though i can hardly call this surprising:

Kim Yu-na Falls Behind at University

Kim Yu-na

Olympic figure skating champion Kim Yu-na may be formidable on the ice, but she is in trouble academically. A second-year student in physical education at Korea University, she received two Fs last year and is reportedly determined to pay more attention to her academic endeavors this year.

Kim barely made it to class last year. Although Korea University runs special morning curriculum for athletes, Kim mostly trains and competes overseas, so it was almost impossible for her to attend.

It seems she was also unable to complete assessed assignments or turn in reports replacing exams on time. Apart from attendance, it would be difficult for the university not to give her failing grades when there is so little they can use to evaluate her performance.

As an athlete in the national team, Kim can submit training plans to make up for attendance. In the second semester last year, Kim sent emails to the professors of the classes she registered and sought their understanding for being unable to attend classes. As for tests, she is required to replace them with written assignments. While she is abroad, she can submit them via email, and when she is in Korea, she visits the university to hand them in herself.

Kim needs to take 140 credits in order to graduate, and it seems unlikely that she will be able to graduate in the normal four years, as that requires her to take 18 to 20 credits a semester. From next year, Kim will be able to take classes at a partner university of Korea University in Toronto and transfer the credits.

english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/03/16/2010031600231.html

i am not the type of guy to say i told you so, but based on the amount of hate the man received, i can’t help but get defensive about my boy. so here it is: i told you so.

from my post dated april 5:

kyle orton is a vastly underrated quarterback. sure he doesn’t have the arm of jay cutler, but he is a winner. he’s tough, smart, makes good decisions with the football, is well respected in the locker room, and say what you like, he wins… he put up respectable numbers with far less protection or weapons than he will have in denver, led the bears to the playoffs as a rookie and very nearly got them there in his first season as a starter post rex-grossman. don’t be surprised if he puts up big numbers in denver. kyle orton, you will be missed.

with the monday night win over the chargers, the broncos head into the bye week 6-0 with kyle orton under center.  orton has thrown 9 touchdown passes this season against only one interception (it was on a hail mary), he has completed 63.9 percent of his passes for 1465 yards, and has a qb rating of 100.1.  yes, i’ll say that again to let it sink in: kyle orton has a qb rating of 100.1.  no one ever said the man was pretty.  but he just wins.

i guess i need to update this picture to reflect a bronco’s uniform…

let me repeat what i said on opening day 2008:

i believe in kyle orton.

ps- was that my high school lifting buddy, larry english, who sacked kyle orton on monday? future hall of famer, mark my words. barring injuries.

True blue Patterson

Jason King, Yahoo! Sports Oct 16, 6:59 am EDT

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The lights inside Rupp Arena had been off for 20 minutes, but Patrick Patterson wasn’t ready to leave.

Not as long as there were still pictures to take, he said. Not as long as there were autographs to sign and fans to meet – especially the 4-year-old who had waited more than an hour after the game to talk to her favorite Kentucky basketball player.

As Patterson reached over the rail to sign the girl’s program, a security guard grabbed him by the arm and directed him toward the tunnel. Rupp Arena was officially closed, the man announced. It was time for everyone to leave.

Two years later, Patterson still remembers how he felt as the girl dropped her pen, wrapped her arms around her father’s leg and began to sob.

Patrick Patterson with Kentucky fan Heather Durham.

(Photo courtesy Elizabeth Allen)

“It was terrible,” he said. “I didn’t have any choice but to walk back over there and sign her program and take a picture with her. I couldn’t make a little girl cry. She looked up at me said, ‘Thank you Mr. Patterson.’”

The 6-foot-9, 235-pound Patterson paused and softened his voice.

“It really is amazing,” he said, “how much power you have as an athlete, how much influence they can have on a little kid. It feels good to be able to make them smile.”

Perhaps that explains why Patterson, a probable first-round pick in next summer’s NBA draft, ended up in the living room of a total stranger last week. After serving as an instructor during a Kentucky’s basketball camp for women, Patterson encountered a mother in the parking lot who needed a ride home because her husband had experienced car trouble.

As if offering to give her a lift wasn’t enough, Patterson followed her into her home and spent 10 minutes talking with her husband – an avid Wildcats fan – and their two young sons.

