NEW RULES FOR NCAA, ROONEY SPEAKS ABOUT BIG BEN, SITE RECORD & SOME FLATTERY
Remember when the NFL earned the name "the No Fun League"? One show of hands at the owner's meeting & they legislated away nearly all player celebration after a score. A few years ago, college football instituted a zero tolerance for celebration a.k.a. taunting. Now the NCAA has taken that rule & rewritten it, making the life of college football officials even more difficult than it was before April 15, 2010. The new rule states any player celebrating/taunting will receive a 15-yard penalty from the spot on the field where the celebration/taunt began, thereby wiping out a touchdown. This is like the death penalty for jaywalking. Plus since it is a judgment call, anyone see any possible controversy down the road? The second rule change is a beauty as well, players wearing the stick-on type of eye-black can no longer write messages on the strips. Chief offenders recently? Tim Tebow & his Bible verses & Terrelle Pryor & his strips supporting Michael Vick. Those annoying kids wishing their moms a happy birthday or the "Get well----Papa Jack", those things really detract from the game don't they? The 3rd rule change is a year behind the NFL, outlawing blocking wedges on kickoffs. This is a safety issue & should have been the only rule they changed.
After nearly a year, the Ryan Leaf saga has come to a close. He was sentenced to a 10-year probation. He was convicted of burglary, possession of stolen prescription drugs & illegal flight. Leaf, a QB coach for West Texas A&M at the time, broke into a players apartment & stole prescription pain killers. Leaf found out John Law was looking for him & he went home to his native Washington & crossed the border into British Columbia. While he was in drug rehab in Canada, he was indicted in Texas. When he tried to re-enter the U.S.A. he was arrested on the Texas charges. To his credit, he admitted to everything & after he was returned to Texas, he resigned from his coaching position. Leaf talked about his life since busting out in the NFL after being the #2 pick overall in the 1998 NFL Draft. Being called the biggest bust in league history was quite a burden, one Leaf didn't handle well at all & some of his comments were enlightening. He said "not being able to play at the same high level I played at in college(Washington State) was more disappointing to me than all the bad press I got. I felt like I had let myself down & I was sick & depressed about it. I never handled it well, even when I got the coaching job, I couldn't deal with the depression & I made a lot of very bad decisions that have hurt my family. For the hurt I've caused, I am genuinely sorry." It was quite a fall.
Art Rooney II, Steeler President, made it clear today Ben Roethlisberger will be facing a suspension. He claimed it would be in conjunction with the NFL, but I've never heard of a joint disciplinary move by a team & the league. Either the team suspends someone of the league does. He also refused to say that Big Ben wouldn't be traded. He said they hadn't had trade talks with another team, but don't be shocked if it happens. Many of the league owners have grown tired of this lawless behavior by it's employees & arrogance that goes with it. I don't know who would take him, he's a public relations nightmare right now. As I watched the Millegeville D.A. announce no charges would be brought in the latest Roethlisberger incident I kept hearing him refer to the woman involved as "the victim", not the complainant & not the "alleged victim". He made it clear he believed a crime had been committed, but he could not prove it in court beyond a reasonable doubt. That's some bad P.R. for whomever he plays for be it Pittsburgh or elsewhere. The hits just keep on coming, the Millegeville Ga. Police Department released 572-pages of statements & investigative notes to the press & most of it is bad for Big Ben. After this stuff is examined closely, Roethlisberger's going to get suspended, make no mistake about it & as I said yesterday, deservedly so.
As to the questions I've received about Demaryius Thomas, wide receiver form Georgia Tech & Utah O-lineman, Zane Beadles. Being totally honest, I'm not a big fan of either. Thomas played in a run-first, triple option offense at Tech. Because of that, he constantly faced single coverage & almost never ran routes over the middle. Everything was outside the hash marks, go routes, comebacks, outs & the one I saw most often, "I'll throw it up high & since you're tall & can leap, you go up & get it." The Wreck's passing game was less than sophisticated. He will have a major uphill struggle learning a full route tree. He runs with long strides & getting into & out of his breaks isn't what an NFL team is looking for in the 1st or 2nd round. He was very productive in his 36 starts, 120 receptions for 2,339 yards & 15 scores. Broke his foot right before the combine while working out. He smart & he could be a force.......eventually. Beadles is an underpowered, short-armed limited athlete. Played left tackle in a spread offense & he still got walked back into the QB's lap. He was moved inside at the Senior Bowl & I saw nothing in the practices or game that impressed me. Well, with the exception that he is versatile & could probably play all five line positions in a pinch. He just appears too passive to me.
