Johnny’s 30th-5

Originally uploaded by Woodmania.

I will explain this later. But I’m posting this blog to try and figure something out with Flickr.

No quote today. Anyone who gives a decent-sized reaction to their NFL team’s draft this weekend gets a point.

The 2006 draft in my mind will go down as the year that the football gods kick Houston fans in the nads. They wanted the hometown star, Vince Young, would have settled for Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush, but end up with Mario Williams. On top of that, the man who took the Oilers away from them ended up with their hometown hero and will play against the Texans twice a year.

So was this a Texas-sized blunder? Will this go down as one of the 100 worst draft picks of all time? To me, this decision just smacks of stupidity. I mean, Charlie Casserly has a history of being a moron. And I really disagree with his choice. If you don’t want to take Reggie Bush, I can see that. But then you trade down or take D’Brickashaw Ferguson. I mean, the last offensive tackle taken first overall was Orlando Pace, and he worked out pretty well. The last defensive line player taken first overall: Courtney Brown. He did not work out so good.

This draft was pretty entertaining as they were some surprises, trades, and bonehead decisions. (I’m looking at you, Buffalo.) If you missed me liveblogging, check out this stream of conciousness take on draft day. And here’s some random things I picked up from coverage of the first couple rounds:

Personally, I wasn’t particularly thrilled with the Bengals top pick. This guy may be great, but he sounds like he’s gonna need a lot of work before he makes a positive impact on the field. And then offensive tackle in the second round? I’m not seeing any immediate help from either of them.

I don’t know what it is but I can’t get enough of Rachel Nichols lately. When she first started showing up on Sportscenter, she just didn’t do much for me. But the more I see her, the better and better she looks. Maybe it’s because I’m fascinated by a woman who never blinks. I’ve never seen her do it. Have you?

I was able to flip back and forth between coverage on ESPN and NFL Network. They’re a little more critical of the prospects on the NFL’s own channel, I was surprised to see. A lot more coach’s footage as well as clips from Senior Bowl practices. Still, I was pretty pleased with the inaugural NFL Draft on NFL Network. Not as many bells and whistles but some solid analysis from Rich Eisen and Mike Mayock.

How did your team do?

“Not eating meat is a decision. Eating meat is an instinct!”

Another thing I did last year was create my own mock draft and called it the NFL Sock Draft. Yes, very clever. I was planning on repeating that again this year but that also took a good amount of effort. I think I spent the better part of my work week putting that together and since I didn’t work this week, no preperation went into creating a mock draft. Sure, I could throw one together but who wants to see that? I tried to sprinkle in some amusing anecdotes to liven it up and have no time for such shenanigans at this late date.

If you absolutely need another possible scenario to digest, check out the Unabated Sports 2006 Mock Draft. We did this in our studio on Tuesday and Jeff, Clinton, and I took turns putting players on teams. I was surprised how long it took considering we only did the first 24 picks. Sure, we did break for commercials but it still lasted just about an hour. No wonder the real thing takes so long. And the pressure really picks up when you’re on the clock and you have no idea who you should be taking.

Speaking of no idea who will be taken, don’t forget to try Mark’s draft contest.

“Everyone knows that gasoline comes from dinosaurs. If we’re running out of gas, the solution isn’t to drive less, it’s to kill more dinosaurs.”

As you can probably tell, I’m getting a bit psyched for this weekend’s NFL Draft. As per tradtion, I’ll be at the Goat’s as we will be glued to the tube for several hours on ESPN. Just like last year. I’m also thinking of listening to NFL Radio’s coverage on NFL.com and ESPN Radio, too. Does that sound like overload to you?

Last year, I liveblogged Day 1 right here on the Sock Drawer. It was a neat experience as I think everyone should liveblog something at least once in their blogging career. I’ve been going back and forth trying to decide if I was going to do that again this year. It was kinda fun and it’s real interesting to go back and see my gut reactions to what was going on that day. But it was a surprising amount of work. I was kinda glued to the couch, pecking away at my laptop constantly throughout the afternoon instead of fully taking in the event. Still a day or so to mull it over but I wouldn’t expect it at this point.

Here’s some highlights from last year’s NFL Draft, as seen on my blog:

1:07 MOe has informed us that it is technically against NFL rules to use a horse as a running back.

1:36 The Titans… pick the guy who has a T-shirt wiith his own picture on it. He looks like a character Dave Chappelle is playing. But Pac-Man’s got a cool nickname so we’ll let it slide.

1:47 Merrill Hodge’s hair is NOT in mid-season form.

1:48 Johnny thinks Mel looks like Sam the Eagle from the Muppets.

2:03 Our first erectile dysfunction commercial. Good thing they waited until the kids are in bed before showing it.

3:22 Tonight, a Pay Per View Event, pay $30 to watch some guy you never heard of fight another no-name!

3:28 I don’t understand advertisers who show how cool their product can make their environment when it’s so damn cold outside! The last thing I want right now is a beer that freezes over everything in the room when it’s already snowing!

4:33 Amy alluded to the fact that Fabian Washington being black and going to Nebraska, the guy must be able to run. And we here at the Sock Drawer appreciate all of our Nebraska readers. Send all hate mail to Amy, please.

5:09 Johnny is thrilled to hear the ESPN folk insult Seattle receivers. He’s poised to throw his hat at the screen.

5:10 He threw some food instead.

So that’s the kind of excitement you can expect if I hunker down and type out the reactions from our war room this weekend. More than likely, I will probably do some kind of overall entry I contribute to throughout the day as opposed to full-on liveblogging. Yeah, that sounds much better for my lazy ass.

“I’ve quit better jobs than this.”

Woody & The Cheerleaders
Originally uploaded by Unabated Sports.

