I really get into the whole combine thing and I don’t honestly know why.  I think it has absolutely nothing to do with football in most areas.  If their was a basketball combine when Larry Bird was in college I don’t think he would’ve been selected but he was a great player.  Football is much the same.  Granted teams want speed and athletic ability and the combine does say something about that, but can that be masked?

I play in a 6 foot and under basketball league and I’m 6 foot with no shoes on and have been measured many times as such.  I love to play in the league but I always get nervous at the start of every season when we get measured because I’m thinking that they are going to be on to me.  I wear my sweat pants, no shoes and stand a touch away from the wall and somehow always come in at just under 6 foot.  Amazing?  No, the sweat pants allow me to slightly bend the knees without being seen and make it easier for me to stand further away from the wall.  I did what I had to do to play in the league. 

Is the combine different than that?  I believe players know some tricks and are taught tricks as to how to beat the system a little bit.  They can feign a shorter reach so that their vertical jump can appear higher.  They’ll fake the injury before the 40 so they don’t have to run and create questions on their speed.  All tricks of the trade and they are rightfully used.  Mario Manningham of Michigan was regarded as a high round wide receiver selection because of his speed and ability to catch passes in traffic.  At the combine Manningham only ran a 4.6 and really hurt his draft stock.  Perception is reality and the perception was that he was faster than a 4.6 and he’d have been smarter keeping it that way.

I’m not saying all players do anything like this but some do and I don’t blame them.  After all, getting drafted can change a person and family’s life immediately so if they short arm a few of the 225 bench presses then so be it because I’d do the same thing.

Belicheck denies it.  What does Roger Clemens think or Barry Bonds?  It’s getting sad to me that the heroes that were my favorite players are people that I’m learning I simply can’t trust.  It is now very clear to me why Charles Barkley says players are not role models.  He knows what he’s talking about. 

Bill Belickeck has been accused by a former employee of secretly taping games for years including the 2002 Super Bowl walkthrough of the St. Louis Rams.  If you’ll remember, the Pats won that Super Bowl on a last second kick by Adam Vinatieri. 

Did he do it?  Did he authorize it?  If so, did he use it to gain an advantage?  We know a few things: 1-He got caught this year.  2- He’d done it before this year.  Now we don’t know exactly when the practice started but it had been going on for a while and would still be going on if the Jets coach wouldn’t have told on Belickeck. 

I won’t put it past him at all because he’s  a terribly prideful man intent on winning at everything and we don’t quite know at what cost yet.  We know he used his video tapes to give him an advantage so why not try it on one of the largest stages as an underdog.  Coach Belicheck denies it but what can expect of our heroes today.  Do what I do and just pick new ones.

By now you have assuredly heard the story of Kevin Hart, the high school football player who faked a football scholarsip to the University of California, but I wanted to throw in some questions and opinions that I don’t think have been raised yet.

Kevin Hart faked an entire recruitment including fake phone calls and everything.  The  entire process was made up by him from the beginning and ended with him holding an all school press conference where he announced his intentions to play for Cal.  He specifically sited that speaking to the Cal head coach is what pushed him over the top.  My question is why didn’t anyone know about this?

Where Kevin is from is a small town in Nevada that hasn’t possibly ever had a collegiate football recruit.  Most college coaches are in touch with the high school head coach from the beginning of any recruitment but not here.  The college coaches never called because they weren’t interested.  That’s red flag #1.

My red flag #2 is what were the parents thinking?  I know they had never been through the recruiting before but to not know your kid had been lying to everyone for months is alarming.  I’m not a perfect parent by any means, but this is funny to me.  After all, if schools were really that interested they would’ve been very involved with parents every step of the way.  Again, i know they haven’t been through the process before but they have to look back now and see the even bigger red flags to them.

Lastly, I want to compliment Kevin Hart on his honesty.  He dug his own grave here but at the same time was willing to try to dig himself out of it.  In a time where we sit and watch Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee fight over the truth at least this kid stood up and will take his lumps for a long time.  As youngsters we don’t always understand how our decisions today effect us later in life.  I think Kevin will have a great grasp on this.  What started out as something so small ballooned into a national story and he’ll forever be remembered for this just as Bartman is remembered in Chicago Cubs baseball history.  I’ve already heard numerous people discuss having fake news conferences to announce things that never took place and refer to it as ‘pulling a Hart’.  I wish Kevin the best of luck in life and though he may never realize his dream of playing college football he will be soon understand that life isn’t over and that he has two choices.  Quit or move on.  I think he’ll move on.  Telling the truth was the first step and I’m proud of him.

I can’t believe how incredibly dull the Pro Bowl is.  People can complain about baseball being a boring sport or even soccer, but nothing is worse than the Pro Bowl.  It doesn’t help that each year some of the top pros elect not to play at all or that no defense is played whatsoever.  There appears to be no real effort or competitiveness about anything to do with it.  I watched two plays and that was plenty good for me because frankly, I had some stuff to do around the house and watching another 5 minutes of that garbage was sure to put me to sleep or wish I was asleep.

