Reorganizing The Scouting Department

[K-9]

... Don't put words in my mouth and claim that I said we should scout Pop Warner - I don't think we should. But scouting the feeder high schools that send the most players to southern college football leagues makes sense. ...

 

 

Now I'm not tryin' to put words in your mouth so let's all make like a boll weevil and settle down into some soft cotton. It's MY idea to scout these youngins when they're in little league BEFORE the high schools get their mitts on 'em and everybody in the NFL knows who they are. It only makes sense that if you're gonna allocate resources to scout high schools then it doesn't take that much more to check out the local little leagues as well. There are so many undiscovered 4'2'' DEs so why not lock them up as early as possible?

 

GO BILLS!!!

 

P.S. Pop Warner was a back stabbing son of a B word who, after exploiting the great Jim Thorpe, was instrumental in Thorpe being stripped of his Olympic medals and Warner never did a damn thing to help him or his family have them returned.

Edited May 11, 2011 by K-9

[ICanSleepWhenI'mDead]

There are so many undiscovered 4'2'' DEs so why not lock them up as early as possible?

 

...

 

P.S. Pop Warner was a back stabbing son of a B word who, after exploiting the great Jim Thorpe, was instrumental in Thorpe being stripped of his Olympic medal and Warner never did a damn thing to help him or his family have them returned.

You're makin' my point. Aaron Maybin is a 5 pound DE in a 10 pound sack. If I remember right he went to high school in the Washington DC area - - that's how he met LaVar Arrington of the Redskins. OK maybe not the deep South, but still in the South by most people's definition. If we had scouted him even a little bit in high school and become familiar with the flaws in his game, maybe we don't fall in love with his college stats as a 1 year wonder who left Penn State early.

 

As for Pop Warner - - he was well before my time. I can't speak to his personality. For all I know, maybe he didn't have 'nuff branches in his family tree and weren't right.

[K-9]

You're makin' my point. Aaron Maybin is a 5 pound DE in a 10 pound sack. If I remember right he went to high school in the Washington DC area - - that's how he met LaVar Arrington of the Redskins. OK maybe not the deep South, but still in the South by most people's definition. If we had scouted him even a little bit in high school and become familiar with the flaws in his game, maybe we don't fall in love with his college stats as a 1 year wonder who left Penn State early.

 

As for Pop Warner - - he was well before my time. I can't speak to his personality. For all I know, maybe he didn't have 'nuff branches in his family tree and weren't right.

 

And you're makin' MY point, too! If the Bills would have scouted Maybin in little league, BEFORE high school, they would have known he was a washout waiting to happen. I'm glad that we're workin' on parallel tracks here. Time for that train to leave the station in Bills country!

 

GO BILLS!!!

[ICanSleepWhenI'mDead]

If the Bills would have scouted Maybin in little league, BEFORE high school, they would have known he was a washout waiting to happen.

 

GO BILLS!!!

If frogs had pockets they'd carry pistols and shoot snakes. Don't tell me which way my tracks run. I'm not the one who first said that we're all tryin' to rob the same train in the draft. Buddy knows what he's doin'. If you think robbin' a train leavin' a station in Buffalo Bills country is a good idea, all you're gonna wind up with is Jon Corto and Namaan Roosevelt. Players I like, but they ain't gettin' measured for a yellow jacket in Canton, Ohio any time soon.

 

I don't understand why it's so hard to see the advantages of trying to find out as much as you can about the best future players a little earlier than the 31 other teams that are ultimately competing with the Bills to get the best college players - - especially when our publicly announced plan is to build the team through the draft. Why is locating the best talent later than everybody else a good idea?

[K-9]

If frogs had pockets they'd carry pistols and shoot snakes. Don't tell me which way my tracks run. I'm not the one who first said that we're all tryin' to rob the same train in the draft. Buddy knows what he's doin'. If you think robbin' a train leavin' a station in Buffalo Bills country is a good idea, all you're gonna wind up with is Jon Corto and Namaan Roosevelt. Players I like, but they ain't gettin' measured for a yellow jacket in Canton, Ohio any time soon.

 

I don't understand why it's so hard to see the advantages of trying to find out as much as you can about the best future players a little earlier than the 31 other teams that are ultimately competing with the Bills to get the best college players - - especially when our publicly announced plan is to build the team through the draft. Why is locating the best talent later than everybody else a good idea?

 

And if snakes had bullet proof vests, they'd be daring pistol-packing frogs to shoot 'em. Far be it from me to tell you which way your tracks run but when you're coming around a sharp bend you gotta slow down like a turtle trying not to scare the snail on his back.

