Preseason Week 3 &mdash 29 August, 2005
From: JeffTo: mnf@doobie.com
Subject: It's Monday...
...and the NFL regular season starts in 10 days.
This week is the week that all NFL rookies dread. It's time for the coaches to make cuts to the roster. This time tomorrow, all NFL teams will have 65 or fewer players on their roster. By this Sunday, another 12 players will get the axe, as teams get down to the NFL's 53-player limit.
The first public victim of roster cuts is Maurice Clarett, whose name hasn't appeared here before for one reason or another. Denver hasn't announced their cuts yet, but in a statement released by his agent, Maurice announced that he'd already been given the news and cleaned out his locker.
You may be saying to yourself. Clarett, Clarett, if he's a rookie, why does his name sound strangely familiar? It's because he's got an interesting story, already:
So, back in 2002, as a freshman for Ohio State, Clarett helped lead the Buckeyes to a national championship. As is customary at division I football powerhouses, Maurice was given a number of special privileges, including at the very least, the use of a 2001 Chevy Monte Carlo, loaned to him by a local dealership (a dealership with alumni-booster connections, no doubt).
That car got broken into in the summer of 2003. Clarett for one reason or another, decided that this was an opportunity to make a few bucks and told the police that there was an additional $10,000 worth of cash, CDs, stereo equipment and so on in the loaner car. This naturally smelled fishy to the police, who started investigating, and the NCAA, who started looking for further recruiting violations at Ohio State. Nobody asked if it was unusual for a dealership to offer an extended loan of a car to a 19 year old college student.
Clarett tells the NCAA that he doesn't remember or know where all his new possessions came from, and denies that he's given any special treatment by local dealerships or by professors, or by the local police force. He misleads investigators, who eventually let the recruiting matter drop. As to the bogus $10k police report? He pled guilty to "failure to aid a law enforcement officer" and paid the $100 maximum fine for said crime. Well, someone paid it anyway.
In September 2003, OSU coach Jim Trassel announced that Clarett had been suspended for the duration of the 2003 NCAA season. Sportswriters and bookies alike responded by removing OSU from the top-tier of football schools for the year. Trassel was applauded by some as being the only person trying to punish Maurice for his stupidity, but it's entirely possible that he was also trying to protect his football program from the prying eyes of NCAA investigators, by distancing his program from Maurice.
Clarett, in turn, responds by saying that if he can't play for OSU, that he's going to go pro in '04. There's only one problem: the NFL has a rule that you must be three years out of high school to be eligible to play for an NFL team. The first draft that Clarett would be eligible for would be the 2005 draft. A lawsuit ensues. The first judge decides that the NFL's age requirements are illegally discriminatory. This is overturned on appeal, Clarett misses the '04 draft, and by the time '05 comes around he's eligible, and the Denver Broncos surprise everyone by drafting him in the third round. At this point, it's been more than 3 years since Clarett has held a football during an actual game.
And today, with zero minutes played during the preseason, a groin injury sustained during training camp, and what seems like a plethora of running backs fighting for roster spots all over the NFL, it doesn't look like it's going to happen for him this year either.
My guess is that he'll end up playing in Canada for a while.
This is also the week in the NFL, when the preseason games start looking like real football games. Most teams keep their best players in for the entire first half, and those players (even those who aren't fighting for their jobs) are playing with nearly 100% intensity. It's a great time to evaluate players and teams.
The sportsbooks think that the top three teams in the NFL are the Eagles, Patriots and Colts. All are a 6:1 bet to win the Super Bowl XL (notice there are two AFC teams there). Close behind at 14:1 are the Steelers, Panthers and Falcons, with the Vikings and Ravens at 16:1. Our Raiders are 50:1 (as are the Bengals and Cardinals), and despite the good showing by the 49ers defense, they're sharing the 200:1 longshot position with the Cleveland Browns.
While it's fun to talk about these numbers, they're not very wise bets. What's really interesting about them is that it shows what the professionals think about teams and groups of teams. When certain choices seem wrong (like the Denver Broncos, underrated at 33:1), look for misplaced game lines involving those teams, especially in the first few weeks of the season.
To use the Broncos as an example, they are favored by a mere 3.5 points over the Dolphins for week 1. Does that sound right to you?
Which brings us to tonights game.
The Game:
Tonight, the St. Louis Rams go to Detroit to take on the Lions in the (obviously named) Ford Field. Ford Field, as football venues go, has got to be one of the most unique. Taking a page from the baseball architect's playbook, the designer of this stadium preserved the brick warehouses that had been standing on the site for 80+ years, in an effort to make the modern stadium fit into the downtown neighborhood. The warehouses now make up the south wall of the stadium, and hold three stories of luxury boxes that overlook the FieldTurf covered field.
You'll be hearing about that a lot, because these will be the luxury boxes for this years Super Bowl.
The Line:
The Lions are favored by 3 (though it was 3.5 last night). The over/under is 44.5. The smart money is still not playing, but likes the Rams to beat the spread.
The Bar:
We're trying a new one this week, and if it's decent, we'll probably be back. You've probably seen it as you get off of the Bay Bridge, though it may have been known as something else the last time you looked. Rumor has it that they have more square inches of plasma display than anywhere in The City outside of The Metreon and serve a very decent burger.
Ted's Sports Bar and Grill
398 7th Street (@Harrison)
Within a block of the 12,27,47 and 19 busses.
Four odiferous blocks from the Civic Center Muni.
Kickoff is at 5:00, which is too darn early.
See you there?
Links:
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=1919246
http://www.bullz-eye.com/griffin/2003/091101.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/lopresti/[...]