ONE PLAYER FROM COMMONWEALTH DRAFTED BY NFL .... ONE??

 Come on!! College football in Virginia isn’t THAT bad … is it? The NFL’s 32 teams must think so … after MALIK WASHINGTON who, in his only season at U.Va., set several records, was the only player selected from the commonwealth in the 2024 draft … And Washington, a transfer from Northwestern, had to wait until the sixth round before Miami called his name, the 184th player chosen overall … The 5-9, 191 pound wide receiver caught 110 passes for 1,426 yards – both school records – and nine touchdowns. In addition, he established another Cavalier standard for excellence, an even-more-impressive 100 yards (or more) receiving in 10 of 11 games for a team that finished 3-9, matching Pittsburgh for the worst record overall in the ACC … Actually, he was equally outstanding off the field … compiling a 4.0 average in his quest for a masters in higher education … At Northwestern, he was a two-time member of the Big 10 All-Academic team … with a four-year GPA of 3.7 … So someone, please … tell us, why did the Lawrenceville, Ga., native go so late ... even if it was a wideout-rich draft? He checked most, if not all, of the boxes for speed (4.4 40), yards gained after the catch, etc. 


IF YOU DIDN’T know better … you might think the NHL 

uses two sets of referees in each Stanley Cup playoff game. 

One early, with orders to keep things under control, followed by 

another set who basically look the other way and anything … I 

mean ANYTHING ... goes … They start out by calling, say, a 

soft cross-check from behind that the offended player barely 

felt … then, by the final period, have long since swallowed 

their whistles … Wonder was, in Tuesday night’s game 5, 

Toronto at Boston, a full-scale donnybrook wasn’t the result of 

a multi-player pileup in the Bruins’ crease 22.1 seconds from 

the end of athe second player. We’re talking downright ugly. 

Nobody bothered to drop his gloves. They simply began hitting 

each other with gloves on … You’ve got to figure each side 

would be slapped with considerable time in the penalty box but 

… no-o-o-o … only Boston’s CHARLIE COYLE had to sit – 

believe it or not – two minutes for rouging.



DID YOU NOTICE that BRUCE SMITH, former VaTech 

All-American and NFL hall of famer, has a piece of the action 

in Petersburg’s new $1.4 billion casino project? Smith, 60, now 

a real estate developer living in Virginia Beach, and the Cordish 

company were the Petersburg city council’s choice as 

co-developers … All that remains is a positive vote by 

residents, which would seem a lock … that is until you consider 

a proposed casino for Richmond was twice rejected … which is 

how Petersburg got the nod from the General Assembly. 


HERE WE THOUGHT pro soccer had done away with 

playing on football fields, especially AstroTurf … where lines, 

yard marks and assorted other distractions make offsides a 

guessing game, at best, and gave the home team a decided 

advantage. Wrong again, Jerry. That helps explain, at least in 

part, why Greenville SC, which calls Furman’s stadium home, 

leads USL League One.


Until next time ... 
















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