 

The Bills are robbin' the same train 'cause all the teams are in the same gang. But, the genius of your idea is that while the rest of the gang is concentratin' on the high paying customers in the bar car, we're takin' our time with the folks in the caboose.

 

GO BILLS!!!

[ICanSleepWhenI'mDead]

Just something I've been wondering about, has anyone here ever actually been persuaded by someone else's arguments on this Board? If so, I've never seen it. Really, I'd revere the day where a poster actually writes, after a few rounds of argument, "You know, I've considered your points and actually I've come around to your position." I won't hold my breath there.

Hey Coach - - do you need those exact words, or is an acknowledgement that my idea had at least some tiny element of "genius" to it enough? Ehh, probably not good enough. K-9's probably just layin' behind the log, as they say, and tryin' to get me to drop my guard. And I'm sure there are plenty of others who still don't see the value in re-allocating some of our scouting resources from west coast colleges to Southeast high schools.

 

Anyway, I got a lawn that needs to be mowed before my neighbor grabs a flashlight and tries to do it for me.

 

I'll try to holler back at y'all when I've got time.

 

Go Bills!

[ICanSleepWhenI'mDead]

Wasn't it Einstein who said that one definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again in the same way and expecting a different result? How many years have we been wasting scouting resources out west and getting roughly the same 7-9 results? Let the other 31 teams scout out west. We should scout high schools in the Southeast instead and be better train robbers.

 

Go Bills!!

This is a little too weird, even for me.

 

1. Look at the content, date and time stamp on the post I am now replying to.

 

2. Go to Chris Brown's "Inside The Bills" blog at this link:

 

http://blogs.buffalobills.com/

 

If you scroll down to the "Bills Daily Charge" heading for May 11, 2011, it says:

 

"General Manager Buddy Nix will be available today at 3:45 pm in the Buffalo Bills Training Facility to discuss the process of re-evaluating and re-organizing the team’s personnel department."

 

3. Check out the article at this link:

 

http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/bills-nfl/article420763.ece

 

Immediately below the Allen Wilson byline in the upper left hand corner of the first page it says "Published May 11, 2011, 10:58 P.M."

 

Here's what the Buffalo Evening News reported about the 3:45 pm press conference earlier that same day:

 

"If you keep doing the same thing the same way and get the same results every time," Nix said during Wednesday's news conference, "sometimes you need to make a change."

 

4. This stunning confluence of events allows only 3 possible conclusions. Either (a) Buddy Nix is on board with the idea of re-allocating some of our scouting resources from west coast colleges to Southeast high schools (after all, he was introducing a Southeast scout when he made the comments), (b) if you spout enough colloquialisms with enough enthusiasm you can actually channel Buddy Nix, or © they finally powered up that Large Hadron Super Collider gizmo in Switzerland till all the knobs read "11," came up with a unifying string theory of the cosmos, and created a black hole that ripped the fabric of the space-time continuum. If you think © is impossible, see http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/15/science/15risk.html

 

As for me, I would prefer that the universe not implode just yet, because I want to see the Bills win a Super Bowl some day, and the idea that I may have actually channeled Buddy Nix just gives me the creeps. So I'm going with choice (a).

 

Make fun of my idea all you want. Buddy's on board!!!!

[thewildrabbit]

For years I've been suggesting that the Bills (and other small market teams) employ more of a Moneyball approach. It's not just scouting, although I like your ideas with that. There are other areas where the Bills could get a lot more bang for their buck, to help make up for their inability to compete with the cash resources of the Snyders and Jones.

 

For example:

 

1) Strength and conditioning - why not spend a bit more to buy the best trainers and equipment money can buy? No matter how expensive it is, it's not going to be nearly as much as acquiring high cost free agents. If the Bills were to increase their S&C allocation by $500,000, I'm guessing it would pay for itself right away by reducing injuries (which result in sunk payroll costs), and winning games (higher overall revenue).

 

2) Coaching - again, good coaches aren't cheap - but the highest-paid coaches are still a hell of a lot cheaper than players. I never understood this aspect of Ralph's "philosophy" (if you want to label cheapness an ethos). Ralph doesn't like paying coaches top-dollar. It's stupid, because he ends up wasting money on expensive free agents and draft picks who don't develop properly in part because of the mickey mouse coaching regimes he hires.

