Favre love-fest continues

by | Mar 12, 2008 | NFL Breaking News

The Wisconsin Legislature passed a resolution honoring three-time MVP quarterback Brett Favre.

If you haven’t heard, Favre retired last week after 16 seasons with the Pack.
Rep. Phil Montgomery, who met wife Deanna Favre while campaigning in 1998 and Favre himself a few years later during a push for public money for Lambeau Field renovations, was the chief sponsor of the bill, according to the Associated Press.

Montgomery for legislators how Madam Favre told him she didn’t need his campaign literature because she votes in Mississippi and how Lord Favre would attend high school football games and pass out leaflets about the renovations.

It was unclear from the story whether Montgomery recommended starting the process for pushing canonizing Favre for sainthood. Nor did the AP story determine whether Montgomery would campaign for Favre to enter the NFL Hall of Fame as a Green Bay Packer. Sources say there may be an underground movement underway to have him inducted as an Atlanta Falcon.

Falcons add more mediocre players

by | Mar 12, 2008 | 2008 NFL Free Agency

The Atlanta Falcons re-signed quarterback Joey Harrington and added center Alex Stepanovich, giving them a slightly-better-than-mediocre center to join the team’s trio of ridiculously mediocre quarterbacks.

Barring the addition of another signal-caller through the draft or free agency, Harrington will compete with D.J. Shockley and Chris Redman for the job, which primarily will consist of turning around and handing the ball to Michael Turner and Jerious Norwood.

Stepanovich was drafted by Arizona but played with Cincinnati last season.

Osgood to boycott off-season workouts? Really?

by | Mar 12, 2008 | NFL Breaking News

The San Diego Union Tribune reported today that special teams demon Kassim Osgood might boycott off-season workouts if he doesn’t think he’s getting an opportunity to play wide receiver.

Kassim Osgood?

Really?

He’s a fine special teams player – a Pro Bowler, no doubt. But some of these guys, hint, hint, might want to take a closer look at the amount of money they make to step onto the field eight to 10 times a game and consider whether or not they want to risk that paycheck by, frankly, being idiots.

Brock Berlin likely to play in 2008

by | Mar 11, 2008 | 2008 NFL Free Agency

Six months before the season is set to start, St. Louis Rams backup quarterback Brock Berlin is the odds-on favorite for most likely third-stringer to see action.

Berlin sat behind Marc Bulger and Gus Frerotte in 2007. He played in one game last season. But the Rams Monday inexplicably not only signed Trent Green to become the fragile Bulger’s primary backup. They also reportedly gave the concussed one $8.9 million for three years – including a $2.1 million signing bonus.

Frerotte, who once sprained his neck head butting a brick wall, shows admirable durability compared with this duo. Bulger, when healthy, is a top eight NFL quarterback, at worst. But he has missed 12 games in three seasons and Green, with two horrendous looking concussions that left his career temporarily in doubt, has played just 13 games the last two years.

So if I were Berlin I’d make sure I know the playbook.

What college sports should be

by | Mar 9, 2008 | College Football

When I saw the headline “Bowden says McElrathbey has left Clemson” on ESPN.com this afternoon I started racking my brain. The name rang a bell but I just couldn’t place it.

Was it from a mock draft? Was it from one of the “student athletes arrested” headlines that pop up from time to time?

Then I started reading the story and it hit me. I’d seen him featured on ESPN Gameday a couple years ago. Ray Ray McElrathbey is a running back for the Clemson Tigers. He missed 2007 with a knee injury and played in 13 games as a special teamer in 2006. But he’s more well-known for having taken custody of his younger brother Fahmarr two years ago due to his mother’s drug addiction.

Now McElrathbey, a junior from Atlanta, was leaving the team to get his studies in order so he can graduate in August. Coach Tommy Bowden told ESPN McElrathbey might transfer somewhere else where he can play more or go directly to graduate school.

It took a lot of work for McElrathbey to make it this far. Clemson applied for a waiver from the NCAA that allowed the school to set up a trust fund to cover the brothers’ living expenses – and raise $100,000 to help them out. The NCAA also allowed coaches and families to provide Fahmarr with rides to and from school.

And the elder McElrathbey has had his issues too. He was suspended for at least four practices in spring 2007, according to ESPN, because of academic concerns. But the sociology student made the fall semester honor roll while taking 21 hours of classes.

It appears as though Bowden may have hastened the departure by not renewing McElrathbey’s scholarship. “We’re pretty good at running back right now,” Bowden told the Charleston Post and Courier, while not confirming or denying the accusation.

If that is the case, then shame on Bowden. McElrathbey deserved the chance to finish out his football career.

That said, the school gave McElrathbey a fantastic opportunity and he appears to have taken that ball and run with it quite well. Best of luck to him no matter what his next stop might be. He proved himself a stand-up person taking over as his brother’s chief caregiver. And he pulled himself up by the bootstraps from a tough situation, used college football as an opportunity to better himself, and appears well on his way toward a solid future. Well done, young man. Zoneblitz applauds you.