THIS AND THAT..........WEDNESDAY
The carnage at Kansas City's Arrowhead Stadium continued late Tuesday as the Chiefs fired Vice President of Player Personnel, Bill Kuharic. Now only Ray Farmer, director of player personnel, remains in the player procurement wing at One Arrowhead Drive & he just might be next in G.M. Scott Pioli's purge.
Mike Garafalo of the Newark Star Ledger reported Tuesday the Giants had a deal in place with the Detroit Lions to trade up for the 20th pick, so that New York could snag Missouri WR Jeremy Maclin. As he began to fall, the Giants got on the phone, worked out the deal & prayed Maclin would last till the 20th pick. Unfortunately for New York, the Eagles found a trading partner in Cleveland at 19 & armed with that pick, the Eagles were able to grab Maclin right in front of Detroit's pick.
Undrafted free agent, Western Michigan cornerback, Londen Fryar, was signed by the Chiefs Tuesday. Londen is the son of former Nebraska & NFL great, Irving Fryar. Wish he was as good as his dad, but when I saw him play last season, I must say , he didn't impress me at all. Kinda skinny, not very quick & not much closing speed. Maybe he'll be a late bloomer, he definitely has the right bloodline.
If NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has his way, the first round of the NFL draft will challenge "The Office" & "Survivor" in the Nielsen Ratings. Goodell wants the entire draft to be in prime time, the first round on a Thursday evening, 2nd & 3rd rounds on Friday evening & rounds 4 thru 7 on Saturday evening. He's also going to be up against NBA & NHL playoffs plus major league baseball.
I've already spoken my peace on mock drafts, but now I think they're being taken to a whole new, strange place. NFL Draft Site already has a 7-round mock draft for 2010 & they've got one for 2011 too. FOXSports' Peter Schrager has a 1-round mock draft for next season too & he's not the only one, they're all over the place. Schrager has the unimproved Chiefs, dumping Matt Cassel, picking 4th & selecting Tim Tebow. That's certainly a lot to take in, I see no way on earth Tebow is a top-5 talent, not now anyway.
The Cardinals cut veteran running back Edgerrin James on Tuesday. After drafting Beanie Wells in the first round, James became expendable & cutting him also saved salary cap bucks. He will land on someone's roster, he may not be a starter anymore, but he could provide quality backup if he wants to continue playing in that role. Some players just can't stand sitting on the bench after being 'the man' for their entire career. James' 12,000+ yards made him 'the man' for a long time.
I'm guessing the October 24th matchup between Texas Tech & Texas A&M, will be a prime time TV game. Interest in this Big-12 matchup is growing as the two head coaches, Tech's Mike Leach & A&M's Ray Sherman, have been waging a war of words in the media & it's really gotten nasty. Leach went on a rant last week against Cleveland Brown head coach, Eric Mangini, when it was reported Mangini had called Tech wide receiver, Michael Crabtree, a diva. Then after Sunday's last round & Leach's QB, Graham Harrell, went undrafted, he proceeded to diss his pro counterparts, but indirectly dissed A&M QB, Stephen McGee. McGee was selected by Dallas in the 4th round & Leach said "I'm happy for Stephen McGee, apparently the Cowboys liked him more than his coaches at A&M did". That was referring to McGee missing 3 games last season with injury when the perception was that he had been benched or suspended. Sherman responded with a few jabs & Leach tried to smooth things over, but when he finished with "I just wonder where Ray Sherman would have drafted McGee as he used to be an NFL head coach". Very nice, trash his player, then trash Sherman. It didn't take long before Sherman unloaded on Leach with a nice 30-second rant finishing with "it's bothersome to me that a head coach would question the draft status of a player from another program". I have to agree with Sherman, defending your own player is one thing, but don't drag somebody else into the mess. Stay tuned, this could fester into something really ugly by October.
Once again, it's BCS police blotter time. Three Oklahoma Sooners have bench warrants for their arrest after all three failed to appear in court for traffic violations. The three had court dates because they failed to pay their fines by mail. They've run simple moving violations into embarrassing news that is all over sports pages, the web & ESPN. It's almost like Barry Switzer is running the program again.
Florida State's Cameron Wade, a pretty decent WR, ignored his 'notice to appear' in court & has now upgraded a possible misdemeanor battery charge into a felony for failure to appear plus the battery charge. Smooth move. Sorry to my #1 FSU alum buddy, don't hate the messenger.
Indiana's former starting quarterback-turned-wide-receiver, Kellen Lewis, was dismissed from the team Tuesday by head coach Bill Lynch. He was thrown off the team for what has become the pat answer for seemingly every coaches' explanation of bad behavior. Yes, Lewis was dumped for "unspecified violations of team rules". Lewis was the starting QB in 2007 & led the Hoosiers to their first bowl game since '93. He was suspended before spring practice last year but was reinstated later in the summer. After IU's disappointing season, it was decided to move this very athletic young man to wide receiver & he seemed quite happy about it. Well now he can start shopping for another place to play. I sincerely hope all of these kids learn from these self-induced problems.