Wednesday marked a record traffic day here at RFR & for that, I thank you. Something was brought to my attention today by a loyal reader, the result was a mixture of flattery & consternation. It was pointed out to me that people were using my words in their posts, mostly verbatim. Now none of these were in the original articles, they were in the comment sections, posted by readers. On one sight there were three in a row like this. I am flattered that people like what I write well enough to use it in an argument or a rebuttal. But it would be nice if it was credited to the person who researched & wrote it, not the person who copied it & stuck it up there as their own. On this site I often say "according to PFT's Mike Florio" or "I read where Peter King of SI.com said XYZ." If we agree on a topic, that's great, but seeing one's own words being posted verbatim by someone else is disarming. But you know what? In the grand scheme of things, it beats being called an idiot, which, by the way, hasn't happened in two consecutive days. I'd like to thank you for that as well.
After nearly a year, the Ryan Leaf saga has come to a close. He was sentenced to a 10-year probation. He was convicted of burglary, possession of stolen prescription drugs & illegal flight. Leaf, a QB coach for West Texas A&M at the time, broke into a players apartment & stole prescription pain killers. Leaf found out John Law was looking for him & he went home to his native Washington & crossed the border into British Columbia. While he was in drug rehab in Canada, he was indicted in Texas. When he tried to re-enter the U.S.A. he was arrested on the Texas charges. To his credit, he admitted to everything & after he was returned to Texas, he resigned from his coaching position. Leaf talked about his life since busting out in the NFL after being the #2 pick overall in the 1998 NFL Draft. Being called the biggest bust in league history was quite a burden, one Leaf didn't handle well at all & some of his comments were enlightening. He said "not being able to play at the same high level I played at in college(Washington State) was more disappointing to me than all the bad press I got. I felt like I had let myself down & I was sick & depressed about it. I never handled it well, even when I got the coaching job, I couldn't deal with the depression & I made a lot of very bad decisions that have hurt my family. For the hurt I've caused, I am genuinely sorry." It was quite a fall.
Art Rooney II, Steeler President, made it clear today Ben Roethlisberger will be facing a suspension. He claimed it would be in conjunction with the NFL, but I've never heard of a joint disciplinary move by a team & the league. Either the team suspends someone of the league does. He also refused to say that Big Ben wouldn't be traded. He said they hadn't had trade talks with another team, but don't be shocked if it happens. Many of the league owners have grown tired of this lawless behavior by it's employees & arrogance that goes with it. I don't know who would take him, he's a public relations nightmare right now. As I watched the Millegeville D.A. announce no charges would be brought in the latest Roethlisberger incident I kept hearing him refer to the woman involved as "the victim", not the complainant & not the "alleged victim". He made it clear he believed a crime had been committed, but he could not prove it in court beyond a reasonable doubt. That's some bad P.R. for whomever he plays for be it Pittsburgh or elsewhere. The hits just keep on coming, the Millegeville Ga. Police Department released 572-pages of statements & investigative notes to the press & most of it is bad for Big Ben. After this stuff is examined closely, Roethlisberger's going to get suspended, make no mistake about it & as I said yesterday, deservedly so.
As to the questions I've received about Demaryius Thomas, wide receiver form Georgia Tech & Utah O-lineman, Zane Beadles. Being totally honest, I'm not a big fan of either. Thomas played in a run-first, triple option offense at Tech. Because of that, he constantly faced single coverage & almost never ran routes over the middle. Everything was outside the hash marks, go routes, comebacks, outs & the one I saw most often, "I'll throw it up high & since you're tall & can leap, you go up & get it." The Wreck's passing game was less than sophisticated. He will have a major uphill struggle learning a full route tree. He runs with long strides & getting into & out of his breaks isn't what an NFL team is looking for in the 1st or 2nd round. He was very productive in his 36 starts, 120 receptions for 2,339 yards & 15 scores. Broke his foot right before the combine while working out. He smart & he could be a force.......eventually. Beadles is an underpowered, short-armed limited athlete. Played left tackle in a spread offense & he still got walked back into the QB's lap. He was moved inside at the Senior Bowl & I saw nothing in the practices or game that impressed me. Well, with the exception that he is versatile & could probably play all five line positions in a pinch. He just appears too passive to me.
Wednesday marked a record traffic day here at RFR & for that, I thank you. Something was brought to my attention today by a loyal reader, the result was a mixture of flattery & consternation. It was pointed out to me that people were using my words in their posts, mostly verbatim. Now none of these were in the original articles, they were in the comment sections, posted by readers. On one sight there were three in a row like this. I am flattered that people like what I write well enough to use it in an argument or a rebuttal. But it would be nice if it was credited to the person who researched & wrote it, not the person who copied it & stuck it up there as their own. On this site I often say "according to PFT's Mike Florio" or "I read where Peter King of SI.com said XYZ." If we agree on a topic, that's great, but seeing one's own words being posted verbatim by someone else is disarming. But you know what? In the grand scheme of things, it beats being called an idiot, which, by the way, hasn't happened in two consecutive days. I'd like to thank you for that as well.
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