The HoG's 2009 NFL Draft LiveBlog

(software courtesy of Cover It Live)
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Pre-Draft Thoughts

As we all wait for the most exciting selection meeting EVER, I have a few ideas rattling around my noodle. Lucky you, you get to read them, after this annoying little Interfeed speed bump...

WHY THE NFL DRAFT SUCKS

I know that there are always plenty of trades, and that makes things juicy for geeks like us and confusing for people like my dad. But rarely does anyone move at the very top of the show anymore, and that's a damned shame. The reason is that you have to pay top-ten picks an obscene and undetermined amount of money. Smart teams (the ones that actually win games and draft late in the first round) hate to shell out big bucks to unproven talent. Dumb teams (the ones that hold a seemingly permanent seat in the first dozen selections) would be better off with an array of good picks as opposed to one premium gamble--a gamble that often backfires.

The solution, friends, is a rookie salary cap. The NBA has one, and it works great. Every team, and every kid hoping to get drafted, knows exactly what each spot is worth. Clubs can build their budgets around that number, and if necessary trade up or trade down with exact dollar figures in mind. No one holds out, no one has to calculate the difference between a quarterback drafted at No. 1 versus, say, a linebacker taken there.

Plus, fuck rookies. Why should they have any leverage at all? There's nothing wrong with taking a kid who has a unique skill and making him a millionaire, but why should Kellen Winslow be the highest-paid tight end in the history of the league before playing a game? Again, going back to the NBA: Rookies there make plenty of coin, but the huge green comes with the second contract. Professional athletes actually earning their salaries by playing professional sports? Brilliant!

If that were in place this year, the Lions could trade down for multiple picks with ease. And teams that are legitimately one player away could move up--while paying a price--to roll the dice. But with cost certainty and no chance of a holdout, the wheeling and dealing could commence.

WHY TAKING A QUARTERBACK WITH THE NO. 1 PICK IS DUMB

For some reason, I was listening to the sports talk yesterday. And for some reason, Maurice Jones-Drew was sports talking. Turns out MJD is a pretty serious draftnik, and he said that if he were a GM, he'd never select a QB first overall, or even in the first round. The pint-sized dynamo, himself a steal in Round 2 in 2006, would only take a behemoth from the O-Line or D-Line.

His reasoning was twofold. First off, the game is won and lost in the trenches, everyone's heard that. Secondly, though, a big ugly who's not as good as advertised on draft day can still contribute to a team, while QBs who fail to match their hype are simply busts. Bad tackles can become passable guards, bad defensive ends can find a spot in a rotation (cough, Jarvis Moss). But a bad signal-caller can only hold a clipboard or get cut.

Look no further than Robert Gallery. He was a can't miss left tackle coming out of Iowa in 2004. The Raiders took him second overall and, well, he missed. A year later the other Bay Area team committed a similar whiff, as the Niners snagged Alex Smith. Now Alex Smith and Robert gallery are both lousy, and in hindsight neither should have been allowed anywhere near the top of the first round.

Difference is, Alex Smith will most likely spend the 2009 season and beyond doing something other than playing football. Robert Gallery, meanwhile, will start on an NFL offensive line for the sixth straight season. He's been moved to right guard, where he's extremely overpaid and no threat to make a Pro Bowl. But he can still play somewhere. After all, every team needs a warm body to block for extra points, and Alex Smith can't exactly fill that role.

Well played, Maurice.

NO ONE IN THE WORLD HAS MORE PRESSURE UPON HIM TODAY THAN:

Uh, that would be Josh McDaniels. Coach Doogie has, in four short months, replaced a Hall of Fame coach, given pinks slips to most of a defense, run a star QB out of town and wrested nearly all the authority in the franchise from an owner who vowed to make his next coach stick to X's and O's, not dabble in personnel.

Most rookie coaches have a bit of a honeymoon. If things don't go so well out of the gate, they can always lean on the excuse that they had to impose their system on the last guy's players. Well, almost every fingerprint Mike Shanahan left on this club has been washed clean. This is Doogie's baby, and with ten picks in the next two days, he'll either knock this draft out of the park or crash like the Hindenburg. There will be no middle ground.