So I post a picture like this one to give off that illusion. This was what my weekend was like. Okay, not the whole weekend but I did get to enjoy a lovely spring afternoon watching football and cheerleaders. Although, I did come away with a bit of sunburn. Here’s my pictures from the UC Spring Game. And no, they’re not all of cheerleaders. I got a new camera and it has been working very well early on. Let’s see if that keeps up or it’s just the fact that I’m a moron when it comes to being a photographer.

“Don’t wait for it to happen. Don’t even want it to happen. Just see what does happen.”

As you may have guessed from yesterday’s post, it’s going to be pretty football-intensive here for about the next week. Sorry to you non-pigskin fans but I think I’ve been pretty good in 2006. Especially compared to last year when I would throw out mock drafts every week and contstantly discuss free agent developments in the NFL, I’ve been really quiet. Part of it was the whole collective bargaining debate this winter that looked like it might really taint the best league in the world. It was no fun listening to all that crap so I didn’t get too enthused about that kind of talk, and the league as a whole. Also, I got the impression that some people didn’t want daily updates on what some schmuck with a website thinks some team you don’t care about picks some player you don’t know. As we get ready for this weekend’s NFL Draft, here’s some interesting bits I’ve seen as I’ve been scouring the net the last few days.

It looks like Bryant Gumbel and Cris Collinsworth will do the NFL Network game. Interesting choices. Obviously, Collinsworth was a big shot at Fox so that doesn’t surprise me. But Gumbel? Very interesting. He hasn’t been actively involved in sports for a couple decades so it’ll be intriguing to see if he can still do it. In the article, they suggest Gumbel was selected to give the NFL Network some clout and name recognition with advertisers. I can see that. But if I hear one more time than an announcer is being selected to draw in viewers, I’m gonna slap them. I have never in my life ever talked to someone who decided to watch a game or not watch it based on an announcer.

As I’ve been doing lots of prep-work for this weekend, I found something called the draft rating index. It basically grades how well your team does in the lottery. And the Bengals are at the top?! Wow, how times have changed.

And don’t forget to take part in Mark’s draft contest. All you do is say who you think your favorite team will take and you win… um, I don’t think there’s any prizes except for bragging rights. But I need anything I can get so that will work for me.

“Well, I have a microphone, and you don’t, so you will listen to every damn word I have to say!”

Tomorrow on our Unabated Sports radio show, we’re going to create our own NFL draft simulation. I and the two other hosts will pick players for different teams. If you want a voice for your team, you should send us an email at unabatedsports@gmail.com so we can include a fan’s choice for their team. We’re only going up to the 24th overall pick (the Bengals) so we won’t touch on teams who survived the first weekend of the playoffs. Sorry, Goat. But I know there are a couple of readers who follow other teams choosing in the top two thirds of the first round. Just put a list of about five guys you want to see your team pick and we’ll take whoever’s available. It wouldn’t hurt to rank them so we know which you prefer if multiple guys are still on the board. Also, the farther down the draft order your team is, the more choices you may want to put down. We go on the air at 4:00 p.m. eastern time so the deadline is approaching. Your team is on the clock. Who do you want them to take?

“Any suggestions?”
“Get up. Move faster.”
“Move faster. Great idea.”

Aprilween
Originally uploaded by Woodmania.

The brand new holiday of Aprilween was recently celebrated in Columbus. Definitely a good time at Bryan and Gretchen’s as they and their neighbors know how to throw a good shindig. You can see more Flickr pics from the Aprilween party. Keep checking it, I’ll be putting up some pictures as time and memory permit. But Aprilween wasn’t just in Columbus. There are others who took part, as well. Not a lot from the looks of it, though. It doesn’t seem like it’s taking the nation by storm, yet. Hopefully, it will catch on. As a man, I can only hope there are more days on the calender for women to dress as a french maid or cheerleader or twisted versions of fairy tale characters. Yes, I revel in my pigness.

Franz
Originally uploaded by Woodmania.

I technically took part in the Aprilween festivities, but was pretty lame in my costume. Yeah, Hanz from the classic Satuday Night Live sketch. Not a bad idea suggest by Moe’s brother, Daniel, who was looking for someone to go as Franz. That’s him in the giant foam cowboy hat above. So, obviously that plan didn’t pan out. When he changed his mind earlier in the week, however, I was too lazy to change my costume idea. And when I got to the party, I was too lazy to stuff my sweatsuit with towels. So, I had no muscles and no work-out partner. Pretty half-assed. I’ve done this costume before so maybe I was resting on my laurels. I thouht my fancy cardboard belt would impress but that didn’t happen. I have a lot to make up for when Halloween comes around in the fall.

“As Prometheus said to the Athenians, ‘I need another beer’.”

I already talked about this before but I have YouTubed this now. This was something I threw together before the Serenity movie came out. I was hoping this could have been something to help bring some unenlightened folks to see the movie. Unfortunately, the movie did not do well. I don’t think it was a coincidence that this did not get picked up by Browncoars and used as a promotional tool. Or maybe it’s because it’s just not that good. Probably the latter.
“You know what’s remarkable? That England looks in no way like Southern California.”

I listed a couple pseudo-holidays that occur on a normal-looking non-descript day. Apparently, yesterday was also National Look-Alike Day, as well. I never really felt like I looked like any celebrity, although a passing resemblence to the guy from Cheers gave me my nickname back in high school. I get a lot of people saying I remind them of someone in real life, but not anyone famous? Anyone think of a celeb I do resemble? (Yeah, that didn’t open the door for me to be insulted and dissed, now did it?) Do you look like anyone?

It was also Love-A-Teen day? Yeah, that sounds wrong.

“You know what? You just gave me something to think about.”
“I’m sorry, I hate it when someone does that to me.”