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Now I love Uncle Luke.  I don’t know that you will find many who wore the University of Miami uniform who don’t.  You know whenever someone starts it off by saying they love somebody,  there’s another shoe about to drop.  I have to call him out on his recent article written in Miami New Times about super agent Drew Rosenhaus entitled: Drew Rosenhaus is the Gordon Gekko of Sports Agents.

In Luke’s article he references Terrell Owen’s quotes about how Rosenhaus referred him to financial planners who steered him into poor and risky investments that eventually flopped.  Luke also calls Rosenhaus out for having never donated a dime to the youth leagues in the inner city of Miami,  the place where a great deal of his clients come from (according to Luke).  Luke also takes Drew to task on failing to teach his clients fiscal responsibility and stated that Rosenhaus “preys on under privileged African Americans.”

Now hold on!  First of all,  it’s not Rosenhaus’ responsibility to teach his clients fiscal responsibility.  It would be nice but it’s not what he was hired to do.  How can we even be sure that Rosenhaus is fiscally responsible? Hell, everyone thought Leigh Steinberg was fiscally responsible didn’t they?  Word from bankruptcy court is that he’s not.  Rosenhaus was hired to get the most money out of NFL teams for his clients and it seems as though he’s pretty good at that.  I never bought a set of steak knives from Luther Campbell but I damned sure bought his albums because he made good music that people wanted to listen to.  My point is,  Drew Rosenhaus is a NFL agent,  not a financial advisor.

Why should Rosenhaus donate money to the youth leagues in the inner city, because Luther Campbell started and runs one?  Seems a little self serving doesn’t it?  Isn’t this what Luke is accusing Drew of?  If Rosenhaus delivers a couple of grand to the Liberty City Optimist League will that make everything he does o.k. with Luke?  I don’t know but the article sure comes off like this would be the case.  So Rosenhaus should donate to the charities that are near and dear to Luke’s heart?  I doubt Luke did any research on what charities Rosenhaus donates to.  For all we know,  Rosenhaus donates to the United Negro College Fund or to an inner city literacy movement.  All Luke knows is that Drew signed players from Miami’s inner city and he did not donate to Luke’s league so that’s a problem.  Almost like Luke is charging Rosenhaus a fee for picking up players from the city he lives in.

I sure recall some of Luke’s artists accusing him of taking money from them back in the day.  Now one of two things happened.  Either Luke fleeced them out of some cash or his artists were frivolous and care free in their money management.  When all the money was gone,  the artists were looking for someone to blame and Luke was it.  I tend to believe the latter as experience would tell me.  This seems kind of similar to what T.O. is doing with Rosenhaus.  Guess who’s responsibility T.O.’s money is?  T.O.’s !!

Athletes getting lazy and using their agent as their all everything when the agent’s prowess is contract negotiation is a mistake.  That’s a mistake made by the athlete.  The agent is going to be the agent.  They make deals and they will make deals with investment firms, insurance firms, real estate firms and they will steer clients to those firms they have deals with.  It’s on the athlete to do their research on the firms and make sound decisions on the most important commodity which is their money.

I played on a team with Michael Barrow, Darrin Smith and Jesse Armstead.  They all played in the NFL for quite some time but none of them made half of the money T.O. did.  All three of them seem to be doing quite well for themselves and they have all been out of the game for quite some time.  None them had a privileged up bringing but they were all wise about “their” money.  How’d that happen?

Can we stop expecting others to look out for us?  Can we grab the bull by the horns and handle our own affairs?  I attended a rookie symposium once and there were quite a few in attendance who seemed quite disinterested in the messages being sent their way with regards to women and money.  Let’s not cry now and point fingers when the money’s all gone.  If T.O. knew nothing at all about money he could have saved himself by asking Drew one simple question, “do you have money in this Alabama casino deal?’.  That would have given him quite a bit of answers wouldn’t it?

Drew Rosenhaus is from North Miami and Luke is from Liberty City.  Both made a substantial amount of money in their lifetime.  Who do you think should teach inner city youth about fiscal responsibility? Luke was not out donating money to pregnant teens or preaching sexual responsibility to the thousands of white teens who purchased his albums in the 80′ and 90′s.  However,  I sure know there was one thing on a person’s mind when they were listening to the Two Live Crew or Luke’s records.  Luther Campbell benefited greatly from record sales amongst white american teens.  Did he shell out some money to help them when the loose talk of sex help them get naked?  Let’s not be the pot calling the kettle black.