Patterson approves almost everyone who requests access to his Facebook page. As of Wednesday he had 4,992 friends. One of them is Heather Durham, a 14-year-old Kentucky fan with cystic fibrosis.

Heather, who is on the waiting list for a double-lung transplant, had never met Patterson when she sent him an instant message a few months ago, so she wasn’t expecting him to respond. Patterson, though, spent the following two months offering encouragement to Heather during online chat sessions.

Patterson took things a step further a few weeks ago when he showed up at the University of Kentucky Children’s Hospital for a surprise visit with his new friend. Heather said the two of them talked for nearly two hours.

“He was so cool,” Heather said during a phone interview Monday. “He told me he’d be praying for me.”

Other than the nurses taking pictures of him with their cell phones, Patterson didn’t encounter any cameras or microphones or reporters as he left the hospital that day, mainly because no one knew he was there. Oftentimes visits by sports stars are organized by the athletic department and publicized with a press release.

This act of kindness, though, was all Patterson’s idea and something he didn’t even share with his parents or coach.

“Patrick isn’t looking for attention,” Kentucky’s John Calipari said. “He’s not out chasing ambulances. He’s just doing what comes natural.”

---

Shortly before he arrived at the hospital earlier this month, Patrick Patterson received a call from his mother.

“I can’t talk right now,” he told her. “I’m on my way to see a friend who’s sick.”

Tywanna Patterson gasped.

“Oh gosh,” she said. “Whoever it is, I hope they’re all right.”

Unfortunately Heather Durham is not OK.

In July her cystic fibrosis progressed to the point where doctors put her on a waiting list for a double-lung transplant. Although Heather can still take part in most of the normal activities of a 14-year-old – she recently went skating – she needs the constant aid of an oxygen tank to help her breathe.

Elizabeth
Allen

Heather was 2 when her older brother, Joshua, died of cystic fibrosis at age 6. The disease, which is inherited, causes thick, sticky mucus to build up inside the lungs and digestive tract.

“No one knows how long she has,” said Elizabeth Allen, a nurse at the hospital who has grown close to Heather. “It’s a waiting game right now. If she doesn’t get new lungs and her condition continues to progress …”

Elizabeth, 24, stops for a moment as she thinks about Heather, who often spends the weekend at her home. Not long ago she took Heather to a shrimp boil. Last month Elizabeth and Heather stayed up until 4 a.m. window-chalking her boyfriend’s car.

Because her condition has worsened, Heather is now being home-schooled in order to limit her contact with children who may be sick with something such as the flu. If new lungs become available, Heather has to be at the hospital within an hour for the transplant to begin. The procedure won’t be allowed if she has an illness or infection.

As she waits for a donor, Heather spends her free time texting friends or on the computer chatting with people such as Patterson, whose hospital appearance is still a hot topic among the Durhams and their friends.

“He could’ve given her five minutes,” Elizabeth said. “He could’ve said, ‘Bring her by practice and I’ll step away for a minute and say, ‘Hi.’ But for him to do this for a 14-year-old girl he’d never met, and for it to be his idea … I couldn’t be more impressed.”

Uplifting as the afternoon was for Heather, Patterson was touched by the visit, too.

Kentucky’s Patrick Patterson shoots over Ole Miss defenders, Malcom White and Terrico White during the first round of the SEC Tournament on March 12, 2009.

(Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

None of it would’ve happened had Heather not sent a message to Patterson back in July – the same day doctors told her she had been put on the waiting list for new lungs. Heather was already one of the thousands of friends on Patterson’s Facebook page but, until that day, the two had never chatted online.

“I walked into her [hospital] room, and she was like, ‘He’s writing back! He’s writing back!’” said Allen, the nurse. “She was so excited.

“I left and went to look him up on Facebook myself so I could send him a message and tell him about Heather’s condition. He responded later that night and said, ‘I’d love to meet her.’”

At the time, Patterson was in San Francisco, where he spent eight weeks during the summer working with a personal trainer. Still, in his free time, he managed to keep in touch with Heather leading up to his surprise visit late last month.

Allen, who doesn’t really follow Kentucky basketball and had never met Patterson, picked him up that afternoon and drove him to the hospital. She said Heather blushed and turned “15 shades of red” when Patterson walked into her room. Heather had been admitted to the hospital the previous day because of abdominal pain, but that was hardly an issue during her nearly two-hour conversation with Patterson.