 

3) Scheme - this one is more complex and debatable. But basically, Moneyball says, do the opposite of what the majority is doing, because the majority sets the market. If everyone else is running a 3-4, then linebackers and NTs are gonig to be very expensive. So run a 4-3 - not only will player costs be cheaper, but you'll have the advantage of throwing a different look at offenses than they're used to seeing every week. I'm oversimplifying there, but you get the idea - there is something to changing the scheme due to economics.

NFN but looking at the history of this franchise and I get the impression that RW doesn't want a high profile coach that demands a lot of power/control, and yet he hires a moron like Jauron and then gives him complete autonomy over the players, schemes and the draft , makes no sense.

 

I keep waiting for the team to get bad enough for Wilson to hire a top HC like Bill Cowher-Jeff Fisher or even Marty S, all 3 of those men could turn this team around in one year to a winning record, then playoffs within 2-3 years. All 3 know talent, they know what it takes to win and what schemes will work without turning over the entire roster again. My fear is that in 2 years from now this franchise will still be mediocre and be so very Jauron like at 7-9, and with everyone again thinking they are on the verge. When in fact all they will be on the verge of is more mediocrity, and by that time there will be no option of the chin, the stash, or the glasses.

 

 

At times tho I get this horrible thought that Wilson doesn't really want to win, he wants the stadium filled and the team on the verge so he makes a nifty profit, but doesn't want the cost of what a winning team would actually incur. Say the Bills make the playoffs and get to the AFC Championship game, suddenly every player on the team will be looked at closer by the media and fans...more players start to make the pro bowl because of the recognition and then all of a sudden the cost of keeping the star players goes up like crazy. QB's 15 mill a year- LT-RT want 10 mill a year etc etc etc.

I think Ralph Wilson knows the difference between a great HC and a mediocre one that will just get him to the verge, you seem to think he doesn't want to pay for a great HC, but perhaps he just doesn't want the cost of what a winning team would bring. With a small market team as the winning goes up...the profit margin goes down.

[ICanSleepWhenI'mDead]

The South is closer than the west.....

 

Holy cow.

 

What "sort of return" did we get out of the draft picks you mentioned from last year? What about Byrd, Levitre, Corner, Poz? All starters at one point already.

 

No talent "out west", huh?

 

Wow. This is all sorts of crazy.

1. Pick any city you want that you consider to be in the West, and any city you want that you consider to be in the South. Then let's look up how far each is from Buffalo.

 

2. None of the 4 players you mentioned was taken in the last two drafts. Of the 4, only Levitre played both high school and college football in the west. He's a telented player, and yes my proposal would have made it more likely that we would have missed him. But we might have caught him at one his team's away or bowl (if any) games. If he played in the Senior Bowl we could certainly have caught him there, because I'm pretty sure it gets played in the South every year because that's where most of the best talent is anyway. Levitre is just 1 guy anyway. Just my opinion, but I think any scout we diverted to Southeast high schools could have identified at least 1 guy early.

 

3. As for Byrd, he played his high school ball in Missouri. I'm not entirely clear what part of the country Missouri is considered to be in. I suppose we could check to see if it was in the Confederacy in the Civil War. Again, we might have caught him in one or more of his college team's away or bowl games, or in an all-star game. We may not have needed to devote any scouting resources to him at all, because Perry Fewell knew him personally when Byrd was in high school and Fewell wasn't a scout.

 

4. Corner played his college ball at Akron, and Poz at Penn State. My proposal to reallocate scouting resources from west coast colleges to Southeast high schools would have had exactly ZERO impact on the way we scouted both Corner and Poz in college. You can get to Happy Valley by heading west, but it's about a 24,000 mile trip (for clarification, the earth is round and even if you start out in the wrong direction, you can still get there if you pack a lunch and bring a flashlight).

 

5. I'm no expert on the DSM4, but where I'm from there's only 1 kind of crazy - - it's like being pregnant - - either you is or you aint.

Edited May 13, 2011 by ICanSleepWhenI'mDead

[ICanSleepWhenI'mDead]

Anyone who wouldn't draft any of those players has no business running an NFL team.

I've given your list and logic some more thought. Does it sound like a good plan, you asked? Well here's my answer - - Does a 1-legged duck swim in a circle? In case you've never been south of Cattaraugus Creek, that means "yes."

 

Here's why. Most people have heard the saying - - "Garbage in, garbage out." It means that if you start with bad data, you will ultimately reach erroneous conclusions, even if your logic is as waterproof as a frog's butt.