We can start with pushing reading harder in our inner cities.  I think Luke could lead the charge.  If we open up their minds to reading which leads to learning then teaching them about money after that will stick.  I think Luke could lead the charge on that.  We can get books and magazines to replace the iPods and Beat headphones every now and then.  Luke can lead the charge on that.  If the message in the inner city is not coming in the form of a hip hop rap or from some half dressed female,  them most aren’t trying to hear it.  Reading can go a long way in curing that mentality.  Luke can lead the charge on that.  If we want to wait around on sports agents to pour their time and effort into these objectives then we can get ready to read about more stories like T.O.’s.

I guess ultimately,  Luke on a smaller scale,  is doing to Drew what was done to him.  When he obtained a certain amount of status as a performer based mostly on another race being his customer,  the establishment tried to shut him down.  However,  this doesn’t make it right.  How about if Luke,  now that he has assassinated Rosenhaus’ character,  collaborate with the agent and direct him to some charities or outlets where he would do well to pay attention?  Again,  I love me some Luke but I have to call b.s. on this one. What Luke may realize is that he’s more like Rosenhaus than he thought.

General

General

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General

What Research Found Out On This Very Important Topic
By: Chad Wilson   @Gridironstuds

Please follow me on Twitter @Gridironstuds

Football fans across America continue to obsess over the most simple drill in the game of football. Is there anything more discussed than the 40 yard dash? Every Spring, this drill takes center stage and undoubtedly the question is asked 1,o00′s of times. What’s the fastest 40 yard dash?

Just as sure as you get the question asked 1,000 times, you will get dozens of ridiculous answers. For starters, let’s find out why the 40 yard dash? When and why did 40 yards become so significant? It started in the 1960′s with the NFL team that had the most developed and comprehensive scouting department and that was the Dallas Cowboys. Prior to this time period, NFL coaches chose the 50 yard dash as the mark of measure to determine a player speed worthiness. In 1960, Gil Brandt, the director scouting for the Cowboys along with his department came up with the 40/20/10 measurement. The 40 was used for all players. The 20 yard split time of the 40 was of great significance for linemen since the thought was that they rarely run 40 yards in a game. The 10 yard split was important for wide receivers as a measure of their burst off of the line of scrimmage. With this, a drill was born and almost 50 years later, it has become the center piece of info on a prospective high school, college or professional football player.

So who had the fastest 40 yard dash ever? Research confirmed what I already knew and that there is no way to really tell. Here are some important things to know about the 40 yard dash:

Run your fastest 40 ever. Click on the pic.

- A hand time (use of a stop watch) will usually be faster than an electronic time

– There are two types of electronic times:

1. When a watch is started by a coach and an electronic beam records the time when it picks up the player crossing the end point

2. When an electronic beam picks up the movement of a player from the start and starts the clock. An electronic beam also detects the player at the end point and stops the clock. This time will be slower than version #1 and even slower than a hand time in which a coach starts his stop watch when he sees the player begin the run and then stops the watch when he sees the player cross the finish line.

- An accurtrack time will be the slowest of all. Accutrack is what is used at track meets. The clock in accu-track timing starts when the starter’s pistol is shot. The runner’s time for the event is recorded digitally when the technology detects the player crossing the finish line.

Studies have shown that that average reaction time by a human to a starter’s pistol is .25 seconds. For this reason, anyone who compares a 40 yard split time in a 100 meter event and compares it to reported hand timed 40 yard dash marks is making a big mistake. If you want compare the 40 yard split of a runner in a 100 meter event, subtract .25 seconds from the recorded time. So, Olympic runner Justin Gatlin’s 4.42 forty yard dash split recorded during his Gold Medal winning 9.85 100 meter run, would convert to a 4.17 forty yard dash by football standards.

After much research a few things have come up over and over and over. These things plus my own two eyes would lead me to believe that Darrell Green, Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders were the fastest football players to ever play the game.

It has been said consistently that Darrell Green recorded a time of 4.09 at the Washington Redskins’ training camp in 1986. That’s a hard time to swallow but Green’s obvious speed has been put on display many times while he was in the NFL. Green ran down from significant distances two of the fastest running backs to play in the NFL (Tony Dorsett and Eric Dickerson). Green has said in interviews that the fastest time he has ever been aware of running is 4.15. To his credit, Green does have a verifiable and official time of 10.08 in the 100 meters while he was a college student at Texas A&I University. If anyone could run a sub 4.1 forty, it was Darrell Green.

Many sources report a 4.12 forty yard dash time for Bo Jackson and if you watched him turn the corner and run down the sidelines in 1987 versus the Seattle Seahawks, you would not doubt any time reported by this freak of nature. Repetition does not make it a fact but if enough sources have reported this time to make me believe it. Jackson has an official 10.39 time in the 100 meter dash in college.

Deion Sanders has the closest thing of the three as a verifiable 40 yard dash time. Sanders ran a 4.21 forty yard dash at the 1989 NFL combine and kept right on going through the finish line into the first round of that year’s NFL draft. Like Green and Jackson, anyone who watched Sanders play would have little trouble believing that Sanders pulled off this feat. Sanders recorded a 10.21 100 meter mark while at Florida St.