Heather asked him how he liked Calipari and questioned whether he was going to grow out his hair. Patterson teased her about boys and told her about what it’s like to be “stalked” on campus. Then they looked at pictures on Heather’s camera.

All the while, nurses and patients crowded around the door to take pictures through the glass window. Eventually Heather pulled a curtain around her bed.

“He’s here to see me,” she said, laughing.

Heather’s mother, Gracie, was in the room during the visit.

“Sometimes people like that will act like they don’t have time for you because of their celebrity status,” she said. “It’s like you’re not ever worth their time. But Patrick was so down to earth. It was like he’d never met a stranger.”

Calipari

As Patrick said his goodbyes that day, he promised Heather he’d keep in touch. He said the words Heather uttered before he left the room still stick with him.

“She told me she was scared,” Patterson said. “She said she was scared she wouldn’t get new lungs, scared of the operation if she did … just scared. I told her to stay strong and that everything would work out. I told her she’d be able to lead a normal life once she got those lungs.”

Heather said she and her father are planning to be at Rupp Arena on Friday for Big Blue Madness so she can cheer for Patterson. She hopes to be able to talk with him but realizes that may be difficult because of the big crowd.

Whatever happens, Elizabeth Allen said Patterson has already provided an invaluable gift.

“All Heather wanted to do was meet Patrick Patterson,” Elizabeth said. “I will never forget him for making that happen for her.”

---

In the fall of 2006, while trying to decide on a college, Patrick Patterson and his parents listened to a recruiting pitch from Marshall head coach Ron Jirsa. Marshall is located in Patterson’s hometown of Huntington, W.Va.

Tywanna Patterson said Jirsa tried to sell them on the notion that Patterson could star at Marshall for one season and then enter the NBA draft.

“My husband [Buster] just about went off on him,” Tywanna said. “He hadn’t done his homework. If he was pushing the NBA after one year he clearly didn’t know anything about the Pattersons. With us, it’s about education.”

As successful as he’s been on the court and in the community, Patterson has been equally impressive in the classroom, where he’s on the verge of achieving a feat that’s almost unheard of for a college athlete.

If everything goes as scheduled, Patterson, a junior, will graduate in May after only three years of college.

“That’s the plan,” he said.

It hasn’t been easy. Patterson said he has taken 18 hours every semester since his freshman year as well as nine hours each summer. A communications major, he said he carries about a 3.0 grade point average.

For Patterson, the trek to a degree sometimes means reading text books on airplanes while other Wildcats play cards. He often passes on video game tournaments in hotel rooms with his teammates so he can work on his laptop.

Last year, following a game at Vanderbilt, Patterson said he crammed for a communications exam during a nearly four-hour bus ride from Nashville to Lexington.

“The bus pulled in about 5 a.m. and the test was at 8,” he said. “I never went to sleep. I’m going to do whatever is necessary to get that degree. The opportunity is there. Why not seize it?”

Even during his pre-college years, discipline was always one of Patterson’s trademarks. For that, he credits his parents. Tywanna has worked in Huntington’s Social Security office the last 20 years. Before Patrick came along, Buster was based in Washington D.C. as a member of the U.S. Navy.

Patrick Patterson averaged 17.9 points and 9.4 rebounds as a sophomore at Kentucky.

(Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

With Patrick as their only child the Pattersons did everything to make sure their son was well-rounded. Tywanna read Bible stories to Patrick while she was still pregnant with him. Eventually Patrick would learn to bowl and ice skate. He joined the Cub Scouts and placed second in the fifth grade spelling bee.

Patrick said he was one of the only members of his senior class to have a curfew. Frustrating as the situation became, it kept Patrick from running with the wrong crowd both at Huntington High – where he earned McDonald’s All-American honors after leading his team to three state titles – and at Kentucky.

“Being affiliated with thugs and negative people doesn’t do you any good,” Tywanna said. “People in the NBA … they don’t want guys without good character. It’s not marketable, and it’s not good for the team.”

The NBA is where Patterson will likely be soon. Professional scouts have pegged him as a probable top-20 pick in the 2010 draft. He likely would’ve gone in the first round in last summer’s draft after averaging 17.9 points and 9.4 rebounds as a sophomore, but a few weeks after announcing his intentions to turn pro, Patterson withdrew his name from the pool before he ever conducted a single workout.