A FINAL WORD ON TONY GONZALEZ

I'm sort of thinking that Kansas City wins more games than do the Falcons in '09.
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Game (Nearly) On, Kids

While the 2009 NFL Player Draft is starting later than usual (2 p.m. Colorado time), here at Casa del Cecil the helper elves have been up since before dawn, scribbling on whiteboards, organizing color-coded player identification cards by position and fielding phone calls.

Oh, OK, none of that is true. But I am going to pull the card table out of the basement. And I did buy a big bottle of Carta Blanca to help me think. Check back in for some all-the-way live chat coverage of the best day(s) on the NFL calendar/


Image from--obviously--The Sports Hernia.
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Saturday Studmuffins: Kansas City Royals Pitcher Zack Greinke

I suppose it's only fitting that, on a Saturday after we don't deliver this feature, a candidate presents himself for having done something spectacular both last Saturday, and last night. And that individual is none other than number 23 on the Kansas City Royals, the number-two man in the 'tation, the boyfriend of a girl with a special mouth, Zack Greinke.

First things first: This is, of course, the sure-fire way to jinx Greinke's early-season success, but I challenge the jinx Gods, nonetheless.

Greinke was a first-round selection (sixth pick overall) in the 2003 Major League Baseball draft. He debuted with the Royals in May 2004. His numbers, through the years, since then:

2004: 8-11, 3.97 E.R.A. through 145 innings pitched, generating 100 Ks to 26 BBs

2005: 5-17, 5.80 E.R.A. through 183 innings pitched, generating 114 Ks to 53 BBs

2006: 1-0, 4.26 E.R.A. through 6.1 innings pitched, generating 5 Ks to 3 BBs*

2007: 7-7, 3.69 E.R.A. through 122 innings pitched, generating 106 Ks to 36 BBs

2008: 13-10, 3.47 E.R.A. through 202 innings pitched, generating 183 Ks to 56 BBs

2009: 4-0, 0.00 E.R.A. through 29 innings pitched, generating 36 Ks to 6 BBs**

* Greinke, after one start, was put on the 60-day DL, and left the club to get a handle on his mental health, a period during which/leading up to, Greinke said he was more interested in hitting (Editor's Note: He currently has a slugging percentage of .583 with a homer and a double in 12 at bats.), but also wanted to leave baseball for good.

** to date, through the first 16 games of the season

There's another side to Greinke, though, and that's his 115 percent awesomeness at interviews. Last Saturday, after his complete-game shutout versus Texas, he handed Royals catcher Miguel Olivo all of the credit. Last night, after his complete-game semi-shutout (Note: On a Detroit base hit, Royals centerfielder Coco Crisp threw the ball to shortstop Mike Aviles, who threw, a bit low, to third, and the ball bounced off of the baserunner's foot, allowing said runner to score, which ended Greinke's scoreless-inning streak -- dating back to last year -- at 38 innings.), he again rained praise on Olivo, as well as Royals Pitching Coach Bob "Mac" McClure. There are, however, some instant-classic interview tidbits of a younger, spring-training Greinke, that you should totally dig on:

Old-School Stank I



Old-School Stank II



That's this week's SS. It should be noted that credit for both interviews go to D.A., who is the most fantastic sports-talk-radio host on the planet, especially when he doesn't sue us.
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Friday Fiction Fix (Now With Cinematic Twist!): "The Only Good Indian"

If, and I'm taking a shot in the dark here, you found this feature a tad confusing in the past, well keep your pants on. Today we're including another element. KC FilmFest kicked off on Wednesday night, and the wife and I sat one row behind Bob Uecker. The theater was stadium-seating style, which is never good on the neck, but it does rock when the star/executive producer/complete badass gives a Q&A afterwards. Such badass is Wes Studi. If you've never seen "Dances with Wolves," or "Last of the Mohicans," or "Geronimo: An American Legend," well, you're just plain missing out. Those films are good places to start, if you're interested, though.

As I mentioned, the film stars Studi, along with J. Kenneth Campbell, and cinema newcomer, Winter Fox Frank. It was directed by Kevin Willmott, and written by Thomas Carmody. It's not really playing in the major-movie market, so you'll have to dig around for it, which I highly recommend. One of the many cool things about the picture is that the storyline uses, incorporates, and runs parallel with the text from Bram Stoker's Dracula. I know. Super-dope fly, right?