Of course there are scores of reported 40 yard dash times that have made the rounds on the Internet. Some are ridiculous like the 3.9′s attached to a couple of players and some 4 flats that were attached to some others.

Here are some of the problems with reported 40 yard dash times from team workouts. Some times you can’t be sure that the distance run was indeed 40 yards. There’s always the chance that the distance was not properly marked. When teams do individual private workouts for teams, often times the scout has not brought the necessary tool to mark off the distance. There’s also the chance that player’s will cheat the distance. I have first hand knowledge of a player starting in front of the starting point to run a forty, fully taking advantage of the fact that there was only one scout on hand and that he could not tell if the player was indeed starting at the correct mark. Another problem is the angle of the surface. There are plenty of practice fields across the country that have a slope. Coaches see great value in having their players run on a slight decline to record eye popping times. Savvy scouts will insist that players run up one way and then down the other. An average of the two times is taken to get the most accurate time. One other problem is that some players run the 40 yard dash with cleats on grass while other places have their players run on a synthetic track with spikes on. Guess who would record the fastest time.

In my personal experiences, I have seen some sub 4.3 forty yard dashes in my time. Kevin Williams of the University of Miami (1989-92) ran a 4.28 forty yard dash before my own eyes. Former Hurricanes Tremain Mack (4.25) and Al Shipman (4.27) ran sub 4.3 forties before my own eyes. Track star Henry Neal recorded a 4.20 forty yard dash before my own eyes in a workout for the Miami Dolphins in 1996. The Dolphins did not sign Neal since his football background was quite limited. I never watched him run an actual 40 yard dash but after having to cover him in training camp, I am inclined to believe every second of Joey Galloway’s reported 4.18 forty yard dash.

One player that is not on the list is Bob Hayes of the Dallas Cowboys. No doubt, Hayes was one of the fastest men, if not

Bullet Bob Hayes

the fastest man to put on an NFL uniform. However, as it relates to the 40 yard dash, I could find no time recorded for this Olympic Gold medalist. Hayes has the fastest 100 meter time for an NFL player at 10.05. Should current Florida Gator Jeffery Demps make it to the NFL for any significant amount of time, he will own the fastest time at 10.01. Demps ran this as a high schooler and owns the national prep record for the event.

The fastest recorded 40 yard split on record belongs to Olympian Maurice Greene. During his World Record 60 meter run of 6.33, a mark that still exists, Green crossed the 40 yard mark at 4.18. Remembering that .25 seconds must be subtracted from that time due to Accu-track timing and you come up with a 40 yard dash time of 3.93 seconds. What’s the problem with that time? It was run on an indoor track with spikes on giving the runner an advantage over the football players who have run on grass with cleats.

In an effort to centralize all the reported 40 yard dash times. I will start what we call the SUB 4.3 Club. I will attempt to keep a running record of the sub 4.3 forty yard dashes and their owners in this list. I will refrain from adding times of the ridiculous and will do some research on all times that qualify. I will say one thing, can you web surfers stop reporting that Deion Sanders ran a 4.57 forty yard dash backwards. That’s just flat out ridiculous.

Enjoy the following list of reported (and somewhat believable) 40 yard dashes run under 4.3 seconds. We will continue to add on to this list over time. Did I miss someone? Comment on this article and make your case. Please do not quote high school forty yard dash times. Nothing against them, let’s just stick to college and pro football right now.

Listings in bold are new ones added since last update.

………………………………………………………………………………………..

Note Updated 1/11/12: Three new additions to the list.  Clayton Holmes as prompted by a visitor named Kane who reminded me about the speedster front the Cowboys.  After some research I was satisfied that he did indeed run a 4.23 forty yard dash during him time with the Cowboys.  The other two additions came from an interview I happened to view from Tom Shaw who has trained some of the fastest men that have ever played and continue to play in the NFL.  Ike Taylor of the Steelers who Shaw says ran a 4.25 coming into the NFL.  Shaw also said Taylor once ran a 4.18 but I will stick with the 4.25 run before pro scouts.   Shaw also mentioned how Rod Woodson ran a 4.28 at the NFL combine.  I don’t know how that fact escaped me but it has escaped me no longer.  So three new additions.

Notes Updated 3/05/11: Two new additions to the list.  I added the 4.20 forty yard dash that I witnessed Henry Neal run at a Dolphin tryout in 1996.  I remember it well because I had to run my 40 after his.  My 4.44 clocking seemed pedestrian after Henry mowed the lawn for the scouts.  Neal was not a football player but a track star that was well put together.  He was 5’9″ 177  of all muscle.  Perhaps some Dolphin scout saw him on his travels and flew him in for the workout.