 

But in your example, you started out with a solid gold list of All-Pro players, but you still wound up with "garbage out" because your logic was faulty. Let me explain. Tom Brady was drafted in the 6th round. I'm not 100% positive, but I think there were already 32 teams in the league at the time (sadly, it seems like Brady's been killin' us forever). The way it works is that every team that hasn't traded its pick away gets a choice in each round. So all 32 teams passed on Brady in round 1. Then you repeat the process in round 2 the same way. The same 32 teams passed on drafting Brady again. Are you startin' to see the pattern? By the time you get to round 6, 32 teams passed on Brady five separate times (not accounting for any picks that had been traded to other teams - - but even then SOMEBODY used those picks and didn't take Brady).

 

Let's say the Patriots passed in the first five rounds 'cause they think they're smarter than everybody else and could still get Brady in Round 6. That leaves 31 teams that passed on Brady in each of 5 rounds. You said - - "Anyone who wouldn't draft any of those players has no business running an NFL team." That's an exact quote. But Brady was passed at least 155 times in that draft by teams other than the Patriots, and the number would be higher if he was picked somewhere later than the very first pick of round 6. So by your logic, 31 out of 32 teams had war rooms being run by people who had no business being there?

 

And that's just Brady. Care to review what round Drew Brees was drafted, and how many of the people who had no business running an NFL team passed on him?

 

That's just the first 2 guys on your list. So to put it in football terms, it was All Pros in, training camp fodder out.

Edited May 13, 2011 by ICanSleepWhenI'mDead

[OCinBuffalo]

As somebody who doesn't care at all about college football, I think this question is looooong overdue:

 

Can we please stop trying to win college football arguments using the Bills as a vehicle? Some of you would have us draft another bust, as long as he was from the conference you like.

 

I am completely done with (insert college football conference I don't give a f about) fans and their crusade to prove that their conference is the best posts,

and, I am equally done with (insert college football conference I don't give a f about) fans responding with their "But...but...but" posts.

 

Take this douchbaggery elsewhere. Some of us simply want an objective, fact-based opinion when it comes to college prospects, and we have been coming here for years to get it.

 

Only recently has the bias become a problem. The odd comment/post here and there was one thing and of course we can expect fanhood. However, the constant crusade some of you are on is completely different. Knock it the f off . You aren't "winning". All you are doing is removing any doubts we might have about your douchehood.

[Jauronimo]

Wasn't it Einstein who said that one definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again in the same way and expecting a different result?

 

It was Benjamin Franklin, and this must be the most commonly misattributed quote in the English language.

[Scraps]

I've given your list and logic some more thought. Does it sound like a good plan, you asked? Well here's my answer - - Does a 1-legged duck swim in a circle? In case you've never been south of Cattaraugus Creek, that means "yes."

 

Here's why. Most people have heard the saying - - "Garbage in, garbage out." It means that if you start with bad data, you will ultimately reach erroneous conclusions, even if your logic is as waterproof as a frog's butt.

 

But in your example, you started out with a solid gold list of All-Pro players, but you still wound up with "garbage out" because your logic was faulty. Let me explain. Tom Brady was drafted in the 6th round. I'm not 100% positive, but I think there were already 32 teams in the league at the time (sadly, it seems like Brady's been killin' us forever). The way it works is that every team that hasn't traded it's pick away gets a choice in each round. So all 32 teams passed on Brady in round 1. Then you repeat the process in round 2 the same way. The same 32 teams passed on drafting Brady again. Are you startin' to see the pattern? By the time you get to round 6, 32 teams passed on Brady five separate times (not accounting for any picks that had been traded to other teams - - but even then SOMEBODY used those picks and didn't take Brady).

 

Let's say the Patriots passed in the first five rounds 'cause they think they're smarter than everybody else and could still get Brady in Round 6. That leaves 31 teams that passed on Brady in each of 5 rounds. You said - - "Anyone who wouldn't draft any of those players has no business running an NFL team." That's an exact quote. But Brady was passed at least 155 times in that draft by teams other than the Patriots, and the number would be higher if he was picked somewhere later than the very first pick of round 6. So by your logic, 31 out of 32 teams had war rooms being run by people who had no business being there?

 

And that's just Brady. Care to review what round Drew Brees was drafted, and how many of the people who had no business running an NFL team passed on him?

 

That's just the first 2 guys on your list. So to put it in football terms, it was All Pros in, training camp fodder out.

So what is the point of scouting southern high schools instead of colleges in the north and west? To avoid 1st round busts?

