NFL Draft Tonight: also, Goodell

We have at least one more NFL draft before the league collapses in a great nuclear inferno, Demaurice Smith riding the pale horse of the grim reaper, swaying through NFL HQ with the merciless scythe of death. According to Roger Goodell, this is what we can expect to happen if the players "win." His piece in the Wall Street Journal now holds the record for strawman argument with the widest audience.

Plague, Famine War... Demaurice Smith? Death-Maurice Smith?

Because it is either that or Goodell has become so detached from why the lockout occurred that he could only be suffering from dementia. Quotes like the following suggest that the commish either has no idea what is going on or (much more likely) did an incredibly poor hack job trying to spin the events of the lockout against the players.

For instance: "For six weeks, there has been a work stoppage in the National Football League as the league has sought to negotiate a new collective-bargaining agreement with the players."

But the league are the ones who decided that the current CBA wasn't good enough, and were incapable of negotiating a new one for a full two years after the decision was made to do away with the agreement at the time. NFL execs walked out of negotiations on at least one occasion, and seemed prepared to let the NFL float in limbo while player's savings dwindled away.

Another: "What would the NFL look like without a collectively bargained compromise?"

Well, Rog, we'll never know that because the players were also seeking a new CBA, and at no point was the idea of playing without one ever put on the table.

Wait, I take it back. If you want to know what the NFL would be like without a CBA, look to the early 90's. As far as I can tell, the league still exists and is even stronger than it was back then. So much for what he says afterward.

And another gem: "Rather than address the challenge of improving the collective-bargaining agreement for the benefit of the game..."

"Improving." Meaning, "you play more games for  a lot less money because we say so."

How about this as a consequence of the players getting what they want: "No minimum player salary. Many players could earn substantially less than today's minimums."

So, the consequence of the greedy, nasty, goblin-like players wanting more money would be that they would arrange a deal where they made less? How in god's name does this make any sense?

Six Teams in 2011?

According to the Las Vegas Review Journal, the UFL is still considering adding a 6th team for the 2001 season.

The UFL is undecided on whether to add a sixth team, with Portland, Ore., Salt Lake City and Chattanooga, Tenn., under consideration. If a sixth team is added, the schedule will expand to 10 games. If the UFL remains a five-team league -- Las Vegas, Sacramento, Omaha, Hartford and Virginia (replacing Florida) -- the eight-game schedule will continue.
"We're still talking to possible investors," Huyghue said. "We think we could get that sixth team up and running fairly quickly."

I find it hard to believe that the league could still be thinking of adding another team, but if a TV contract is riding on the line, there may not be much of a choice. The question is, what quality of play would we get from a hastily-added expansion team, only four months from the proposed kickoff date?

The one thing that I can say in favor of this is that the staff in Hartford is being assembled with amazing speed. Jerry Glanville was only hired last month but news about position coaches and coordinators arrives every other day.

But Hartford already had a tentative roster, uniforms, a stadium and so forth. A new team will not only have to contend with finding coaches and player personnel, but finding a venue, new uniforms, sponsors, etc. A tremendous task to go through in only a few months. I'll be thrilled if it happens, but color me skeptical about our odds of seeing, say, the Chattanooga Barracudas, the Portland Octopi or the Salt Lake Monsters.

Quick Shot from ESPN

 Link

2. Former Auburn quarterback Cam Newton may be the top pick in the upcoming NFL draft. Where is his ideal destination?

(Patrick) Hruby: The UFL's Hartford Colonials -- that way, Newton will be close to ESPN headquarters, where he can enjoy many more totally non-awkward quarterback classroom sessions with Jon Gruden.

What's Going On

Update: As of minutes ago, Coach Larry Zierlein, most recently seen as the Pittsburgh Steelers offensive line coach in 2009, has been hired on as the Colonials O-line coach.

Just a quick recap of the recent additions to the Hartford roster, mostly on the coaching side of things.

The Colonials have added...

Tim Krumrie as their defensive line coach. Krumrie had an 11-year career with the CIncinnati Bengals and served as a D-line coach with the Chiefs from 2006-2010.

Turk Schonert at QB coach, whom I've posted about previously.

Former pro-bowl wideout Harold Jackson as wide receivers coach.

And most recently, ex-Eagles/Packers/others linebacker James Willis at linebackers coach.

Plenty of happenings all over the team. Perhaps biggest of all was the recent announcement of QB Colt Brennan to the Colonials, announced via various channels over the past few days.