The other addition is Walter Sutton.  I was reminded of this by an ex-Miami teammate of mind named Kelvin Harris who resides from the Fort Myers area that Walter Sutton also came from.  Sutton was drafted in the 4th round in 1991 by the Atlanta Falcons.  Sutton unfortunately was not able to start his NFL career because he was prosecuted on a drug dealing charge.  Sutton attended SW Minnesota St. and the best way to get drafted that high out of a school that size is to have speed and Walter did clocking a 4.28 forty for the Falcons in a pre draft workout.

Notes Updated 3/02/11: DeMarcus Van Dyke is the latest addition to the list after clocking a 4.28 at the NFL combine.  That’s about as legit as it gets.  Van Dyke is the 4th Miami Hurricane to make the list.

Notes Updated 1/24/11: Foolish me for not updating this sooner with Sam Shield’s 40 time since I witnessed it myself on his pro timing day last spring.  While I still had my mouth open from his 11’3″ broad jump where he seemingly got stuck in the air,  I watch Shields go out and chew up the first 40 yards like a 6 year old chews up a pack of bubbilicious.  He then smoothly coasted through the 2nd twenty and had scouts huddling up like they were calling a play on 4th and 1.   There were times all over the place ranging from 4.30 to 4.22 but the one most heard was 4.25 so that’s what I went with.  Johnny Knox is also deserving to be on this list. Knox, from the Bears, ran a 4.34 at the combine when he was coming out but he also ran on his pro timing day and there are may reports that put his time in the 4.26-4.29 range.  4.29 is what I have heard the most,  so that is what I went with.

Notes Updated: 3/04/10: USC’s Taylor Mays has been added to the list with his unofficial 4.24 at the NFL Combine.  Eventhough his official time was a 4.43,  I must include Mays’ time since several of the times on the list are hand times just like his.  Pretty amazing given Mays size (6’3″, 230 lbs.).  I may say that’s outside of Bo Jackson’s time,  Mays’ may be the most impressive when you take in the size factor.  Trindon Holliday has also been added for his unofficial 4.27 run at the combine on 3/01/10.

Notes Updated 3/01/10: Clemson’s Jacoby Ford and CJ Spiller were added to the list today.  Ford’s time at the Indianapolis NFL combine was a 4.27 unofficially and 4.28 officially.  CJ Spiller’s unofficial time was also a 4.28 but his official time ended up being a 4.37.  I am taking the 4.28 because there are many times on this list that are unofficial hand times.  Any way you look at it,  CJ Spiller can fly.

Notes Updated 1/04/09: Who knew this article would become so popular.  This has ended up being one of the most popular sports articles on the Internet since I wrote.  Just goes to show how much of a hot topic 40 yard dash times are.  I have received so many comments and emails about 40 yard dash times.  Please understand this 40 yard dash list is an “official” list meaning the times on it can be verified.  I am sure there have been some sub 4.3′s run out there but they have been done in a way that can not be verified.  There are a 100 stories about some boy name “D-Rock” who ran a 4.17 with some high tops on at lunch time on the grass field.  I can’t put those times on there.  There are even times that may be closer to official that I won’t even include.  For instance,  anyone who has seen C.J. Spiller or Jacoby Ford from Clemson or Trindon Holliday from LSU run could guess that these guys probably run sub 4.3 forty’s.  I am sure they have probably run them for some coach or strength and conditioning guy.  In fact,  Ford is said to have run a 4.26 at Clemson.  Holliday’s high school coach claims he ran a 4.27 but I am suspicious of high school forty yard dash times.  I need to tell you that up front.  Spiller has an alleged low time of 4.28.  However,  he also has a high time of 4.47.  On situations like that,  I will just wait to see what they run at the combine or in their private NFL workouts.  Sometimes,  they don’t hit the times you expect them to hit.

NOTE: Some of the times listed above may have been run on a track with spikes on. In cases where I know that to be true, those players are excluded from this list. Football is not played on a synthetic rubber surface with track spikes on. DeAngelo Hall’s reported 4.15 on Virginia Tech’s indoor track when he was a junior in college would be an example of that.

Is there someone missing from the list? Comment on this article with name and the time. I will check it out and add it if research dictates that it should be there. Comment on this article.

General 40 yard dash, bo jackson, champ bailey, cj spiller, college football, darrell green, deion sanders, DeMarcus Van Dyke, jacoby ford, james jett, johnny knox, nfl football, raghib ismail, sam shields

General

So much talk about the Indianapolis Colts and what they should do.  Whether it’s lose their last game intentionally to whether or not they should trade Peyton Manning and draft Andrew Luck.