For the sake of consistency, Bram Stoker was born in Dublin in 1847. He published a dozen novels, three short-story collections, and four non-fiction pieces before taking a wooden stake to the heart in 1912. Either that or he had syphillis. Anyway, in the same sense that I hoped Wes Studi needed no introduction, I hope the same for the story of Dracula.

"I did not sleep well, though my bed was comfortable enough, for I had all sorts of queer dreams. There was a dog howling all night under my window, which may have had something to do with it; or it may have been the paprika, for I had to drink up all the water in my carafe, and was still thirsty. Towards morning I slept and was wakened by the continuous knocking at my door, so I guess I must have been sleeping soundly then..."



"They were evidently talking of me, for every now and then they looked at me, and some of the people who were sitting on the bench outside the door--came and listened, and then looked at me, most of them pityingly. I could hear a lot of words often repeated, queer words, for there were many nationalities in the crowd, so I quietly got my polyglot dictionary from my bag and looked them out."



"The strange driver evidently heard the words, for he looked up with a gleaming smile...



...The passenger turned his face away, at the same time putting out his two fingers and crossing himself...There is a flask...underneath the seat, if you should require it....

...I found my dear one, oh, so thin and pale and weaklooking.



All the resolution has gone out of his dear eyes, and that quiet dignity which I told you was in his face has vanished.



He is only a wreck of himself, and he does not remember anything that has happened to him for a long time past. At least, he wants me to believe so, and I shall never ask...I do believe the dear soul thought I might be jealous...Then one night, just as the moon rose, he grew quiet, and kept murmuring to himself...It was a strange thing that the patient had humour enough to see their distrust, for, coming close to me, he said in a whisper, all the while looking furtively at them, They think I could hurt you! Fancy me hurting you! The fools!"

"It was soothing, somehow, to the feelings to find myself disassociated even in the mind of this poor madman from the others, but all the same I do not follow his thought. Am I to take it that I have anything in common with him, so that we are, as it were, to stand together. Or has he to gain from me some good so stupendous that my well being is needful to Him?

I am in doubt, and so have done the best thing I know of. I have written to my old friend and master, Professor Van Helsing,...who knows as much about...the world...



Van Helsing would, I know, do anything for me for a personal reason, so no matter on what ground he comes, we must accept his wishes. He is a seemingly arbitrary man, this is because he knows what he is talking about better than any one else. He is a philosopher and a metaphysician, and one of the most advanced scientists of his day, and he has, I believe, an absolutely open mind. This, with an iron nerve, a temper of the ice-brook, and indomitable resolution, self-command, and toleration exalted from virtues to blessings, and the kindliest and truest heart that beats, these form his equipment for the noble work that he is doing for mankind, work both in theory and practice, for his views are as wide as his all-embracing sympathy. I tell you these facts that you may know why I have such confidence in him. I have asked him to come at once."

"You will, of course, understand...that when a man is so loved and honored...everything regarding him is of interest in our little community...



...When an individual has revolutionized...conventional forms are unfitting, since they would seem to limit him to one of a class...He made this last appeal with a courtly air of conviction which was not without its own charm."

"So I contented myself with making a general statement that...I...would then see what I could do in the direction of meeting his wishes."



"We have now had so many changes and find the same thing so constantly that we are encouraged to think that the journey will be an easy one...It is a lovely country. Full of beauties of all imaginable kinds...

...our enemy is still on the river...



...we travel, always getting closer to the mountains, and moving into a more and more wild and desert land..."

That's today's installment. Find out more about "The Only Good Indian" here, and get your copy of Stoker's masterpiece here.
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Historically Speaking: 4-24-09

Well, then. Top of the mornin' to ya's beautiful people. Here's hoping you have a fantastic Friday, and a glorious draft weekend. Stop in. We'll be here. But get you're readin' done first...

* Varying sources disagree on the year, but it was today, nonetheless, in either 1961 or '62, when Sandy Koufax tallied 18 Ks in a Dodgers win against the Cubs. Koufax had accomplished the feat once before in August of '59, but it was on the second occasion that he tied Bob Fellers for being the only major-league hurler to single-handedly (Editor's Note: No pun intended.) register two-thirds of a game's outs on two occasions.

