This morning, as I was reading various comments on various posts, I was struck with a nasty thought. The Pats and Dolphins could put Wallace into a Phins uniform with the Steelers only receiving a 31st overall draft choice.

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During a discussion, on BTSC of HoFers, the name of Bud Grant came up. Being a Winnipeger, Bud Grant is well known to me but I also had a memory from the days of the Purple People Eaters.

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I would like to congratulate the Green Bay Packers football team, players, coaches, front office, owners and fans on their Super Bowl victory today. It was well earned.

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I would like to thank the Pittsburgh Steelers football team, players, coaches, front office and owners for a wonderful season. It hurts like hell to not have number seven but this has been an amazing season and the character and perseverance of all concerned has been amazing.

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Amongst the excitement and turmoil of this season and our first playoff game of the season it is easy to over look the number of players on the Steelers roster who had never taken part in a NFL playoff game before yesterday.

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Due to popular demand and the need for somewhere to post so we don't ruin the serious (and more valuable) threads, I am tossing out another thread for people to hijack. If you are in doubt about what to do here, wait awhile and watch. Then jump in.

I thought I would start by talking about my local team, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, which actually has many NFL connections. The first name that comes to mind was Bud Grant and some other prominent names include Tom Clements (now a QB coach in the NFL) and Dieter (Ralph) Brock. The person I decided upon is Jack Jacobs who had a decent NFL career before coming north to Winnipeg, bringing with him, the forward pass. I have included the wikipedia link for those who wish to know more about him.

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Every thread needs a topic so I will put several to keep everyone happy.

Father's day is coming up soon so I thought I would provide a non-musical link with a special father and son moment.

I am not to keen on posting a photo of my self so I thought I would post the next best thing. A photo of someone old, bald and fat (though he is originally from France not Canada). I can't figure out how to put the photo up so I will have to use a link. Someone who knows how to do it can put it up for Arn.

My home town is getting a new football stadium. A bit small by NFL (or Div 1) standards but it will work for us. If nothing else it will be somewhere for Doggett to go if (when?) he gets cut.

I feel sorry for Doggett and Rey Williams. I am sure they really were looking forward to making the team but I can't see it happening after seeing who we drafted. I am hoping the Bombers can at least get Doggett back (or that he can catch a break with another team in the NFL).

It wouldn't be an irrelevant post by me if it didn't include a music video, so here are two:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lh_h-KdbBrE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRvL11JdNBE&feature=related

Warning:The music videos are not for the weak of stomach.

For a lot of Steelers fans,  things don't look very good atm. IWe now have a full fledged QB controversy with only one starting QB. No matter what happens, things will never be the way they were before. We can't change that. Those who decide may have decided and we will just have to await their decisions. If it is important enough send a message to the team, not to the other fans because by now we all know where we stand on the issue.

I really feel I need a change a pace from all the negativity and snapping that is going on at the moment so I am posting links to a trio of videos by a bunch of newfies*.

First by themselves

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AvkyHCU7XU

Then with a bunch of irishmen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOw3w-00Jqw&feature=related

and finally by themselves again

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnsXi0zBzoc&feature=related

There is inspiration in these songs. If you have some inspiration for the rest of us, feel free to share it. If you want to argue or be negative there are plenty of other threads to chose. I will try to find a couple more uplifting things to share if this moves along.

* newfie was a once derogatory term for the people of Newfoundland on Canada's East coast. They are lovely warm and colourful people and I use the term with affection.

Another day closer to the draft and I am still a loose ends. I thought about doing a thread that is just about music but I figure there are already two threads going that have music in them. One by design and one by 'that's what happens to perceived troll posts'. If people want to post more music stuff here that is fine... or wave or whatever though no politics, no religion or which Steelers player in is trouble now.

I decided food and reading would be my topics today.