In my next life,  I would want to be a NFL general manager.  Hell,  if I weren’t running up on 40,  I would make a run at that career right now. I guess I need someone to encourage me to go after it anyway despite my advancing years.  However,  I digress.

In Peyton Manning,  the Colts have a proven winner, hard worker,  team motivator, etc.  It would be ludicrous to part ways with Manning in favor of an unproven rookie no matter what you feel his potential may be.  I don’t even believe that the Colts should draft Luck and have him sit behind Manning until Manning retires or proves that he can no longer get it done.  After all,  we have no idea when that might be.  Also,  if Luck is all that people believe that he will be then he probably needs to be on the field sooner rather than later ala Matthew Stafford.

So what should the Indianapolis Colts do with their #1 draft pick.  The Colts should use that pick to either pick the best player in the draft that is not a quarterback or trade that pick away to earn several more picks and put the best possible team around the quarterback position.  Why should they do this?  Well,  one day,  Peyton Manning will no longer be wearing a Colts uniform.   It is in the best interest of the Colts to create a situation where the next quarterback coming in does not have to be Superman or even Andrew Luck at first for the team to be successful.  Draft a Hall of Fame type running back (Trent Richardson).  Acquire a dominant left tackle.  Get a big time wide receiver.  Have an awesome defense.  Set all that up now in preparation for “The End of Days.”   Why ignore the other needs of your team while trying to replace the best player on the team and in the franchise’s history in it’s modern era?  That’s like getting up to replace the oven gold Turkey on your plate when you know the potato salad is spoiled, the rice is overcooked and the macaroni tastes like a glass of milk.

General

Combine season is fast approaching and there will be athletic testing popping up on every open stretch of grass in the major cities across the country.  With so many combines to choose from,  how do you determine which ones are a worthy endeavor and which ones are a waste of time and hamstring energy.  One major aspect that can separate the real from the unreal is the presence of standardized testing at the combine event.  By standardized I mean digital time of the 40 yard dash and other agility drills.  It’s the best way to legitimately gauge one athlete against another either at the local combine or another combine taking place at another location.  I see the implementation of standardized testing being the wave of the future on the high school level if no other reason other than the fact that so many athletes participate in these combines annually.   Zybek Sports out of Boulder, Colorado is taking a leadership role in bringing standardized athletic testing to the high school level.  Here is a recent article written by them on the importance of standardized testing at combine events.

IMPORTANCE OF STANDARDIZED COMBINE TESTING
By: Michael Weinstein – Zybek Sports
email: mike@zybeksports.com 

With fractions of an inch and two decimal places separating the top players on most teams, it is important to ensure an athlete’s data is uniform and accurate.   Colleges and Pro teams need to ensure that the athletes they are considering are being measured consistently and accurately.  The use of Fully Automated Timing (FAT) systems, where the time is started by the athlete and stopped by the athlete, are the first important step in ensuring that athletes are being compare fairly.  Other important steps include: ensuring the system is setup in exactly the distance specified; providing a certificate of timer equipment accuracy, and documentation of the test conditions, including running surface type, weather conditions, etc.  Not following these guidelines will always call into question the accuracy of the claimed time.

Zybek Sport’s timing system provides a traceable F.A.T platform.  Wires are used to connect the timer display unit to the remote sensors.  Although wires may seem old-fashion, marks on the wires are placed exactly at the 10 / 20 / 40 yard positions, thus ensuring exact placement of the timing points.  Also, the use of wires precludes any timing interferences / delays in wireless communications with the timing box.  Another issue that needs to be considered when setting up a verified, traceable timing system is ensuring the system is configured properly.  ZAP has designed the basic F.A.T. systems to be extremely simple.  Whereas some timing systems have software and remote communications links, ZAP’s system has two switches:  one on / off and one reset.  This makes operation easy and leaves little room for setup error.

Vertical Jump.  
To reduce testing time, many coaches have opted to use devices to measure “hang-time”.  The “hang time” is then used to calculate the vertical jump.  Although this method may be reasonable from a classic physics perspective and is fast, it often does not translate into an accurate actual vertical jump.  The classic vertical flag stack measurement is what the NFL uses and most colleges.  Vertec was the first to pioneer the vertical jump measurement system.  The flag system was and continues to be the most accurate means of measuring the vertical jump.  The use of a Vertec can often be time consuming, however.  For example, some coaches, often a use a piece of tape placed on the pole marking the athletes reach height.  After the athlete jumps, a tape measure is used to determine the distance between the tape mark and the bottom flag.  Accurate, but slow.

A new system by ZAP has made the testing very fast with no math.  The reach height is set by adjusting the mask to the height reach height.  The jump height is then simply read from the flag.  Although amazingly simple, this method of determining the vertical jump is very fast, easy and intuitive.  When maximal jump height is needed, the mask is set at a scribed mark and the height is simply read.  This is both fast and accurate.