The Colonials join the Cleveland Browns in the category of "teams with quarterbacks named "Colt"."

On a bit of a tangent, I'm find it interesting how much easier it is to find UFL-related news these days. There are many more media markets willing to run stories on the league, and not just in, say, Hartford or Omaha or Las Vegas. Sure, I used my own blog as a source just now, but the story linked up there has a couple of other sources of its own. Searching for any of the names above typically brings up at least four or five hits for entirely separate news outlets. It's a good sign that the UFL is indeed growing, and that this may very well be the year that it all gets turned around.

Friday Update

Well, all the big news happened within the past two days. So in lieu of some earth-shattering announcement, have this video of Bethel University guard/DT Michael Jasper working out. Jasper is 6'4 and 395 pounds and has been projected as a late-round pick or possibly a UDFA.

395 pounds and the man can still leap nearly three feet in the air. Any knocks on him? His 40 time is tragically slow even for a lineman (on either side of the ball), though Jasper could lose 50 pounds, possibly gain some speed and still be the biggest guy on the field. Looks like the kind of guy who could be worth a look in the UFL should he fall entirely out of the draft.

Baseless Speculation

"Turk." Not "Kurt."

Per the Hartford Courant, the Colonials have hired former Bills QB coach Turk Schonert as their QB coach for 2011. Schonert held the position with the Bills from 1998-2000 and again from 2006-2007, and spent 2008 as the Bills offensive coordinator. He has also been a QB coach with numerous other teams, such as the Carolina Panthers, New York Giants, and (way back in ancient days of the Vinny Testaverde era) with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

You try to find a picture of JP where he doesn't look stoned.

Could this mean a reunion with former Buffalo Bills player and ex Loco J.P. Losman? Probably not, but if so it could be a boon for Hartford. Losmania put up only middling numbers in his time in the NFL, but was quite the star with Las Vegas in the UFL's opening season. If he can put up numbers like he did in the league's opening year, he'd be a good find for any of the teams who are still looking for a passer, if he can be convinced to play for the UFL rather than warm a bench in Seattle.

Russell Politely Asked to Leave Town

The 2007 #1 pick and perhaps the biggest draft bust of all time (though some would give the title to Ryan Leaf) JaMarcus Russell's work ethic and drive are apparently so bad that his life coach has told him to leave town. Via PFT:

"The latest embarrassment for the former No. 1 overall pick: Russell’s “Life coach” John Lucas told Russell he would no longer work with him and asked Russell to leave Houston, according to Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports."

Think about this. He was asked to leave a city. As in, John Lucas said to Russell not only that he was not interested in working with him, but that he wanted the former QB to not be in the same major metropolitan area as he was. If there was any more doubt that Russell would never return to pro football, I think this latest turn puts the final nail in the coffin.


Dear UFL,

Stay far, far away. Don't even do it for the publicity.

Sincerely,
Nick

The Other UFL

United Football League look out! There's another football organization with the initials UFL.

Nothing I say can add to this.

Yes folks, the Unicycle Football League is taking America by storm. Texas at least. Or... maybe parts of Texas. Man, where the hell was this on April Fool's day? It would've been the ultimate prank to post something legit that looks like it can't possibly be real.

Major League Sports: Minor League Cities

Hartford had a professional hockey club once. By the amount of Whalers paraphernalia still circulating around Connecticut, you might think that they still did. They worship in whispers: there's no major talk. The team has been dead for a while and thus there's no news to report. All a Hartfordian (Hartfordite? Hartfordiate?) can do is dream of the remains of this long sunk team, and chant their name to the dusky air. The cult of the Whalers is still very much around. Y'know, it kinda reminds me of something...

"Did somebody say whalers? I frickin' LOVE whalers!"

 Oh god! Run, Hartford!

Could the UFL be the seed of a return of professional sports to Hartford? Maybe. Probably not. There's no denying that the entire state still laments the loss of the team. There's enough demand for Whaler merchandise that websites are willing to carry said gear, and even groups dedicated to bringing the team back. The states two minor league hockey teams are the Danbury Whalers and the Connecticut Whale.

Pic courtesy of Totalprosports.com... you even reading this?

If that's not enough to convince you, have a picture of Transformers star and hot chick Megan Fox in a Whalers t-shirt.

Really though, Megan, Transformers 2 was just awful. Maybe you're not the right person to make a case for things I like.