Edited May 13, 2011 by Scraps

[ICanSleepWhenI'mDead]

As somebody who doesn't care at all about college football, I think this question is looooong overdue:

 

Can we please stop trying to win college football arguments using the Bills as a vehicle? Some of you would have us draft another bust, as long as he was from the conference you like.

 

I am completely done with (insert college football conference I don't give a f about) fans and their crusade to prove that their conference is the best posts,

and, I am equally done with (insert college football conference I don't give a f about) fans responding with their "But...but...but" posts.

 

Take this douchbaggery elsewhere. Some of us simply want an objective, fact-based opinion when it comes to college prospects, and we have been coming here for years to get it.

 

Only recently has the bias become a problem. The odd comment/post here and there was one thing and of course we can expect fanhood. However, the constant crusade some of you are on is completely different. Knock it the f off . You aren't "winning". All you are doing is removing any doubts we might have about your douchehood.

When I was growin' up I spent some time in Mortons Corners in a presently unspecified part of the country, and my Granny used to say, "Don't wrestle with the pig - - you both get dirty and the pig likes it."

[Mr. WEO]

1. Pick any city you want that you consider to be in the West, and any city you want that you consider to be in the South. Then let's look up how far each is from Buffalo.

 

2. None of the 4 players you mentioned was taken in the last two drafts. Of the 4, only Levitre played both high school and college football in the west. He's a telented player, and yes my proposal would have made it more likely that we would have missed him. But we might have caught him at one his team's away or bowl (if any) games. If he played in the Senior Bowl we could certainly have caught him there, because I'm pretty sure it gets played in the South every year because that's where most of the best talent is anyway. Levitre is just 1 guy anyway. Just my opinion, but I think any scout we diverted to Southeast high schools could have identified at least 1 guy early.

 

3. As for Byrd, he played his high school ball in Missouri. I'm not entirely clear what part of the country Missouri is considered to be in. I suppose we could check to see if it was in the Confederacy in the Civil War. Again, we might have caught him in one or more of his college team's away or bowl games, or in an all-star game. We may not have needed to devote any scouting resources to him at all, because Perry Fewell knew him personally when Byrd was in high school and Fewell wasn't a scout.

 

4. Corner played his college ball at Akron, and Poz at Penn State. My proposal to reallocate scouting resources from west coast colleges to Southeast high schools would have had exactly ZERO impact on the way we scouted both Corner and Poz in college. You can get to Happy Valley by heading west, but it's about a 24,000 mile trip (for clarification, the earth is round and even if you start out in the wrong direction, you can still get there if you pack a lunch and bring a flashlight).

 

5. I'm no expert on the DSM4, but where I'm from there's only 1 kind of crazy - - it's like being pregnant - - either you is or you aint.

 

I love when posters go balls out crazy---and with so much conviction and pride!

[ICanSleepWhenI'mDead]

I love when posters go balls out crazy---and with so much conviction and pride!

Can you name two cities? If you try to sneak thru by picking a city that isn't really in the west, people will snicker.

Edited May 13, 2011 by ICanSleepWhenI'mDead

[ICanSleepWhenI'mDead]

And if snakes had bullet proof vests, they'd be daring pistol-packing frogs to shoot 'em. Far be it from me to tell you which way your tracks run but when you're coming around a sharp bend you gotta slow down like a turtle trying not to scare the snail on his back.

 

The Bills are robbin' the same train 'cause all the teams are in the same gang. But, the genius of your idea is that while the rest of the gang is concentratin' on the high paying customers in the bar car, we're takin' our time with the folks in the caboose.

 

GO BILLS!!!

You ever see a video of Vanilla Ice tryin' to be a rapper?

 

That was a quickie - - still my turn.

Edited May 13, 2011 by ICanSleepWhenI'mDead

[ICanSleepWhenI'mDead]

So what is the point of scouting southern high schools instead of colleges in the north and west? To avoid 1st round busts?

I'm getting weary of explaining this, but I have never suggested taking scouting resources away from any of the colleges in the north. If you read my original post I think you can satisfy yourself that I'm not fibbin' about that. I can understand your confusion, though, because a lot of people have mischaracterized my suggestion to make it easier to criticize.

 

And we haven't even talked about what an advantage we would have if we've identified the next Peyton Manning coming out of high school, and the courts modify the NFL signing rules so that you can draft a player right out of high school with the talent to develop into a league MVP. Some NBA GM with no more smarts than Buddy Nix drafted Kobe Bryant right out of high school. Look at Kobe now. I actually underestimated his value in an earlier post - - I think I said he has 3 championship rings but I actually think it's more like 5 (not absolutely sure).