Providing an accurate, standardized and documented method of physical combine testing is important to the athletes.  Athletes need to be very careful when selecting a testing institution for providing their numbers.  As mentioned, it is obvious that using a hang-time measurement is not an accurate method of reporting the vertical jump measurement.  The NFL uses a series of mechanical flags to measure vertical jump.  The testing company reporting the athlete’s score should use the same system.  The timing system differences, however, are a little more subtle and need to be investigated before accepting times from a combine company as real.  The most important requirement for any testing company is the use of a Fully Automated Timing system.  As seen in most programs, the difference in times between the top athletes is so minor, that any error introduced by a hand start makes the difference between the athletes statistically the same.   Even giving experience coaches the benefit of repeatable hand-eye coordination, it is nearly impossible for the eye to view the start; the brain to process; and the hand to mechanically ‘push the start button’ with 100% repeatability.  At the 2011 NFL combine, the best time in the 40 was 4.28 seconds.  The next nine times ranged from 4.34 to 4.40.  If you had the 4.31 second time, wouldn’t you be questioning the consistency of a hand started time?  Especially because some combine events span multiple days, the starter’s actual reaction time can be influenced by fatigue and ambient conditions that far exceed a few hundredths of a second.  So, ensuring the combine testing company has a repeatable, verifiable; F.A.T. system is of paramount importance to the numbers.  Also, it appears the laser-style start sensor system, is a reliable start method for a F.A.T. system.  Other systems, using a touch pad, can alter the preferred starting position of the athlete and be one additional mental distraction (e.g., am I pressing hard enough? Will I slip on the pad if my back foot contacts the pad, etc.)  that has nothing to do with running the fastest time possible.  Laser start systems measure and test the athlete’s performance.  Additional human errors are eliminated.

General 40 time, 40 yard dash, combine

There’s nothing more exciting than a football player taking a football and weaving through defenders to go the length of the field.  In celebration of that and to give a shameless plus for an awesome Dri-Fit T-shirt,  I am going to be holding the weekly/monthly “Bomb ‘ Em for 90″ segment on Gridironstuds.com.  This week we are going to take a look at two plays from the NFL yesterday and both were accomplished by players from the NFC North Division.

First up was Green Bay’s Jordy Nelson.  The much maligned receiver operating in the finest receiving corps in the league hauled in a slant and go (slugo) route from Aaron Rogers and raced 93 yards to the end zone vs. St. Louis yesterday.  It was just another big play for this offense enroute to another victory to move them to 6-0 on the season.   Here’s a view of that exciting play:

Next up, we have a man who is no stranger to the end zone and to traveling the length of the field at high speeds.  You may have missed it last night and who could blame you as the Bears were busying beating Minnesota’s back out in a snoozer.  With the Bears up 26-10,  the Vikings just scored a touchdown and came up with the brilliant idea of kicking the ball to Devin Hester.   You can only guess what happened next.  Hester tap danced on the Vikings’ beard and their hopes as he ripped it down the sidelines for a 98 yard kickoff return.  Now the Bomb ‘Em for 90 Committee usually reserves the highlights for touchdown passes of 90 yards or more but we will make occasional exceptions for extraordinary plays and players.  Hester and his deed falls under those categories.  Check out his dazzling return and entry into the Bomb ‘Em for 90 Hall of Fame:

From the high school edition,  which is what I really want this to be,  you have to take a look at the man who coined the phrase,  taking a kickoff back 90 yards for a touchdown earlier this season versus Goose Creek High School and that’s University School’s MacGarrett Kings.  Take a look:

Get Your Bomb ‘Em for 90 Dri-Fit T-Shirt

Bomb' Em for 90 Dri-Fit

Here’s a shirt that every wide receiver, quarterback, running back, kick returner or offensive player should own.  It’s the ultra comfortable,  highly sporty,  make a statement, Gridironstuds.com “Bomb ‘Em for 90″ Dri-Fit T-shirt.  If you are electric and you know it,  sport one of these and let everyone know.  Wear it to practice,  wear it on game day, wear it under your pads,  wear it to camp, to the combine, to the park,  wear it in the dark and let ‘em all know,  that at any moment you could “Bomb ‘Em for 90″  Only $25..   Send email to: cwilson@gridironstuds.com now

Did you Bomb someone for 90?  If you had a touchdown play for 90 yards or more and have the video,  let us know.  Send an email now with the description and link to the video to: cwilson@gridironstuds.com.

Bomb 'Em for 90, General

West Virginia's Geno Smith

What a sneaky title this is.  While the main premise of this article is to propose a more logical realignment of the current college football conferences,  it is also a sneaky way to slip in yet another Division I playoff format.  This way we can do something logical in this sport like crown a champion by what happens on the field.

