Friday: no run...you know the routine at this point.
Let me preface this post with the fact that I did not watch the royal wedding this morning. Instead, I was engaged in a stand-off with Cameron who refused to eat her breakfast, then proceeded to pee in the floor when I fed Rocky his breakfast. So, that's what I was doing this morning instead of "oohing" and "aahing" over silly British hats and Kate Middleton's dress. I'm sure she doesn't spend her mornings cleaning up dog pee and running into work late. Oh, to live a life of luxury.
Now, I'll talk about something I did watch...the NFL Draft. What epitomizes the excess and pageantry that has become professional sports better than the Draft? Nothing. And the Draft has nothing to do with any of the things I love about sports: competition, excellence and heart. It's essentially a lot of really big guys walking around in suits shaking hands and hugging people - hell, I could find that at any high school class reunion. That being said, I did watch the entire first round (and there's a strong likelihood that I'll watch it again tonight).
I've watched a lot of Drafts in my time. My dad and I are avid sports fans (although we don't have a strong allegiance to any team) so the Draft was always just sort of "on" at the house, and I've heard boos before at picks, owners, etc. But I have never heard as many boos as I did last night when Roger Goodell first stepped to the mike. Seriously, I was taken aback. The boo-birds were doing some major chirping! As the picks started to come off the board, the boos diminished to a certain extent, but even as the players grinned. cried and paraded across the stage, there were still more jeers than usual.
By early April, pretty much every draft prognosticator had Cam Newton going to the Carolina Panthers at number one, and some people think this is a smart choice. Sure, Newton will fill seats, he'll more than likely be better at running the offense than Matt Moore or Jimmy Clausen, who looks like a middle school quarterback out there on the field (just trying to find the right butt to line up under), and he's a charismatic kid, but I am not convinced that he won't be a Vince Young, or worse yet, a Jamarcus Russell. I only say this because he's an athletic run first-pass second quarterback with questionable intangibles and a suspect past. Who knows? I might end up eating my words...actually I hope I do, I want to see Cam be successful (if only because he and my dog share the same name).
The rest of the top five played out as I had predicted, and we weren't treated to our first surprise until Tennessee picked Jake Locker in the number 8 slot. Locker seems like a good kid and last year at this time, he was hailed as the early favorite to be the number one pick, but after a lackluster senior season at Washington riddled with inaccuracy, he began to slide down draft boards. If I were the Titans, I think I would've picked a lock to replace Vince Young, not a guy that makes me furrow my brow. The only other real head scratcher picked int he first round (in my mind) was Christian Ponder. He's a good QB, but with Andy Dalton, Ryan Mallett and a few other good passers out there, I wouldn't have taken him until day two.
And I think it was a huge mistake not to take Andy Dalton, the fiery ginger from TCU, in the first round. He's got Drew Brees written all over him, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him hoisting the Lombardi trophy in a few years.
Oh well. I guess there's a reason why I'm not an NFL coach or team owner, so enough criticism for today (I still think I could do a better job than most of them). I've got a 16 miler this weekend, so wish me luck.
Happy running!
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