Along with earning his degree, Patterson said he returned because he believed Calipari – a former NBA coach – could help him become more versatile in the paint and because Kentucky has a legitimate shot at winning the national championship.

“These days,” Calipari said, “unless a kid is brainwashed, they’re going [to enter the draft] when they have a chance to go that high. But this kid made a decision, and he and I barely even talked about it. I just told him, ‘I’m here if you need me. I’m not going to try to convince you to stay. If you want to be coached, I’d love to coach you.’”

Now Calipari, who was hired in April to replace Billy Gillispie, will get that chance.

Kentucky’s season will begin in earnest when the Wildcats take the court for Big Blue Madness. With the nation’s top recruiting class joining Patterson in Lexington, most preseason polls have Calipari’s squad ranked among the top five teams in the country.

“I’m going to do everything I can to help take us to the top,” Patterson said. “I feel like I still have a lot to prove. I want to be one of the top-10 players who ever played here. I want to be someone that fans always remember.”

Patterson has already accomplished that mission. Not just because of his play on the court, but because of what he does off of it.

“I don’t think a lot of athletes realize how much people are watching them,” Patterson said. “People look at us as the top dogs on campus. We’ve got an example to set. We can influence and help so many people by just doing the little things.

“Smiling, being friendly, that kind of stuff.”

Patterson smiled.

“It’s really not that hard,” he said.

Copyright © 2009 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

“There’s Michael Jordan, and then there’s the rest of us.” - Magic Johnson
“That was God disguised as Michael Jordan.” - Larry Bird

A Tribute to the Greatest of All Time

Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player to ever play the game of basketball. He transcended the sport. He was a legendary warrior, a mythical figure in his own time. And yet he was just like you and me. He was the the face of the Bulls, the game of basketball, and the city of Chicago. But he belonged to everyone.

I never even owned a Bulls jersey. I never wore Air Jordans. I never had a Bulls starter jacket. I never even saw Michael Jordan play in person; I still haven’t been to a Bulls game, and the only time I ever set foot in the old Chicago Stadium or the United Center was to watch ‘The Nutcracker on Ice’ with my mom. But you better believe I was right there in the arena with Jordan every night, afraid to look away for fear of missing something unforgettable. And that as soon as I was big enough to pick up a basketball, though I could barely even hit the net, much less the rim, that I was playing basketball, driving to the hoop or throwing up fadeaways. Michael captivated my childhood.

Though I missed most of his early career because I was simply too young at the time, I was old enough to witness the epic battle between Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley in the 1993 NBA Finals. And when Michael came back in 1995, I savored every moment of his second run. I choose to ignore his third. Michael never played for the Wizards. Not in my universe.

The Michael of my universe was an immortal being, bigger than basketball, larger than life, bigger than any man. And even though Charles Barkley is my favorite player of all time (because he was the most entertaining), Michael is the one I aspired to. I, like all of us, stood in awe of Michael Jordan.

But of all the amazing feats, accolades, and conquests on Jordan’s resume, one memory stands out from all the rest. One game, one moment, with the stamp of greatness. Game 5, 1997 NBA Finals versus the Utah Jazz. The “flu game.”

ESPN for its part calls it the 79th most memorable moments of the past 25 years…

79: Jordan battles flu, makes Jazz sick

Rick Weinberg
Special to ESPN.com

The legendary MJ proved super-human in overcoming a wicked bout of food poisoning during Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals, scoring 38 points and nailing the game-winning three in 44 minutes.

He remembers waking up in the middle of the night, sweating profusely, shaking, and feeling as if he was going to die. “I was scared; I didn’t know what was happening to me,” Michael Jordan would say.

At first, he thought it was a nightmare. Then he realized it was real, that he was seriously ill. “I felt partially paralyzed,” he would later say.

When he lifted himself up from his bed in his Utah hotel room, his head began spinning. He’d never been so nauseated before. He feared that somehow, some way, someone had slipped some kind of drug in something he ate.

It was the middle of the night in Salt Lake City, an off day between Games 4 and 5. The series was tied, 2-2, following Utah’s second consecutive win, but how in the world could Jordan play in this condition in Game 5?

Jordan called the Bulls’ medical personnel, which came rushing to his room. They determined that he was suffering from food poisoning or an intestinal stomach virus. “There’s no way you’ll be able to play Game 5,” Jordan was told.