My conference realignments serves to group college football programs into regional areas (another thing that makes sense but isn’t done).  It also serves to include all college football teams in the quest for the championship and not eliminate programs by lumping all the 2nd tier schools into one conference.

With 120 Division I-A teams,  this is the perfect time and perfect number for something like this to be done.  With 120 teams,  it is now possible to have 10 college conference consisting of 12 teams.   This allows every conference to have a championship game.  Just the very thought of that should excite every college football fan as well as the teams, players and coaches.

Grouping the teams by region creates awesome rivalries that will mean something.  Of course some previous conference rivalries will be lost but provisions can be made for every program’s biggest rivalry to remain in tact.  Also the regional conference groupings set up a great situation for a playoff system that makes sense.

My proposal calls for a West Region and an East Region with five conferences in each region.  Each conference will have six teams on one side and six on the other.  Initially,  the split can be done to have balance of program strength between each side.  A realignment of the conference splits can be done every three to four years to maintain the balance between both sides of each conference.  The realignment will be based by the performance of each team over the previous three to four years.

So before I dive headlong into the intricacies of this realignment along with offering rebuttals to arguments people may have,  allow me to reveal to you the proposed conferences and their teams.   Of course,  the names of the conferences can be tinkered with but I went with made most sense at the time I put them together.

I placed teams in each sides of the conference based on my recollection of their recent historical performance in college football.  I will continue this article after the tables showing the realigned conferences with the meat and potatoes of how this proposal will improve college football to levels never before seen.

Here they are:

Now let’s talk about the realignments, scheduling, competition and the all important playoff system.

No more independents

Enough with the flying solo.  The NCAA puts their foot down on a lot of things when it comes to college football but continue to get pushed around on other very important things.  Tell Notre Dame the gig is up and that if you want any shot at playing for a national title,  you have to take your conference assignment.  Yes,  I propose that the NCAA become Nazis with regard to this.  They also need to say the same to Army and Navy.  Everyone’s in a conference.  That’s as fair as fair can get.

Conference strengths

There’s no way to make every conference have equal strength but this is as close as you can get.  At first glance it looks like Wisconsin would have an easy path to the conference title game each year but who knows if one or more of the other teams in their conference don’t improve dramatically when the prize of a national title becomes real.  There is no more MAC conference or Conference USA or WAC where we lump in all of the weaker programs and have the king of that conference crying about how they don’t have a chance for a title.  Those smaller programs are spread throughout the conferences.   I am sure someone will come with the argument that putting those programs in with bigger programs will keep them away from ever winning a conference title.  My reply is that these teams are winning conference titles now and the ones who are winning titles should welcome the chance to step it up against the big boys.  In looking at the alignments,  there is a tremendous amount of balance between them.

Regional Bragging Rights

Setting these conferences up soley by geographical location sets up a situation where each region can develop a sense of pride about the way they play football. Also a  program can take pride in knowing that they reign supreme over a conference that is comprised entirely of teams within a small radius of their location.  No more Lousiana Tech battling Hawaii in a Western Athletic Conference game.

But What About the Loss of Conference Rivalries?

What about it?  When college football programs bolt from one conference to another in search of better television deals or revenue sharing,  no one seems to care about destruction of conference rivalries.  I was watching the 30 for 30 special on ESPN about “The Death of SMU” and remembered that there was once a conference called the SWAC. There was also a Metro-Conference.  Conferences come and go and new rivalries get formed.  I think rivalries are more powerful when they occur between teams in close proximity to each other.  There’s the chance that every week will be emotional in these conferences.

Scheduling

With six teams on each side of each conference,  every team will have five conference division games.  I am then proposing that we take a page out of the NFL book and make the out of conference games pit one conference against another.  So, for instance,  Florida St. would play conference division members Miami, Georgia Tech, FAU, UCF and FIU equaling five games and then have another six games against the members of one side of the Southwest Conference.   So for example they would play Texas A&M, Texas, Houston, SMU, N. Texas and Arkansas St..  That would give them 11 and everyone else 11 games.  Every program will also have a 12th game which would be used for rivalry games, historical games, interesting matchups etc.   So for example,  Texas Tech,  who is no longer in a conference with Texas can have their last game be against Texas if the two schools want to preserve some type of rivalry.

