Tag Archives: 2009 Draft

Congratulations, Michael Oher

Psrhea, Sports, ,

I know you would have loved to see Michael Oher in a Raiders or 49ers uniform. But that just wasn’t in the cards. That aside, I can’t help but be happy for him.

Seven years ago he was just a lost homeless 15-year-old living on the streets of Memphis, not smart enough to stay out of trouble, didn’t know who his mother was nor how many siblings he had littered all over the ‘hood. In all likelihood by now he either would have been dead or doing long, hard time and not really understanding why (after having fathered Gawd knows how many children). But because somebody looked beyond the scary exterior, saw the underlying goodness in him and took an interest (I don’t care that they were white and were looking to make him into a football player, maybe even for their own selfish purposes, however cliché’ that is), he is now going to become a multi-millionaire whose financial future will be both guaranteed and secure.
 
I’m not a fan of the Baltimore Ravens but this is a really good situation for him. He will get to play for one of the better organizations and offensive lines in the NFL, and because they are already good on the O-line he will have time to learn his position. Because a friend gave me “The Blind Side” by Michael Lewis to read I am a fan of Michael Oher.

Congratulations, Michael Oher. You deserve everything you are about to get. Here’s hoping you have a long, successful, perennial All-Pro career in the NFL and an even longer, financially secure and happy life…

– daveydoug

Once Again, Oakland Doesn’t Disappoint

Sports, ,

OAKLAND, CA – Just when Raiders fans had managed to exorcise the ghost of Todd Marinovich, the crazy old man in a sweatsuit who claims to own the Oakland Raiders threw the waiting draft day audience not one, but two curve balls today – the second one was so curved it took out the first baseman.

First, with consensus best WR Michael Crabtree sitting in the Green Room he decreed that Darrius Hayward-Bey would be Da Raiderz first round pick – on the basis that he had a much cooler name…
“Hayward Bay is the stretch of water just west of the stadium, right?” stated the crazy old man at a press conference later on Saturday.

No, that wasn’t an minor earthquake you Northern Californians felt a little after 7pm – it was the collective Raider Nation banging their heads against a wall when Mike Mitchell was announced as the teams second pick. This guy was so far down the draft board that ESPN didn’t even have a highlight to show; NFL.com didn’t have his height and weight to post on the live draft board; Mel Kiper had this guy’s name written on a post-it note with a big “Who?” next to it.

Draft Day can get boring, but the rest of the nation would like to thank the crazy old man in a sweatsuit who claims to own the Oakland Raiders for keeping us all entertained this Saturday. Raider Nation, we send our sympathies…

– MCZF1

In The Fall Game, Hope Springs Eternal

Psrhea, Sports,

I know I shouldn’t spend all day Saturday (4/25) watching the NFL Draft, but I just can’t help myself.

Most of it is spent waiting while 32 first-round picks take six hours or more to be made, with only one being by the team I have religiously followed since moving to Northern California almost 40 years ago, the San Francisco 49ers. But as somebody who doesn’t follow major league baseball any more and can’t really get into basketball except for the NCAA Tournament (I’m black, so I’m sure you all are thinking that my disinterest in basketball is ethnically impossible), for me the NFL season ends when the Super Bowl is played (I have never counted the Pro Bowl the following week as a real game) and really begins in earnest on the last Saturday in April with the NFL Draft.

On that day, every team is starting their new season. Every team starts out with the same identical record. On that day a new crop of rookies is joining your team (mine included) to help them win. Never mind that the reality – that at least half of them will fail, some of them spectacularly and miserably – is much more sobering than the ideal. On that day your team (mine included) will pick the players that are the foundation of what you believe with every fabric of your existence will be a championship team somewhere down the line, hopefully sooner rather than later.

So here’s hoping that B.J Raji, Michael Oher and Brian Orakpo (in order of preference) are still there when the 49ers get to make their first choice, 10th overall — and that the 49ers have the good sense to choose one of them.

– DaveyDoug