Jordan remains in bed for the next 24 hours, missing the Bulls’ morning practices the day before and the day of Game 5. He had lost several pounds. He was dehydrated. Then, at 3 p.m., just three hours before tip-off, Jordan rose from his hotel bed and dragged himself to the Delta Center.

THE MOMENT
It’s 4:30 p.m. when Scottie Pippen sees Jordan emerge from a side door of the Delta Center. “The way he looked, there’s no way I thought he could even put on his uniform,” Pippen would say. “I’d never seen him like that. He looked bad — I mean really bad.”

Jordan sequesters himself in a dark room adjacent to the Bulls’ locker room. He slowly lies his weak body down. He closes his eyes. He visualizes himself running, shooting, passing, rebounding, dunking. Soon, he emerges from the room, staggering slowly. He puts on his uniform and walks out to the court, weak and pale. “I can play,” he tells coach Phil Jackson. “I’ll let you know how I’m feeling as the game goes on.”

As the game begins, Jordan drags himself up and down the court, running at only 65 percent of his normal speed. He is so dehydrated and fatigued that he is sure he is going to pass out any second. Halfway through the quarter, during a pause in the game, Jordan bends over to rest, pulls on his shorts, closes his eyes and nearly falls over. He has no energy whatsoever.

Later in the first quarter, during a timeout, Jordan slumps into a seat on the Bulls’ bench, his arms dangling, his shoulders sagging. “He could hardly sit up,” Chicago center Luc Longley would say.

Jordan
MJ could barely make it off the court after his 38-point performance.

He is essentially useless in the first quarter, but in the second quarter, after Utah takes a 16-point lead, something happens to Jordan physically, emotionally and mentally. He begins running harder, running faster and making shots. Somehow, miraculously, he begins looking like the typically dominant Michael Jordan. He scores 17 points in the quarter. “It was all about desire,” he would tell the media. “Somehow I found the energy to stay strong.”

At halftime, Jordan is fed fluids and given cold towels. In the third quarter, fatigue and nausea return, dragging him down again, rendering him virtually useless. But early in the fourth quarter, when the Jazz go up, 77-69, Jordan somehow turns it on again, leading a 10-0 run that puts Chicago back on top with five minutes left.

He starts the Bulls’ burst with a 12-footer, then Toni Kukoc and Jordan both drill 3-pointers to tie the score at 77. MJ caps the run by putting the Bulls on top, 79-77, with an 18-footer over Bryon Russell. Jordan had 33 points at that stage, a staggering total for someone so ill and weak.

“In the third quarter, I felt like I couldn’t catch my wind and get my energy level up,” Jordan would say later. “I don’t know how I got through the fourth quarter. I was just trying to gut myself through it.”

With 3:07 left, John Stockton nails a three for an 84-81 Utah lead. Jordan quickly hits a runner in the lane to make it 84-83. Moments later, Jordan is fouled by Stockton. He makes the first free throw to tie the score at 85 with 46.5 seconds left, but misses the second. Kukoc, however, tips the miss, and Jordan, his instincts still amazingly sharp and his reactions still quick despite his flu-like symptoms, grabs the loose ball and sets up the offense again.

Clearly exhausted, clearly weak, Jordan looks for Pippen posting up Jeff Hornacek. MJ also looks for three-point specialist Steve Kerr, wide open in the corner. Jordan, his arms hanging like a piece of rope, makes a weak fake to Kerr, but then quickly fires a pass to Pippen. Russell quickly moves to double Pippen, 5 for 17 in the game, leaving Jordan open on the perimeter. Pippen quickly fires the ball back to Jordan. The clock shows 0:26. With Stockton’s hand right in his face, Jordan launches a shot from beyond the three-point line. The ball hits nothing but string. Bulls, 88-85. His 15th point of the quarter and his 38th of the night. “We never want to double off Michael Jordan in that situation,” Utah coach Jerry Sloan would say later.

Utah pushes the ball upcourt, and Stockton breaks down the defense and feeds Greg Ostertag for a dunk, making it 88-87 with 15.2 seconds left. The Bulls quickly inbound the ball and work the ball upcourt to Kukoc, who feeds Longley for a dunk and a 90-87 lead with 6.2 seconds remaining. One possession remains. Utah works the ball around and as the clock hits 0:01, Hornacek heaves a 3-pointer & and misses.