My favourite recipe for the first time I had a lady (or guy depending on gender/preference) over to my place for dinner:

Garlic Chicken: 20-30 unpeeled cloves of garlic, oil,  chicken cut into pieces (or boneless), salt and pepper, a lemon. and a frying pan. Cook the chicken in the hot oil for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook till the skin is transparent. Pepper well, and add salt. Squeeze 1/2 the lemon on to the chicken and stir around. Put a lid on it and cook for ten minutes. Serve with red wine and green salad. I stole the recipe from a James Barber Cookbook (Fear of Frying) over 30 years ago. It has served me faithfully ever since.

I read: mostly mysteries and non-fiction though almost anything might end up on my bookshelves.

I am currently reading: None but the Brave by David L. Bashow, published by Canadian Defence Academy Press. It is about contributions of RAF Bomber Command during WWII. non-fiction

Hopefully this will give us a change of pace for a day or two. I look forward to seeing what is your favourite date dinner (and it has to be food not a body part) and reading list.

I was chatting with the parents of one of the older teens who works out with the same off-season trainer as my boys. Turns out one of the two older teens, a RB, had just signed a letter of intent with Simon Fraser University (a Canadian NCAA II school). The other (a grade 11 DE or LB) had just won a competition for a $3k promotional package from a company who promotes players to various colleges and universities in Canada and the USA. Then he mentioned that the Division I colleges in the US are scouting and wrapping up kids when they are in the 10th grade (!?!?!) while our kids are not usually considering their post secondary schools till grade 12.

I guess what I want to know is if it is true that kids are signing letters of intent in 10th grade? How are they able to scout kids that young and have any idea of how good they will be? Heck how do they even know how tall they are going to be? I look at my two 14 yr olds and I don't know where they will stop growing or even what positions they will play next year.

I am not trying to promote them for a college as we are hoping they will do their post secondary here. I tend to think of sports as something they can do in addition to what ever academics they pursue as opposed to the other way around.

If someone can recommend any decent sites to learn this information I would appreciate it.

Thanks in advance.

I was reading some stuff at TheJetsBlog and in a post by Bent I found this link. Apparently adamjt13 has been predicting, very accurately, the compensation picks for each team for about a decade.

From what he is saying the Steelers will likely receive two 5th round and one 7th round pick though the Nate Washington comp may end up a 6th instead of a 5th round. Three extra draft choices is nothing to sneeze at.

Hopefully I am not covering something someone else have covered here.

http://adamjt13.blogspot.com/2010/03/projecting-2010-compensatory-nfl-draft.html

I managed to catch a few minutes of the combine today. I was really impressed with Iupati in the 3 cone although I haven't seen a time. He looked flexible. His bench press was less awesome (26 or 27) although I think his 40 speed was acceptable (under 5.3 iirc).

Bulaga was interviewed and came across fairly well. Smart guy though I found it annoying when the reporter's kept going on about it.

Bruce Campbell and Trent Williams both ran sub 5.0 and a te named Dickerson ran a 4.40 (to go with 24 benchpresses).

I got my numbers off nfl.com's combine page.

I came across a post in TheJetsBlog that talks about Thomas Jones and his agent sitting down to renegotiate his contract at the request of the New York Jets.

http://www.nj.com/jets/index.ssf/2010/02/ny_jets_might_release_rb_thoma.html

Jones is due to receive a $3 million bonus  next month to go with his salary of $2.8 million. There have been a lot of rumours about the Jets cutting him floating around.

I am a bit surprised at this considering the uncapped season. TJ still has a year to go on his contract and although he ran out of gas last season, which to a certain extent was due to him playing through injuries, he still had a pretty good year. You would think he had one more year in him and that with a team which is so close to going all the way, the Jets wouldn't make more changes than necessary.

If Thomas Jones becomes a FA, should we get him or is do you think he will be too expensive?

I have been enjoying all the mock drafts people have been publishing when my love of the mock drafts and my love of beer* collided and went <squirk>.

I was wondering if any breweries in and around Pittsburgh have considered brewing a special limited edition beer to tide fans over the period in time for two months before and one month after the NFL annual player selection meeting?

I am thinking a dark heady brew in an attractive bottle would be a great souvenir but as the idea is for a draft maybe just something to be sold in the local bars/taverns etc.

* my love of beer is tempered by my bathroom scale which keeps yelling "only one person at a time".