Maybe a better case for Connecticut's hunger for professional sports franchises could be made by Hobson Lopes in this Yahoo Sports article. Lopes is looking for a Major League Soccer team however, not an NHL one. He asks the question "If the UFL can bring a team to Connecticut, why not MLS?"

Why not indeed?

Hartford is sort of an odd duck as far as cities go. Its population is about 125,000, yet its metro area holds well over a million residents. This is roughly equal to Buffalo, NY, a city twice Hartford's size. A comparable city like Spokane Washington (200k) has a metro population half the size, and Oklahoma city, a town with four times Hartford's population has only slightly more residents in its metro area than Hartford.

In short, the city doesn't have the population any major league team would look for. The state does. There are five cities in Connecticut with populations of 100,000 or more: Waterbury (110k), Stamford (120k), Hartford (125k), New Haven (130k), and Bridgeport (145k). This is absurd for the third-smallest state in the union. By comparison, the second smallest, Delaware, has nothing in the 100,000-200,000 range. Neither does Vermont. New Hampshire (4th smallest) has one. Rhode Island has only one.

And there's the rub. There's no one city that really sums up the state's identity. No community that we truly feel proud of. Hartford gets that little extra edge because it's the capitol, and because it has history. Mark Twain said of it "Of all the beautiful towns it has been my fortune to see, this is the chief... You do not know what beauty is if you have not been here." Connecticut has become a state full of third-tier cities. There are plenty of people here to support major league teams, but we lack a great big metropolis that would attract these organizations. I'm not sure that there's a cure for that, but I hope that some will see the UFL in Connecticut and think to themselves "Hey, maybe this can work."

One last thing: last year at a party I overheard a guy talking about the possibility that the struggling Tampa Bay Rays might relocate to Hartford. I don't see it happening due to the lack of a usable baseball stadium, but can you imagine that? The potential for a rivalry with Boston would be amazing. In fact, I think it would go something like this.

2008: Sox/Rays battle royale. Wish I'd been there.

Colonials Release Protected Players List

You've almost certainly heard by now that the Hartford Colonials (and every other UFL team) has released their list of protected players for the 2011 season.

I'm not going to go into much detail over the obvious ones. Andre Dixon was a no brainer of course. Michale Spicer gets added because he tied for the team lead in sacks and was one of better pass rushers on the team last year. There are a few head scratchers though, either guys who are missing or guys who you'd think the team wouldn't be worried about protecting.

Markee White and Patrick Carter were not on the list of protected wide receivers, which doesn't mean that neither could play for the team, just that the Colonials didn't feel the need to tell other UFL teams "hands off." While it seems at first glance that the team is focusing on players who have not signed with other leagues--White is in the AFL now, and Carter signed with the Dolphins' practice squad--I'm a little worried at the lack of a standout #1 receiver.

There are a lot of offensive linemen coming back. No offense to these guys, but I hope to see some competition between them and some new recruits in training camp. Last year's O-line was spotty outside of the home opener. It seems that right tackle Pete Clifford is still on the roster. Clifford struggled a lot last year and I'm curious as to what the coaches see to inspire continued confidence in him as a starter.

Jy Bond of all people is a weird choice. He was the worst punter in the league last year in terms of yards per punt, which is pretty much the main thing you're going to be looking for on fourth downs. This doesn't seem like the kind of guy you'd need to keep other teams away from. I guess there's something to be said for consistency.

On the plus side, as I recall there were only nine players that made it from the New York Sentinels to the Colonials. Kinda suggests that the team is getting better, eh?

Destroyers Sign Quarterback Jeff George

Hot on the heels of yesterday's UFLAccess article on teams’ QB situations, the Virginia Destroyers have signed long-time NFL veteran and former Washington Redskin Jeff George. George was on the roster for the Marty Schottenheimer led 2001 Redskins, who compiled an 8-8 record.

“Some people might laugh about it. I've been hearing the excuse, 'You're too old,' but I look at guys now playing near 40, and if you can throw it like I can throw it ... Why wouldn't you take a look at me?" the 43-year old George has said. “I know it’s a young man’s game, but you can’t tell me I’m not better than some of the quarterbacks that are out there.”

            

 If the Destroyers make the UFL championship, George could have a record setting season. At 43, Jeff George would tie the late great George Blanda for the oldest quarterback to play in a championship game.

             
“I’m thrilled to have him aboard,” said Destroyers coach and GM Marty Schottenheimer. “Jeff and I have some history, and I know firsthand that he has more experience than any ten quarterbacks you can name. He’ll be a brilliant addition to what we’re trying to do here in Virginia.”