Jordan, who plays 23 of 24 minutes in the first half and 21 of 24 minutes in the second, doubles over, collapsing from emotion and exhaustion.

“That was probably the most difficult thing I’ve ever done,” he would say after the game. “I almost played myself into passing out just to win a basketball game. If we had lost, I would have been devastated.” Jackson was almost at a loss for words, but finally told the media, “Because of the circumstances, with this being a critical game in the Finals, I’d have to say this is the greatest game I’ve seen Michael play. Just standing up was nauseating for him and caused him dizzy spells. This was a heroic effort, one to add to the collection of efforts that make up his legend.”

After MJ’s epic performance, Pippen would say, “He’s the greatest, and everyone saw why tonight.”

i wish i could go to the hall of fame to see the michael jordan exhibit, but, being that i am half the world away standing watch over the korean dmz, i guess like everything else with michael jordan and the players and teams that i love, i will just have to settle for appreciating greatness from afar…

schoonover bowl, camp casey, korea - 30 may 2009

shooting for the commander’s cup, james and three others competed in the eighth army track and field championship. our team ran in the 4×800m relay. the team consisted of jeff cho as the lead, followed by james ko, myself, and our battery’s new ctlt cadet as anchor. it was a fine race and a valiant effort by our last two runners, but ultimately we could not overcome a weak performance by one team member, and we had to settle for the silver medal.

click here to view the gallery (10 photos)

after a dominating day at the plate and on the mound, team reshane jumps 8.5 points and vaults into first place!!!

i’m now leading the league in runs and home runs, with strong numbers in rbi, wins, saves, strikeouts, and whip. my stolen bases, batting average, and era could all stand to improve, but hopefully picking up michael bourn will help with the stolen bases and the fact that my pitchers are actually pitching well now will lower my era. anyways i’ve been steadily rising over the past month thanks to my secret weapon: joe mauer!

i’m glad i’m doing well. this is actually my first fantasy baseball team since i last managed in 2006. since then i’ve always been away for large parts of the summer, so i’ve had to switch my focus to fantasy football. it would be nice to add another trophy.

his number doesn’t lie. damn i need to get a larry english jersey!

i know i’ve read a lot of criticism about larry in the press lately, about what were the chargers thinking for drafting him so high? but let me tell you, okay it’s true i haven’t known larry since we graduated so i have no idea what kind of person he changed into in college, but if he is anything like he was in high school (and with a mother like his, you best believe he stay grounded and stick to the straight and narrow) the man is a football player. i lifted with him, i ran track with him, and i went to school with him, and the only way i know how to describe larry is that he is freakishly athletic, absolutely huge, passionate, driven, works harder than anybody, has a good head on his shoulders, and plays to win. and we was suprisingly soft-spoken. on the field he’s a maniac, but off of it, he was always down to earth. though to be honest i was always a little scared of him. but how could i not be?! his biceps were as thick as my waist!

oh, and did i mention he scored a 34 of 50 on his wonderlic test, a full 15 points higher than average for his position and higher than the expected average for a chemist, computer programmer, or journalist! (he did go to marmion academy, after all).

larry english is a potential pro-bowl linebacker, and san diego is getting an amazing football player. there, i said it.

link to his press conference in san diego: www.chargers.com/media-vault/videos/larry-english-presser/8a4e9726-5656-4960-a1b4-3871b20f0171

that larry english was just made the 16th overall pick in the 2009 nfl draft by the san diego chargers does not at all surprise me. the man is a fucking beast! back in high school, long after the football team had finished lifting, i remember watching in awe as larry put up ridiculous amounts of weight. the man’s biceps were as thick as my waist! often it would be just the two of us, or perhaps jesse smith would be there as well, and seeing the intensity in larry’s eyes, i knew for sure he would one day be playing in the nfl. well, five years have passed, and now larry is living his dream. as for me, i was skinny back then, and i’m still skinny now! i guess some dreams just aren’t meant to come true…

In-Depth Analysis: Larry English

by obviousman on Apr 26, 2009 5:27 AM PDT 0 comments

static.nfl.com” />

via static.nfl.com

View full size photo uploaded April 26, 2009

Why Was He Picked?: After a night of sleep and a lot of research, I have some theories. The first one involves a three-headed monster of pass rushing LBs. Shawne Merriman is coming off of a devastating knee injury and Shaun Phillips showed last year that while he’s still talented he needs Merriman on the other side to take the pressure off of him. Shaun Phillips also showed that while he’s talented as the LOLB (going against the RT), he is too small to be effective going against a LT.

