I haven’t seen many Second-Round Mock Drafts but Scout.com has one up. Very interesting stuff. Chris Steuber, a draft analyst, has us taking Arkansas RB Felix Jones (first time I’ve seen that) and Virginia Tech WR Eddie Royal. Steuber has this to say about Royal:
The Cowboys have done well in this draft and look to upgrade their offense even further in this round. They got Felix Jones ... and now get the speedy Eddie Royal as their slot receiver and return specialist.
Felix Jones in the second round? Don’t know about that one. Apparently these projections are based on a trade in the first round with Atlanta and the gamble is that Felix Jones will still be available midway through the second round. Don’t know if I agree with that. Jones certainly hasn’t done anything to suggest he's slipped that far. I haven’t heard of Jones’ posting bad 40 times, having low Wonderlic scores or anything of the sort. I may be wrong, but I just don’t see a talent like Jones slipping that far into the second round.
The book on Royal is that he’s fast (he ran a 4.39 in the 40) and he’s strong (he benches over 400 pounds) but he’s small at 5’10" and 184 pounds and the inconsistent quarterback play at Virginia Tech didn’t allow him to show his abilities adequately. He’s a good punt returner and kickoff returner.
Sweet. We need both of those.
So is our boy already married to Jessica? That’s what her mama says. But she could just be pulling the media’s chain. Could they even pull that off? I doubt it. They couldn’t even go to Mexico without the paparazzi following. If they got married somebody would know. They might even interrupt March Madness for exclusive coverage of the reception.
Like I said before in a previous post, she’s kinda part of the family so I gotta defend her. If and when it does happen tell me where to send the wedding gift. I’ll spring for some silverware, a crock pot or something.
The larger point here isn't the secret marriage -- real or imagined -- it's the fact that MSNBC reported this story along with People and Us magazines. Almost anybody could see the wink-and-nudge being played on the media here. No serious person believes they secretly got married. But Tony Romo is big business ladies and gentlemen. He's big news and Romo and Jessica together are starting to rival TomKat and Brangelina.
There’s a new installation in Ray Buck’s Old Boys Club series. Calvin Hill, a longtime consultant, discusses sports and his connections throughout the years. Here's an interesting fact: he hired Theo Epstein, current Red Sox GM, as a public relations assistant when he worked for the Baltimore Orioles. Wow. That’s impressive. He’ll need every one of these prior connections to keep Pacman Jones in line.
Hill also talks about some Cowboy history. He talks about being the first Cowboy to rush for 1,000 yards, playing injured in the Super Bowl and having to play second-fiddle to Duane Thomas during their Super Bowl run.
Hill takes us back to a November game in 1969, a high-scoring victory against the Redskins.
With five games to go, Hill needed to average only 40 yards to become the NFL’s first rookie 1,000-yard rusher. Instead, he ended up with 942.
And Gayle Sayers — with 1,032 — was the NFL’s lone 1,000-yard rusher that season. Oct. 25, 1970 (Cowboys 27, Chiefs 16) — Hill went to KC in a three-way battle (with MacArthur Lane of the Cardinals and Larry Brown of the Redskins) for the NFL rushing lead.
"Second play of the game, I did a cross-over block on [Chiefs linebacker] Willie Lanier, and he kneed me in the back," Hill said. "I couldn’t play after that."
This injury opened the door for Cowboys rookie Duane Thomas, a first-round draft pick from West Texas.
Landry to Hill: "Sit out a couple weeks, then come back."
"So, I sat out two weeks," recalled Hill. "Duane had two 100-yard games ... and when I came back, I didn’t play much."
The NFL is considering a restriction on hair length. I thought some of the celebration and taunting rules were dumb but apparently that wasn’t enough for the NFL. Now they are trying to up that absurdity with hair rules.
The DMN Blog points out The Barbarian, Captain Caveman and Isaiah Stanback all have long hair and might be affected. I can’t see MB3 without his dreads or Bobby Carpenter without his long mane. I agree with ESPN’s LZ Granderson who says this is more of a generational issue than anything. I thought everyone had a constitutionally-protected right to have a mullet. On that note, Patrick Kerney is thanking his lucky stars this rule wasn’t considered in 2001.
Come on, No Fun League. Can we concentrate on something that matters? Instead of end-zone dances and hair? Does the NFL really want to seem like the crazy preacher in "Footloose"? It’s not like we have all these long-haired hippies in the league who’d rather sing "Aquarius" than play football. For every Troy Polamula there’s a Patrick Crayton or Anthony Henry. Long hair is not the norm. This is a non-issue. Can we move on please?
That being said, these guys get paid a lot of money. And it’s not a right to play in the NFL but a privilege. So if they say snip it, I’d do it in a heartbeat. I can’t wear my Marion Barber jersey to work, so I can see how people could make a parallel.
Still sucks though.
I promised that I’d highlight some of the comments made from this blog. We’ll here it is. The first semi-regular Hat Tip Awards. Here we go!
Most Effective Running Gag:
Nelson for his response to Grizz’s post about Adam Schefter’s report that the Pacman trade is imminent and his post about not trading for Darren McFadden.
Nelson unveiled what has become his signature: a hilarious clip of some random guy dressed like a giant Pacman running through an office. The graphic speaks for itself. No matter how many times I see it, it never gets old.
Feel free to nominate others for these completely arbitrarily and random awards.