First off, something I neglected to mention last time. So, my car came in from the cross-country shippers. The guy couldn't really take his 80-foot truck into Pelham, so I agreed to pick it up on 95 after the New Rochelle toll plaza (sketchy). Everything checked out, so I signed off on it and drove off.
On the way home, my sun roof shattered. Yes, shattered. Into hundreds of pieces of safety glass. It came through the little holes in the sun roof cover, too, so there's glass all over the car. It sounded like an explosion on the roof of my car. So now, until the sun roof piece gets into the repair place, I'm driving around with a duct tape fiasco on the top of my car. Just awesome. I'm sure that worked really well in the snow we got last night, too.
Now, onto international matters: the NFL Europa Allocation Draft and Free Agent Draft happened last Friday. I got to watch a little bit of it online, which was interesting. Also, the group of pre-draft allocations were announced a few days before that. Here's Berlin's current roster now that the dust has settled.
Very interesting. If you're a fan of the Berlin Thunder, you've got plenty of reason to be excited. Probably the most recognizable name among this list is Omar Jacobs, who at one time, was a Heisman Trophy candidate. As a sophomore at Bowling Green--coached under Urban Meyer--he threw 41 touchdowns and only 4 interceptions. That ratio is the best in Division 1-A history. His 4,002 yards led the nation as well.
Jacobs is what many people figured the next generation of quarterbacks would be like: big (6'4"), built (224), mobile (4.59 in the 40-yard dash, 300 rushing yards and 4 TDs during that sophomore year), and very cool looking (it's all in the dreadlocks).
While he fell to the fifth round of the 2006 NFL Draft (picked by the Steelers), he was just starting to put it all together in the preseason. He completed 22 of 34 passes for 275 yards, including a 13-for-18 effort with 179 yards and a touchdown in the finale against Carolina. He stuck for a while on their practice squad before being released, and spending time with Philadelphia's practice squad.
He was allocated by the Kansas City Chiefs.
We had a conference call this morning with Jacobs and head coach John Allen. Jacobs said in his opening statement, “It’s a privilege to be part of NFL Europe. I think I’m going to a great situation with the Berlin Thunder. I’m very excited just to be there, to get the experience and get to play football. It’s an opportunity to showcase my talent at that level again.”
The Thunder might also have one of the most talented running backs in NFLE this season, with Chris Barclay. He was the ACC Player of the Year as a senior in 2005, finishing with 1,127 yards on 218 carries (5.2 yards per carry) and 10 touchdowns He finished his career at Wake Forest as the school’s career rushing leader in rushing yards (4,032), scoring (240 points), rushing touchdowns (40), and all-purpose yards (4,930).
At 5'10", and around 180 pounds, you can expect that Barclay is quite a shifty back.
“We’re very fortunate to get Chris," John Allen said. "I was in Cleveland Browns camp this past summer as an intern, and Chris was there. I had a chance to see Chris Barclay play in person, and I’ll tell you, we’re getting a heck of a back. He’s very explosive, he has great speed. He has very good receiving ability out of the backfield. I think he’s a person, that when you look at what we do in the one-back system here in
Barclay spent most of the season on the Browns' practice squad, but was elevated to the 53-man roster late in the season. The Browns allocated him overseas.
If you scan the results of the free agent draft, you'll see that one of the selections came from Vanderbilt! Yes, Bill Alford is headed to Frankfurt. Go Dores!
So, now that my roster is set, I've started writing media bios for each of the players. Once we get to camp, we put all of the bios for all of the players into one book for distribution. It's interesting see how much some of these guys have bounced around professional football. Here, for instance, is the transaction history for Bryant Shaw:
Returns for a third season in NFL Europa after being allocated by the
That, my friends, is what we call a survivor. This will be his third stint in NFL Europe; his last stay was five years ago.
Enough about NFL Europe for now. Has anyone seen the NCAA Men's rankings lately? A quick look at the ESPN/USA Today Top 25: T21) Virginia Tech, 23) Vanderbilt, 24) USC. Not only are those three schools that you NEVER see in the Top 25, but I've got reasons to cheer for both schools through friends. (Yup... HOKIE HOKIE HOKIE HI TECH TECH VPI SOL-A REC SOL-A RAH POLY-TECH VIRGINIA RAY RAH VPI TEAM TEAM TEAM! and sure, fight on.) I'll be pulling for a Vandy-USC-VT-IU Final Four, for sure.
But, expect Villanova to make a pretty exciting run, too.
I'll be back with some more tomorrow and later this week.
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