Whoa, what a flurry of posts!

I was looking through my bookmarks and saw something I meant to put up here on Action Football!

The Seattle Times ran a series on the 2000 Washington Huskies football team called "Victory and Ruins." I can't recommend these articles highly enough. I always knew Jerramy Stevens was an ass, but now I want to punch him in the nuts with the force of a hundred thousand punches.

That time of year....

The NFL Combine runs through tomorrow and apparently there have been some interesting stories. Or something. I watched the NFL Network's coverage for, like, fifteen minutes Saturday morning and that was enough. (Off the top of my head, the main stories are: Alabama tackle Andre Smith seems like kind of a fuck up, Northeastern tight end Brian Mandeville's heart is fucked up, South Carolina tight end Jared Cook is blowing scouts' minds, and Michael Crabtree's foot is fucked up.)

All this draft talk reminds me of Pete Williams's book The Draft which I read a couple years ago. While the information was interesting, man oh man was that a shittily written book. Anyway, with that book - and the ghost of Signing Day present still lingering - I remembered another book I've been meaning to read, Meat Market: Inside the Smash-Mouth World of College Football Recruiting by Bruce Feldman. Interestingly, since the book follows (fired) Ole Miss head coach Ed Oregeron through his recruiting process, it sort of dovetails with one of the last football books I read, Michael Lewis's The Blind Side, which discussed how a change in the pro game (pass rush specialists) led to an increased premium put on skilled blockers (big, quick left tackles) coming out of college which led to an increased value put on high school kids that fit that bill (typified, in the book, by current pro prospect Ole Miss tackle Michael Oher).

So, anyway, we're a day from the end of the Combine, and sixty-one from the NFL Draft. I'll tell you this much, even watching the NFLN's Combine coverage for a few minutes reinforced my commitment to watching they're Draft Day programming. 'Cause even though I like Mel Kiper, fuck a Chris Berman.

And speaking of ESPN, it was announced that Emmitt Smith will not be back as an "expert" for their NFL coverage. Head over to Awful Announcing for a trip down memory lane with some of Emmitt's best attempts at speaking.

Action Football! Episode 20

Our last "regularly scheduled" program for the season. The cosmos must have been trying to keep us from taking a break, 'cause I couldn't get this thing uploaded for the life of me. You know what they say, though, eighth time's a charm. So here you go:

It's Official: He's Official

Without consulting Rochester on this, I'm making an Executive Decision and naming Action Football!'s A-Number One Football Player of the Century. (drum roll)

MARSHAWN LYNCH!

Granted, neither Rochester nor I are Bills fans (although I think we'd probably both list them top 5, due in no small part to Marshawn), but it shouldn't come as a huge shocker. In at least one podcast we both talked about how awesome we think he is.

And now, there's this.

Read it. And meditate on it awhile. If Marshawn Lynch isn't now your favorite football player, pal, you got problems.

No podcast this week

You know, all that happened since the last episode is the Super Bowl, and that's not really a big deal, so we scratched recording this week for next. Then, we can cover what people really care about: The Pro Bowl!

Oh yeah, and today's National Signing Day. And in that spirit, take a gander at this article about Brian "Big B" Butler. The question isn't whether or not he's a dirtbag, it's how big of a dirtbag is he?

Action Football! Episode 19

Wha' Happened?: The Vikings

Perhaps the Vikings should be happy even making it into the playoffs. After all, they barely edged the Chicago Bears for the NFC North by beating a Giants team with nothing to play for with a last second field goal at home.

Minnesota's 10-6 regular season was good enough to host Philadelphia (9-6-1). Then, the Vikings' team was good enough to get beat 26-14. Rather than provide a point-by-point recap of how that game panned out (like Rochester's post from the other day), I'm going to look at what's going to make or break the Vikings for next season:

1. Quarterback. Quarterback by committee doesn't work in the NFL. It's even less likely to work when that committee is Tarvaris Jackson and Gus Frerotte. Jackson had the starting spot only to lose it to Frerotte after the second game; Frerotte went on to start nine straight only to play himself back to Designated Clipboard Holder for the Vikings last five games.

2. ...Face it, it's "quarterback" period. Sure, you could make a case for "wide receiver" but it's hard to know what Minnesota's current guys are capable of considering who they've had throwing to them.

The smartest thing "Major Brad" has done as head coach of the Vikings is publicly state that the quarterback competition is open for 2009. Of course, that competition isn't going to be worth much without someone brought in from the outside: otherwise, with Frerotte unlikely to be back, it's going to be Tarvaris v. John David Booty....

Maybe it's because I'm so familiar with NFC North (nee Central) history, but, even though he's got a long career ahead of him, without some sort of help (or the good sense to get away from the Vikings) I fear Adrian Peterson could be the next Barry Sanders.