* Today in 1963, the Boston Celtics won their fifth straight National Basketball Association championship. The losers? The Los Angeles Lakers.

* April 24, 1965: New York Metropolitan skipper Casey Stengel logs victory number 3000 as a manager. His club edged the Giants, 7-6.

* It was on this glorious day in 1974 when the National Football League awarded a franchise to the city of Tampa Bay, Florida. They would be called -- drumroll, please -- the Buccaneers.

* And since we opened with a strikeout stat, California Angel pitcher Nolan Ryan rung up 15 Seattle Mariners today in 1978, marking the 20th occasion on which he would strike out as many. The hurler would exit without a decision, however, and Seattle would get the win, 6-5 in the 12th.

And your Sports Illustrated quote of the day came from the mouth of...



...one-time Anoka-Ramsey Community College (Coon Rapids, Minnesota) basketball coach Fred Paulsen (Note: not to be confused with Robert Paulson) who circa 1982, said this of his team's prospects: "We have a solid bench. Now all we need is some solid players."
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Thursday ThinkTank: Now That He, Too, Has Left the Building

About a week ago, when the Tony Gonzalez-to-Atlanta trade rumors surfaced, I was a little nervous. But nothing happened, and I was fine with it. Until yesterday. Then the Philadelphia Eagles allegedly dove into the mix, and I was worried again. Not because I thought the Chiefs would ship Tony to Philly, but because I saw they were offering a third-round pick, and that made me feel that within 48 hours of the 2009 NFL Draft's commencement, this is when the stuff can go down for real, especially if one team's genuinely interested, and then another puts its ante in the pot.

Well, as everyone knows by now, the Chiefs sent Tony Gonzalez to the Atlanta Falcons for a second-round pick in 2010's draft. It's a done deal and I've had just over five hours to let it sink in. And for the most part, it has. Naturally, it'll be new all over again when you see four-letter highlights of him at training camp, and regular season footage of him as a Dirty Bird. But it's for real, and we must move on.

It's a bittersweet deal in the end, mostly because of the most microscopic, surreal pipedream of Tony Gonzalez retiring as a Chief and winning a Super Bowl was probably never going to happen. Now, the new regime of Scott Pioli and Todd Haley could very well get this club turned around and, amongst the outer-most moons of Neptune, Gonzalez could come back to K.C. for one final hurrah of a season, and they could win it all. But it's a pipedream.

Closer to the sun than the distant Milky Way, it's sliced clean into two sides: the business and the personal. I've never been secretive about Gonzalez being my favorite Chief. He was more than that, though. He was the proverbial face of the franchise, the go-to-guy, the clutch performer, the hero. Now, he, like any player, is one of many cogs in a machine working toward one goal. And well, this machine has been shy a handful of cogs for a long time. So you make some replacements. I just knew it was a bad idea to ask for my first-ever Gonzalez jersey for Christmas last year.

In the business end of things, it appears that Pioli means just that: business. He's gonna go out, make some transactions, all in the name of bettering the machine, and hopefully, he'll have a great draft, too. Essentially, the Chiefs were already going to have a second-rounder in 2010. So they give up 2009's and get a quarterback who could have a solid decade in him. Add to that some veteran linebacker leadership in Mike Vrabel. Then, you unload Tony and get another second-round pick, so in a sense, it's as if you've traded a 32 year-old tight end for some defensive help, and perhaps a franchise quarterback, which ain't that bad of a deal.

Yes, it'd've been nice to get some help in this year's draft, but I think you simply have to take the second-rounder for Gonzalez, no matter what. As the outsiders that we all are, it appears that that was the only second-round pick -- the price the Chiefs have asked for all along -- that has been offered since last October. It might've been the only one offered, so you take it. I imagine Pioli's dealings aren't yet done for this upcoming season, and it almost promises to be an awesome draft weekend, and a great summer of free agency.

At least that's what I'm hoping for.

So to Tony Gonzalez -- an official House of Georges salute for your service, your commitment to being the best, and your highly admirable performances in all regards.



ChiefsNation will miss you, sir.

(photos courtesy of the Kansas City Star)
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