give a guy a mulligan on this offense it would be to her husband if he ever decided to go Johnson/Finnegan on her. Who could blame him? And by the way - screw those who want the photos released or video from the burial. There are morons out there you will never convince. They are the idiots (conspiracy theorists) who believe Tupac and Biggy are alive and well on a remote island in the South Pacific owned by Elvis and living in JFK's new crib. Let's hope most of these geniuses never reproduce.

Media Morons
Since I worked in it for 20 years, I can’t leave this computer without taking one shot at the sports media. The locals are in my sights this time. I heard and also read where some local geniuses are buying the company line that the Browns' holdover receivers are better suited for the new offense (WEST Coast) and therefore will be much more productive now. This begs the question - can they possibly be less productive? If Ali and Robo each catch 40 balls and score 5 TDs each we might be building a shrine to them here in Canton soon. I remind you - they were second round picks, not free agents out of Thiel College (PA). I actually heard “The Walrus” spew this same garbage the other day at a draft press conference. And there wasn’t one reporter who had the stones to ask him to explain that asinine statement further. And many are now repeating this reframe. Look – you have to be able to separate, catch the football and run with it with some authority after the reception if you are an NFL receiver. That’s the job description here. I don’t want to hear about hip movement, how fluid they are, their size or how they come out of their routes so cleanly. These guys CAN’T SEPARATE! So the rest don’t matter. Stop it Mike. You piss me off when you go there. There are a few of us – not many - who aren’t that stupid. And if you want to argue about it, I’ll just put the Jets’ game tape on that gives you visual evidence when the game was in the balance near the goal line, NY put the arguably the league’s best cover guy on Evan Moore - a part-time player/TE you picked up off ther scrap heap. Case closed.

This is my last entry for at least a month. I’m getting on that big bird (Delta) next week and visiting my home (Europe) turf till June 1.


I hope it was worthy of your time. Be good!