Mad Ravings, Opinions and News

Earlier this week I gave you some statistics about the NFL Scouting Combine. This information indicated how important it was to the future NFL players to be there, citing numbers that indicated only a small percent of successful NFLers had not attended past combines.

However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized how misleading these numbers can be. Let's face it, the reason so many successful NFL players attended the Combine is because most successful college players attend the combine. It's rather much like saying over 95% first round draft picks attended high school in one of the 50 states.

What might be more interesting than seeing the numbers of how many successful NFL players didn't attend the combine would be to see the statistics for highly rated Combine participants that ultimately became unsuccessful players.

Meanwhile in the news:

"The squeaky wheel gets the Griese"

• Tampa Bay has finally come to terms with QB Brian Griese. Griese agreed to a 5 year $32 M (that's $32,000,000.00) deal. The contract can be reworked after either of the first two seasons.

"I was just standing there peeling an apple when the deceased ran around the corner on to my knife,....15 times....backwards"

• Vickings coach Mike Tice on WR Kelly Campbell who was arrested Thursday in Georgia for drug possession and receiving stolen property (a handgun). "Kelly has his version of the story that he has told me, and he will get his chance to tell it in court...But if there is something to this, I may have to re-evaluate my options with Kelly Campbell. Absolutely."

"Speaking of Minnesota, things seem to be getting less fowler there"

• It is looking less and less like potential Vikings purchaser Reggie Fowler will actually be able to buy the team. It now appears that Fowler will be unable to get the 3/4 approval margin required by the team owners at their meeting in late March.

"The wheels on the Bus go round and round"

• Steelers RB Jerome Bettis has agreed to a contract to continue on with the team. "The Bus" was debating whether or not to retire this year but has apparently decided to go one more season.

"Or maybe they don't go round and round"

• Free Agent CB Ty Law is reportedly still in a wheel chair recovering from foot surgery. Apparently being in the chair has stopped his efforts to sign with someone from rolling along. Chiefs' President/GM Carl Peterson summed it up pretty well when he said "He hasn't even begun walking yet...What we would like to do is bring him in for a physical, but right now they're [Law and his agent] not ready to do that."