Now the Playoffs

To have a playoff system under this alignment,  we would need either 14 or 16 teams from each region to enter the playoffs.  I am proposing 14 teams from each region and issue bye weeks in the first round to a team from each region.  Before we get to the playoffs though,  every conference would have their championship game.  The winner of each division within a conference would meet at the end of the year to determine a champion.   Once that has been done we then issue a first round bye in the East Region to the highest ranked conference champion and then also do the same for the highest ranked conference champion in the West Region.   We would then also have the need to select two wild card playoff participants from each region.  I propose that the two highest ranking conference runner ups from each region be selected as playoff wildcards.  So you now see two ways in which the ranking system remains relevant in how we arrive at a champion.  After the teams with byes,  the next two highest ranked conference champs would face the two wild cards.  The other game would pit a conference champ against another conference champ.  So let’s see what that would look like.  I am going to use the 2010 season as an example and make some hypothetical assumptions about who would win the conference title games:

Conference Title games:

East Region

Southern Conference: #16 Alabama defeats #23 Florida St.
Southeast Conference: #1 Auburn defeats #20 South Carolina
Northeast Conference: #6 Ohio St. defeats Boston College
Mideastern Conference: #11 Virginia Tech defeats North Carolina
Northern Lakes Conference: #4 Wisconsin defeats #7 Michigan St.

West Region

Southwest Conference: #3 TCU defeats #18 Texas A&M
Mid-American Conference: #14 Missouri defeats Iowa
Midwestern Conference: #8 Oklahoma defeats #9 Arkanasas
Mountain West Conference: #10 Boise St. defeats Arizona
Western Conference: #2 Oregon defeats #4 Stanford

So here’s what the playoff brackets would look like.  Some quick notes, in seeding the regions for playoffs,  the two top teams would be split between the upper and lower part of the regional brackets.  The rest will be paired high rank vs low rank.  So highest ranking team will play lowest ranked team, etc.  EXCEPT in cases in which the pairing would result in an immediate rematch of a conference title game.

Here’s what the playoff bracket would look like based on my hypothetical conference championship winners:

wc stands for wildcard…

Before anyone says anything like,  after all that we still have the same two teams playing for the championship.  Well,  that only happened because I did the simple thing of having the higher ranked team win each matchup so of course we would end up with the same matchup the BCS has produced.  However,  I think we all know that there would undoubtedly be upsets especially with the potential of a lower ranked team being better than a higher ranked team with the faulty measures used to do rankings.

But What About the Bowls?

The Bowls still remain and there would be a ton of good matchups amongst bowl eligible teams that did not make the playoffs.  For instance:  Miami v. LSU or Oklahoma St. v BYU or Michigan v. Texas Tech and many more.  The bowl committees can set up parameters centered around what conference seed would face what other conference seed in the bowls.  Plenty of awesome matchups would still be available.

A Playoff Would Make the Regular Season Irrelevant

Don’t need to spend much time on this.  Under a system like this,  that would be false.  Each game in each conference has meaning as there is a division and conference race going on every week.  Also,  the rankings have a meaning so teams must play at a high level every week in and week out.

The Perks of this System

Personally,  I would be glued to my television set each week if a system like this were in place.  I would be able to see the playoff and national title picture unfold on the field and not necessarily have to just wait till Sunday evening to see where we are at.  The playoffs would also be riveting.  Every other level of football has playoffs (pop warner, high school and pro football).   This set up is much like the NFL’s which is the best run sport in this country.

What could also happen under this realignment is under performing programs of the past who have wallowed in mediocrity in conferences full of other mediocre teams may now feel the pressure to improve and stay relevant.  This could lend itself to more parity as programs try to avoid embarrassment.

Feedback

I would love to hear from those of you who love college football and have read this proposal.  What could go wrong?  Where would we have a problem with this?  What do you like about it?  Comment away.  I want to hear from you.

General auburn, bcs, college bowls, college conferences, college football, lsu, miami, Notre Dame football, ohio st., oklahoma, oregon, usc

 Yes,  I know it’s old news but there are still those of you out there who have not seen it.  So this is for you.  A couple of weeks back, the Packers were out doing their thing which of late is beating the back out of the Chicago Bears (sorry windy city fans).

During the course of another Packers victory,  Sam Shields found himself going down field with Hester on a pass route and things got a little testy.  Don’t know who shoved who first and what may have led up to this but what I do know is that Hester and Shields started to go “All Andre Rison vs. Deion” on each other.  Luckily the referee and cooler heads prevailed before it go full scale but this is the first I can recall two Hurricane teammates getting into it with each other on the field.  Now, this would not have been unusual on the Hurricane practice field but to see it when they are on separate pro teams is unusual.   For those wondering,  Shields and Hester were not at Miami at the same time.  Shields came right after Hester’s departure. If anyone can name another instance in which this would have happened,  please comment.  If anyone can think of an instance in which players from the same school got into on the NFL field,  please comment.

Finally,  who would win a race between these two?  Shields has been clocked at 4.23 and Hester at 4.24.   That would be better than this facemask pounding contest.

General devin hester, Miami Hurricanes, sam shields