Well, I didn’t get to snob around with Cam and Company, but I did have my own little celebrity encounter on Saturday. While waiting for my car at the Four Seasons (having the standard two cocktail interview with a visiting job candidate) in Georgetown – the usual parade of DC’s pseudo-celebrities (politicians, reporters, and the self-important crowd whose groupies call into C-SPAN’s Washington Journal every Saturday morning at 7am) all decked out for the evening works its way out of the hotel.
And then…well then I notice an actual celebrity – the NY Giants’ Pro Bowl talent (and the NFL’s single season sack record holder) Michael Strahan. Thanks to the aforementioned two cocktails, I had to say hello.
Me: “Hey, who’d you guys draft today?”
Him: “I dunno. Some guy who plays defensive end.”
Me: “Hey, don’t *you* play defensive end?”
Me (to myself): “Holy crap, did I just say that out loud? Is my will current? Will it make Action 7 news if he beats me to death with my own arms?”
Him: “Yeah, I think they’re trying to tell me something”
A (thankfully) pleasant little chat. And Strahan doesn’t look nearly as large in person as he does on the field – but the gap between his teeth sure does.
Don’t let that get you down on the 2002 draft, Mr. Pasquerelli. But this certainly highlights the sports-pundit blindspot when it comes to drafts: it’s not just one round, guys. Look at the whole day.
After all – here’s the Steelers draft from that year.
Rd Pick Player Selected
1 30 Kendall Simmons OL
2 30 Antwaan Randle El WR/QB
3 29 Chris Hope S
4 30 Larry Foote LB
5 31 Verron Haynes RB
6 30 Lee Mays WR
7 1* Lavar Glover CB
7 31 Bret Keisel DE
Let’s see. Simmons: starting. Randle El: started all year, set a record in the Super Bowl, and became the first big WR free agent signing. Chris Hope: started all last year – just got huge deal with the titans. Foote: yeah, he’s done pretty well. Haynes: jury is out on him – I tend not to think much about him. Mays? Still around, still special-teaming it. Glover wasn’t much – and he’s gone, but we make up for it by drafting Keisel, who will start next year.
Yeah, I’d say that draft turned out ok.
Hoarse. Head hurts. Heart still pounding. And loving every second.
“Team of Destiny”
Oh how I hate that phrase, even if it’s widely being applied to my team. Perhaps especially if it’s being applied to my team. It somehow comes with the implication that despite a lack of talent or ‘deservedness’, a team – through some other measure of merit, ought to find its way to victory.
That does not compute when your team is best known for smacking the other guy in the mouth with a heavy leather glove while eating bratwurst or kielbasa with the other.
Again, for your listening pleasure. Here We Go…
I have an actual headache – is it from screaming? I’m betting it’s a lot more about the ridiculous emotional swings I experienced in the last five minutes of the Colts-Steelers game.
First up – a beating about the head and shoulders for the officiating crew. What a God-awful effort by that bunch.
Second up – a smack in the face for Jerome Bettis. But just a small one. The football gods would NOT let him go out like that.
Third – eat it, Peyton.
Fourth – Cowher, please stop smiling. You make me more than a little nervous.
Finally – Polamulu, you’re a machine.
I’m with John. Wow.
(PITTSBURGH) – In a bizarre twist of events, Steelers quarterback Tommy Maddox was found under the team bus outside Heinz field.
Officials from the Pittsburgh front office were initially confused, especailly due to the eight sets of tire tracks across Maddox’s back. Once the coronor identified further sets of cleat prints, hoofprints, deer prints, a broken bottle, and one size 12 boot up his arse, “accidental death” was ruled out.
However, most legal analysts agreed that any investigation would most likely end in “justifiable homicide”