If you look at the elite pass-rushers around the league, they’re lined up against the Left Tackle position. Merriman, Freeney, Suggs, etc. An elite pass-rusher has to show that he has the skills to keep his level of play high when battling an elite offensive lineman. Phillips did not show that. In this theory, English was drafted to give some rest to Merriman’s knee and to provide depth for both OLB positions. This was a move to prevent 2008 from happening again. What was plainly obvious was that the defense died when Merriman left with his knee injury. If that happens again, or if Phillips gets hurt, we now have a backup plan that keeps our defense at a high level.

Leverage is also part of this. If we were going to the negotiating table with Merriman after 2008 and he could say “You don’t have anybody else. You need me.” then we’d have to give him whatever dollar amount he wanted. Now we can work with him to come to a more reasonable figure.

Another theory, and an interesting one, is that New England was in love with Larry English. There are rumors floating around that they were even trying to move up a few picks to ensure that they got him (so English was moving up the boards secretly). Once the Chargers took him off the board, the Patriots felt there was no other player worthy of a first-round pick and traded out of it. After the first day they still have a gaping hole at OLB that could end up hurting their pass rush in 2009. Supposedly, Belichek viewed English as his own version of Merriman. Now don’t you feel a little better that English is a Charger?

Fan’s View: Courtesy of Mad.Mike from Red And Black Attack, SB Nation’s blog for fans of the Northern Illinois Huskies:

Larry English Scouting Report:

Larry English didn’t just win Defensive POY in the MAC last year, he won the MAC MVP overall for the past two years, the first ever defensive player to accomplish that. The best part is that the Vern Smith Trophy is voted by the coaches, so they have that much respect for Larry English and had to plan accordingly for him in every single game. This past year, he even won the award with a cast on his hand because he played with a few pins in his broken right thumb the entire year. In high school, English played all 4 years at the linebacker position, so dropping back is something he is used to.

Strengths

Larry English has an absolute motor. He is not going to take a single play off during a game. Great overall strength. He is not only good rushing the passer, but I believe he is extremely underrated in stopping the run. Look in the dictionary and he is under the definition of a FOOTBAL PLAYER. Larry has extremely long arms and maintains good leverage on his opponents. Provides great leadership on the field and was team captain the last two years. Was extremely productive even when getting double and triple teamed these past couple years.

Weaknesses

A little on the shorter side at just over 6’2″. Will have to go to a team that will be able to find the right fit for English on their defense. Needs to work on agility and played minimal time away from the defensive line in pass coverage. I think Larry is a lot quicker than he is fast. Improved his 40 time since the combine from the 4.8 range to around 4.6 at his pro day to solidify his 1st round status.

Video Clips:

congratulations larry! i’m proud of my fellow marmion cadet!

as i join the rest of bears nation in excitement over the arrival of jay cutler, i can’t help but make two observations:

1. how is it that kansas city aquires matt cassel for a second round draft pick and chicago pays two first round draft picks, a third round selection, and a starting quarterback in kyle orton for jay cutler? not that i’m complaining in this case, but why is it that the bears always seem to pay full price to get their man but will give away good talent for almost nothing (thomas jones to the jets for a second-round pick, mark bradley to the chiefs for nothing)?!

2. kyle orton is a vastly underrated quarterback. sure he doesn’t have the arm of jay cutler, but he is a winner. he’s tough, smart, makes good decisions with the football, is well respected in the locker room, and say what you like, he wins… he put up respectable numbers with far less protection or weapons than he will have in denver, led the bears to the playoffs as a rookie and very nearly got them there in his first season as a starter post rex-grossman. don’t be surprised if he puts up big numbers in denver. kyle orton, you will be missed.

while james’ vocal support of kyle orton is no secret to readers of this website, james cannot in good conscience support orton’s facial hair grooming practices (or lack thereof!).

i tell you what, oscar de la hoya isn’t so pretty looking anymore after the beating manny pacquiao gave him! wooooo! go manny! filipino pride! they must be rioting in the philippines right now.

on that note, i’m seeing reshane again on monday! she’s hot. filipina girls are hot.