Good morning, Gator Nation: I’ve been doing some late-minute studying for tonight’s NFL Draft (hence the tardiness) and this I know: If every team uses the 10 minutes it is allotted, the first round will take more than 5 hours to complete, which means no Dave Letterman tonight.
1. GAS UP FOR SWAMP GAS: With this year’s NFL Draft beginning at 7:30 p.m., you need to make sure you are well-stocked for the long evening. I would suggest the following snacks: plenty of your favorite beverage; a good main course (I’m going with meatball sandwiches; you might like to grill up some kielbasa); plenty of your favorite potato chips and dip; peanuts; frozen Milky Ways. Oh, make sure you have plenty of paper, pencils, a NFL Draft book (Pro Football Weekly and Sporting News have the best ones out there) and, most important, a computer so you can communicate with me via the Swamp Gas Forum on GatorCounty.com. We’ll start a thread at 7 p.m. and let’s banter back and forth. By the way, we’re open to any suggestions you may have in the food category, so post now.
2. THE BIG STORYLINE: What is it they say about opinions? They’re like (anatomy deleteds), everyone has ‘em. So here’s mine: Tim Tebow will be drafted in the first round and the other 31 teams left holding the empty bag (plus all those nay-saying draft “experts”) will have to go into spin mode after Tebow wins a Super Bowl. Isn’t it amazing that NFL teams will take chances on kids with questionable characters and yet they won’t take a chance on someone whose character can’t be questioned? Tim Tebow isn’t a first-round pick but Jimmy Clausen is? I’m a Notre Dame grad, I don’t know Jimmy Clausen but I know Tim Tebow and Jimmy Clausen is no Tim Tebow—on the football field or off it.
3. BUT THE REAL BIG STORYLINE: Here’s the question you have to ask yourself when the first round ends. If Oklahoma has four first-round picks (QB Sam Bradford, DT Gerald McCoy, OT Trent Williams, TE Jermaine Gresham) as the final mock draft of the Dallas Morning News’ Rick Gosselin believes it will, then how do you explain Oklahoma not winning the 2008 BCS National Championship Game and Oklahoma going 8-5 last season? OK, I’ll give you the 8-5 last year since Bradford and Gresham missed most if not all the season with injuries. But how could they have lost the national title in 2008? Oh, yeah, the other team had TIM TEBOW.
4. MEL KIPER THROWS IN THE TOWEL: And it has a lot of hair spray on it. But then it usually does. Easy potshots, I know. I actually like Mel because I think he works at it and generally knows his stuff. Mel-man has decided that Tim Tebow is good enough to be drafted in the first round. Mel sees Minnesota taking T(n)T with its 30th pick in the first round. Says Mel: “I can’t promise he’ll go here, but my gut tells me Tebow could end up somewhere late in the first round, even as high as No. 22. I’m on the record about what I think are obvious issues in his game as it projects to the NFL, but Tebow has, to his credit, always shown an ability to adapt. He has the intangibles of a No. 1 overall pick, but the key was showing teams he has the promise of being a potential franchise quarterback. And while I’m not totally sold, this should reflect my believe that some are. With Brett Favre likely returning, the Vikes have a chance to prepare young talent.”
5. PETER KING WEIGHS IN, TOO: The Sports Illustrated NFL guru (and a good one because he had to follow in the considerable shadow of Dr. Z, Paul Zimmerman) has Tebow also headed to the Twin Cities. Quoting King: “A hunch. Nothing more. Brett Favre lasts another year (two at the outside) while Tebow grows.” Makes sense when you consider Tim Tebow is the ultimate Viking warrior. Move over Erik the Red and Leif Eriksson and make room for Tim the Terrific.
6. JUST WHEN YOU WANT TO SLAP SKIP BAYLESS: ESPN’s no-holds-bar panelist Skip Bayless, on First-and-10 this morning, on where he’d pick Tim Tebow: “I take him with a Top 10 pick. He’s the one guy who has come along in college football I would not bet against. His intangibles, force of will, the leadership and ability to win at the next level are all off the charts. He’s so big and strong and athletic enough, I think he can beat off the rush and make plays. When it was time to make a throw, in the fastest league in the country, he made the throws. This guy will win games – he’ll figure out how.”
7. FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS? It should be tolling for Big Ben – Roethlisberger. I mean, if you wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt for the Lake Tahoe incident, how could you now after we have a pattern emerging with what occurred in Georgia. The local district attorney’s and the victim’s statements plus the police reports indicate that something did happen. Roethlisberger seems to have admitted as much with his statement before Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner, sat him down for possibly six games without pay and also directed him to undergo counseling (depending how Roethlisberger reacts, the suspension could be more games or as few as four games). It’s a little sickening that we’re talking about the Steelers (who were fined $200,000 for having a second player in violation of the league’s personal conduct policy) shopping him around. I’m not too sure that the Steelers’ penalty shouldn’t be that they can’t trade him during the time he’s suspended. Besides, don’t the Steelers have the recourse, through their contract with Roethlisberger, of breaking their contract with him as the Falcons did with Michael Vick.
8. NCAA TO 68 TEAMS: Forget 96. The Division I men’s basketball team is recommending that three teams be added to the current 65, thus assuring with 68 teams that four play-in games will determine the first-round opponent for the No. 1 seeds. Good to see that. I wasn’t looking forward to seeing 12 SEC, 12 ACC, 11 Big Ten teams making the tournament. This should help the non-BCS conferences (how can we call them mid-major anymore after what the Horizon League’s Butler accomplished this season) somewhat. I don’t think the NCAA men’s basketball committee, which made the recommendation to the Board of Directors (which will either approve or disapprove it on April 29), wanted to open itself up to questions of teams having to miss big blocks of classroom time (like some schools don’t already do that). Remember, they are student-athletes (except where they are one-and-gone thoroughbreds).
9. SHOW THEM THE MONEY: And television did. The NCAA has a new television contract worked out. CBS has a new TV partner with Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS) that will pay the NCAA $10.8 billion for 14 years. Every game from 2011 to 2024 will be televised by CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV. CBS and Turner will split the regional semifinals, CBS will televise the regionals finals and Final Four through 2015. Starting in 2016, CBS and Turner will split regional coverage and will alternate the Final Four/title game coverage.
10. BEST FEEL-GOOD VIDEO: The hottest video on YouTube right now is the 4-minute-plus comical rain-delay show put on by Sun Belt Conference teams Western Kentucky and Florida Atlantic recently. Check out this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1yQ5k10n0c
Now check out this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyDSyoS0oV4
Now, those are the kind of student-athletes I love.
Later Gators—and remember to visit me on our NFL Draft thread tonight.
John Fineran