Mike Garafalo of the Newark Star Ledger reported Tuesday the Giants had a deal in place with the Detroit Lions to trade up for the 20th pick, so that New York could snag Missouri WR Jeremy Maclin. As he began to fall, the Giants got on the phone, worked out the deal & prayed Maclin would last till the 20th pick. Unfortunately for New York, the Eagles found a trading partner in Cleveland at 19 & armed with that pick, the Eagles were able to grab Maclin right in front of Detroit's pick.
Undrafted free agent, Western Michigan cornerback, Londen Fryar, was signed by the Chiefs Tuesday. Londen is the son of former Nebraska & NFL great, Irving Fryar. Wish he was as good as his dad, but when I saw him play last season, I must say , he didn't impress me at all. Kinda skinny, not very quick & not much closing speed. Maybe he'll be a late bloomer, he definitely has the right bloodline.
If NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has his way, the first round of the NFL draft will challenge "The Office" & "Survivor" in the Nielsen Ratings. Goodell wants the entire draft to be in prime time, the first round on a Thursday evening, 2nd & 3rd rounds on Friday evening & rounds 4 thru 7 on Saturday evening. He's also going to be up against NBA & NHL playoffs plus major league baseball.
I've already spoken my peace on mock drafts, but now I think they're being taken to a whole new, strange place. NFL Draft Site already has a 7-round mock draft for 2010 & they've got one for 2011 too. FOXSports' Peter Schrager has a 1-round mock draft for next season too & he's not the only one, they're all over the place. Schrager has the unimproved Chiefs, dumping Matt Cassel, picking 4th & selecting Tim Tebow. That's certainly a lot to take in, I see no way on earth Tebow is a top-5 talent, not now anyway.
The Cardinals cut veteran running back Edgerrin James on Tuesday. After drafting Beanie Wells in the first round, James became expendable & cutting him also saved salary cap bucks. He will land on someone's roster, he may not be a starter anymore, but he could provide quality backup if he wants to continue playing in that role. Some players just can't stand sitting on the bench after being 'the man' for their entire career. James' 12,000+ yards made him 'the man' for a long time.
I'm guessing the October 24th matchup between Texas Tech & Texas A&M, will be a prime time TV game. Interest in this Big-12 matchup is growing as the two head coaches, Tech's Mike Leach & A&M's Ray Sherman, have been waging a war of words in the media & it's really gotten nasty. Leach went on a rant last week against Cleveland Brown head coach, Eric Mangini, when it was reported Mangini had called Tech wide receiver, Michael Crabtree, a diva. Then after Sunday's last round & Leach's QB, Graham Harrell, went undrafted, he proceeded to diss his pro counterparts, but indirectly dissed A&M QB, Stephen McGee. McGee was selected by Dallas in the 4th round & Leach said "I'm happy for Stephen McGee, apparently the Cowboys liked him more than his coaches at A&M did". That was referring to McGee missing 3 games last season with injury when the perception was that he had been benched or suspended. Sherman responded with a few jabs & Leach tried to smooth things over, but when he finished with "I just wonder where Ray Sherman would have drafted McGee as he used to be an NFL head coach". Very nice, trash his player, then trash Sherman. It didn't take long before Sherman unloaded on Leach with a nice 30-second rant finishing with "it's bothersome to me that a head coach would question the draft status of a player from another program". I have to agree with Sherman, defending your own player is one thing, but don't drag somebody else into the mess. Stay tuned, this could fester into something really ugly by October.
Once again, it's BCS police blotter time. Three Oklahoma Sooners have bench warrants for their arrest after all three failed to appear in court for traffic violations. The three had court dates because they failed to pay their fines by mail. They've run simple moving violations into embarrassing news that is all over sports pages, the web & ESPN. It's almost like Barry Switzer is running the program again.
Florida State's Cameron Wade, a pretty decent WR, ignored his 'notice to appear' in court & has now upgraded a possible misdemeanor battery charge into a felony for failure to appear plus the battery charge. Smooth move. Sorry to my #1 FSU alum buddy, don't hate the messenger.
Indiana's former starting quarterback-turned-wide-receiver, Kellen Lewis, was dismissed from the team Tuesday by head coach Bill Lynch. He was thrown off the team for what has become the pat answer for seemingly every coaches' explanation of bad behavior. Yes, Lewis was dumped for "unspecified violations of team rules". Lewis was the starting QB in 2007 & led the Hoosiers to their first bowl game since '93. He was suspended before spring practice last year but was reinstated later in the summer. After IU's disappointing season, it was decided to move this very athletic young man to wide receiver & he seemed quite happy about it. Well now he can start shopping for another place to play. I sincerely hope all of these kids learn from these self-induced problems.
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