Major League Baseball came up with Home run derby.  The NBA has a whole weekend about it with the players skills challenge, dunk contest, 3 point shooting and is the clear winner of best all star shows.  What makes them so good is that they understand what the game is and know how to market it.  How great would it be if the NFL went back to the fastest man challenge that they used to do?  Why not have the QB challenge again and let’s see how far these guys can really throw a ball and hit targets and such?  Why not let running backs go through obstacle courses and such?  Come up with something that the fans can latch onto and look forward to because the game is terrible if that’s all we get. 

Pro Football is the winner of the most watched sport in the USA and will stay that way and maybe that’s why they don’t feel the need to upgrade the Pro Bowl.  I can only say that when I grew up I watched the Wide World of Sports and the Pro Bowl still feels like that show today.  It needs improving.

I’ve read comments from people saying that it is difficult because it is after the season and everything and that’s why people lose interest.  People don’t lose interest in pro football unless the interest is taken away.  The game is meaningless, the stats are meaningless and nothing about the game is important.  We already know that Mr. Goodell and we are fine with it, now bring some excitement and festivities around the game so we can at least look forward to something to do with the Pro Bowl.

Today is like a mini Christmas for me because it is national signing day for college football.  It hasn’t always been this way because I’ve been a lifetime University of Illinois fan but now things have changed and playing in Illinois is becoming cool again.  My team did great signing 27 kids among them some very highly touted kids who chose the Illini over Ohio st and LSU.  That makes me happy.

Other schools haven’t been so lucky but isn’t it amazing how this recruiting has become.  I was able to go to a few websites this morning and get updates as each fax came across.  The internet has changed it all.  ESPNU had several players on tv today announcing where they would be going to school.  Jamie Harper was one of those kids and I was entranced as he chose Clemson over my beloved ILLINI.  You can’t tell me high school kids aren’t drawn to that type of publicity.  I would’ve loved that. 

College football is a different animal than most college sports because of the amount of players, playing time and scholarships.  Many of the kids that sign today will end up transferring, quitting or flunking out of school altogether.  I was reading a list of BYU’s signing class of 2004 today and I was shocked to learn what happened to those kids.  14 of the 26 kids that signed that day ended up staying at BYU.  12 kids left the program.  That’s an inflated percentage because BYU had some legal troubles with that class of recruits but that’s a trend in college football.  Kids want to play and they want to play today.  They are treated as royalty at such a young age and have things handed to them that they believe it should be the same in college.  The truth is that only a handful of kids each year deserve that type of attention with the rest of them getting their eyes opened very quickly to how different college is over high school.  It is tough when you go from playing against a few good players every game to going against guys just like you who were the best players on their teams also. 

I wish this high school class the best of luck and hope they remember that the point is to get the free education and anything beyond that is gravy.  For next years players, if you are a top 100 recruit just look to the Orange and Blue of Illinois as two of your favorite colors.

What an amazing football game.  I was enjoying the first three quarters and with every Patriots punt I thought the Giants had a better chance.  Then the 4th quarter my daughter needed help with her homework and my wife needed help getting ’sick’ kids to bed so I needed help from my good friend, the DVR.  Bless the DVR and Tivo and whoever else invented that.  I truly can say that I love you.

Anyway, as I hit the pause button to bring the game back on I was amazed at how deeply I was cheering for the Giants.  I am not a Giants fan at all but my desire to watch the Giants win was comparable to how I cheered for the Bears last year.  When Tom Brady threw the touchdown pass to Randy Moss I’ll admit I went into Cub mode.  For those that don’t know what Cub mode is I’ll explain:  Cub mode is when you put yourself into a psychological protective cocoon expecting the worst so that you are better able to take the defeat that is impending.  I named it Cub mode because for 35 years of my life i’ve lived in it waiting for a World Series to come to the north side of Chicago.  Anyway, Moss catches the pass and I go into Cub mode.  I am not a great believer in Eli Manning but that guy showed some character.  He scrambled away when most guys would’ve just gone down and threw some risky passes that paid off for him.  I’ll admit, when Samuel went up to intercept that ball and didn’t catch it, I believed the Giants were going to score.  It was fate.  Like the ball slipping out of Bartman’s hands in Chicago, Samuel had opened the floodgates of miracles that were to be poured out on the Giants.  Soon after that play Tyree caught the miracle ball of the day with one hand and a helmet.  He doesn’t catch that ball 5 of 10 times and maybe more than that.  When Eli found Plaxico in the end zone I was dancing around my kitchen and surely messed up my daughters pre algebra that I was basically doing for her anyway.  I won’t ever forget that.

Still, the Pats had one last chance and 28 seconds to do it.  I learned never to doubt Tom Brady despite what was stacked against him.  He threw a ball in the air 70 yards to Moss that was incomplete but the ball was in the air for 70 yards and it was right on target.  I know other pro’s can throw a ball that far but that was so accurate that if not for double coverage they Pats could’ve pulled it out.  As the final second ticked away with Eli Manning under center I realized what the Pats truly lost.  They not only lost the Super Bowl but the legacy that would’ve followed as the greatest team ever.  Now they only sit as ones that can be talked about.  Are they better than the 85 Bears that lost one game?  Are they better than the 89 Niners that lost 2 games?  I don’t think so because both those teams won the Super Bowl. 

And as I predicted ( I predict a lot of things), the Patriots would not go undefeated.  Thanks and congrats New York.