Stop The Presses, Reboot The Internet By Blogger

We all get on ESPN, the New York Post, et al, for throwing around unsubstantiated "rumors" and hype that obviously won't play out the way the writer intimates it will. But I want to address two examples from the past few days that came from unlikely sources. First, Aaron Schatz of Football Outsiders dropped what I think is a nuclear bomb about Vince Young, but he buried it deep inside a "Combine Notes" column and obfuscated the point by making it through a strong hint. Second, Scout.com via FoxSports.com published a story about how Vernon Davis, a junior tight end from Maryland, may have cracked the top ten in the draft based on his combine performance. Both pieces are sports journalism rumormongering at its worst, and I expect better from Schatz and FoxSports, which has displayed forward thinking by giving top notch bloggers opportunities to reach bigger audiences. Let's examine the Schatz comment, first.

I’ve also had it pointed out to me that Vince Young is associated with some, shall we say, unpleasant elements of the Houston community. (Do the names Timmy and Jimmy ring a bell for anyone?)

Many professional athletes are associated with shady characters, or, at least, characters upper middle class white society would deem shady. If a guy comes from a difficult, tough, background, and these people are all the people he knows, who the hell are we to tell him that he should start over completely and make a whole new set of friends just because he's suddenly a multi-millionaire? That said, Schatz's comment is on a whole 'nother level. He's saying Young is associated with the Crips. Timmy and Jimmy are the disabled children on South Park, aka cripples, aka crips.

If true, Schatz needs to report that outright. Protect the identity of the sources, but report the damn story. This is far more than a stupid standardized test. Schatz just hinted that Young is involved with a major gang! Does anybody else think that might be a problem? If I were an NFL GM, and I confirmed that a player was a current gang member, or even that a player was running with gang members in his free time back home, that guy would be nearly off my draft board as far as I'm concerned.

Vernon Davis, a junior tight end from Maryland, likely performed his way into the NFL Draft's top 10 picks during a record-setting, second-to-last day of the NFL draft combine.
Davis began the day of workouts for tight ends and defensive linemen by clocking a pair of 40-yard dashes in the 4.4-second range. Several scouts had Davis running as fast as 4.35 seconds, a new record for tight ends.
The day before, Davis lifted 225 pounds 33 times on the bench press.

Which of the following ten teams will pick a tight end with their first round pick? Houston? Reggie Bush. New Orleans? Matt Leinart. Tennessee? Young, Cutler, or defense. The Jets? Young, Cutler, D'Brickashaw, or defense. Green Bay? Running back (LenDale) or linebacker (Hawk). San Francisco? Defensive back or D'Brickashaw. Oakland? QB or defense. Buffalo? Offensive lineman or defense. Detroit? Wide receiver, offensive lineman, or defense. Arizona? Offensive lineman, QB, or defense.

Which team would be stupid enough to pick a tight end, even one that might have supreme physical gifts, in the first ten picks of the draft based on ONE DAY OF WORKOUTS? That would be simple insanity. Beyond that, though, whoever wrote this "article" didn't even do the simple little rundown I did above that gauges conventional wisdom of what the teams in the top ten need and will do with their picks.