 

But to answer your question directly, the point is that Buddy Nix says that everybody in the NFL draft is tryin' to rob the same train, and we'll be better train robbers if we identify the best talent earlier than everybody else and evaluate it longer and more thoroughly.

Edited May 13, 2011 by ICanSleepWhenI'mDead

[ICanSleepWhenI'mDead]

With the exception of Aaron Wiliams out of Texas (which is more West), all of the Bills 2011 draft picks came from the South.

My youngest brother Darryl thought this was a fair criticism - how come Buddy drafted a guy from Texas if most of the best talent is in the South and Southeast? But then my oldest brother Darryl (he finished the 8th grade and has always had wisdom beyond his years) set my youngest brother Darryl straight. He pointed out that my Uncle-Brother Darryl growed up with Buddy in Talladega and knew him well.

 

According to my Uncle-Brother Darryl, Buddy is as sly as they come, and when Buddy drafted Aaron Williams Buddy was just throwin' them other NFL GMs off the scent. Them other NFL GMs know that Buddy's been a-scoutin' fellers since afore they wuz born. Word gets around right quick when Buddy starts draftin' folks. Them other NFL GMs said to theyselves, "Looky here, it's only round two and Buddy has already done stopped draftin' players from the the South and Southeast and has commenced to draftin' players from Texas. We better start draftin' players elsewhere, too if we'uns is gonna keep up.

 

But 'ol Buddy fooled 'em. He knew all along that he was goin' back to the South and the Southeast for the rest of the rounds.

 

My middle brother Darryl says it's kinda like sacrificin' a pawn to take a queen, but he's always been uppity just cause he knows how to play chess.

[ICanSleepWhenI'mDead]

And if snakes had bullet proof vests, they'd be daring pistol-packing frogs to shoot 'em. Far be it from me to tell you which way your tracks run but when you're coming around a sharp bend you gotta slow down like a turtle trying not to scare the snail on his back.

GO BILLS!!!

That snake would hafta be dumber'n my youngest sister Darlene, and she was born 6 weeks early and couldn't get 'nuff air. When she was born, the doctor slapped my Momma first for makin' bad choices.

 

But back to your reckless snake. Only snake I ever heard of bein' that reckless was what we called a "pant" snake back home. Most people think they're rare, but they's really just pretty reclusive, and usually nocturnal, so you rarely see one out in the open. Lots a times you can hear a muffled huffin' and puffin' sound bein' made when you're in their vicinity without ever seein' the actual snake - that's how they got the name "pant" snake in the first place.

 

You meet up with the kinda frog I'm talkin' 'bout, though, and he ain't just "happy to see" no snake, he's got a for real loaded pistol in each pocket. Your snake think he's invincible jus' cause he's wearing a bullet proof vest? What if the snake shot 'em in the foot?

 

Well OK, bad example on my part - - snakes ain't got no feet. But even snakes got parts the vest don't protect. What if the frog shot 'em in the right eye? Then ya' got a whole passel a trouble.

 

For starters, you gotta rush the snake to the vet. What if it happened in OT of a Bills game? Ya still gotta go - - your snake's down to only one good eye. The vet bill's gonna be astronomical. For starters, the vet's gonna have to remove the protective bullet proof vest so he can properly work on the snake to try to save his one good remaining eye - - but that ain't no sure thing. You wouldn't a had time to find no eye specialist snake veterinarian - - in that kind of sitcheeation you feel lucky just to make it the herpetological emergency room with a snake that's still movin.'

 

So all things considered, there's a fair to middlin' chance that your snake not only loses his right eye, but goes blind in the left one, too.

 

Then where are you? All you got is a blind, one-eyed pant snake slitherin' around out in public with no protection. If you think that's a good thing, you best have a chat with Travis Henry's accountant. And if you can't find him, try Willis McGahee.

 

My Granny says this was a long walk for not much groceries. She's usually right.

 

But speakin' of Travis Henry, I weren't no fan of his off-the-field choices, but he ran hard, he ran often, and he went to the Pro Bowl. He played his college ball at the University of Tennesse, and guess where he went to high school? Florida (big surprise).

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_Henry

 

We need to divert some of our scouting efforts from western colleges to Southeast high schools, so we can find more players as talented as Travis Henry ahead of the other 31 teams. I bet the Patriots are doin' stuff like this already but just not talkin' about it.