Monday, February 25, 2013

Off-Season Lesson #1: The Combine

Hi friends! I have taken a few weeks off the get my old, football-free life back and I feel good. I feel rested, relaxed, and caught up on all the girlie things I missed out on during football season. Last Friday, I thought I would see what was going on in NFL world only to see that the Combine was in full swing. I took this as a sign from above that it was time for my first, Off-Season post. And what better place to start than the unofficial start of the NFL season, the NFL Scouting Combine.

What is the Combine? Well let's start with basic pronunciation first. After you read this post you are going to want to run to your boyfriend to impress him with all the knowledge I am about the drop. It will help your credibility a lot if you don't mispronounce words. So when you start your conversation about the Combine be sure and pronounce it, COMbine...like the piece of machinery, not the thing you do when you mix two things together. Got it? Good. Okay, now onto what this thing is. If it sounds like it might be painful, that's because it is. The NFL Scouting Combine is a week-long training camp held at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis that happens every year a couple of months before the NFL Draft. Here, college football players perform rigorous physical and mental tests for the benefit of coaches, general managers, and scouts of NFL teams. Basically these men are looking to see how well these players perform to determine their value when it comes time for the draft. Players attend the Combine by invitation only and some higher profile college players who are certain to go high in the draft may not attend at all.
What if your whole life depended on how well you could do this?


As I have mentioned before one of the things I learned during this past season is that to most guys any football is better than no football. It is for this reason that the Combine is televised and you can actually watch these poor guys get put through the ringer. While I have dedicated a good bit of my energies to following the NFL, I will not become someone who sits and watches 18 year old dudes run really fast. That being said there is one very interesting story coming out of the Combine this year and that would be the story of Manti Te-o, the infamous linebacker from Notre Dame who everyone expected to go in the first round of the Draft. In case you have been living under a rock here is Manti Te-o's story in a nutshell. Going into the BCS National Championship game between Alabama and Notre Dame, Te-o won over the hearts of America with the crushing story of how six hours after losing his grandmother Manti Te-o also lost his girlfriend to cancer. A few weeks after the big game a story broke that Manti Te-o's girlfriend never existed. Basically, he met her on the internet and she told him she was a cancer patient and undergoing treatment, they even spoke on the phone, but the whole thing turned out to be a hoax. You can imagine the humiliation that followed. My first reaction to this story when it came out was "who cares?" well it turns out that one of the major things that NFL teams look at is the mental health of the players to see how they will hold up in the locker room and off the field. No team wants someone who is going to be more of a distraction than an asset. Not only did Manti Te-o show up 2 hours late for his press conference at the Combine, but the majority of the questions centered around his fake girlfriend, making it apparent that Te-o will have a lot to prove when he  It looks like Manti Te-o is set to show off at the Combine on Monday and his performance will tell if his off the field vulnerabilities are worth overlooking.
In addition to Combine drills, Te-o has to work on looking less confused. Toughy.


If you really want to impress some guys, ask them if they are surprised that the standout Wide Receiver at the combine was Tavon Austin from West Virginia. Tavon Austin not only showed incredible speed running the 40 yard dash in 4.34 seconds (when talking to guys all you have to say is "he ran a four three four forty" and they'll know exactly what you are talking about...these people have there own language!) and also was able to catch the ball pretty well. Analysts are saying that he may have dashed his way into the first round...get it? Dashed? Sorry, the jokes haven't gotten much better during my time off. Be sure to like Gridiron for Girls on Facebook and follow me on twitter @gridiron4girls for more little tid bits from the Combine and the weeks leading up to the Draft.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Super Bowl XLVII: The Night That The Lights Went Out in NOLA

I am sorry for the late post, but I have really been trying to figure out how I want to approach this last post of the 2012 NFL season. Even people who hate football watch the Super Bowl either for the commercials or the halftime show and let's be honest, there are not many girls out there who were going to miss a Beyonce/Destiny's Child  halftime show...although I was a little let down by the amount of DC time, were you? The short story of what happened during the game is this...the Ravens were winning big, Beyonce blew the lights off the place (figuratively), the lights went out (literally), the 49'ers made a huge comeback, the Ravens win anyway. What started off looking like it was going to be a blow out by the Ravens turned into a really great game that came down to the wire, it was a great way to end a drama filled season.
That's right, Mrs. Carter, it's all your fault that the lights went out.You just had to have the flames at the beginning didn't you?


It seems like so long ago that I started this little experiment of mine (remember the replacement refs). Ever since I started dating my now husband 8 years ago people have heard me joke that the best birthday present  I get is the end of football season (The Super Bowl is always on or around my birthday). But this year I definitely feel a little sad that it is over. Here are some of the things I have learned by writing this blog:

1.) As you know, part of the reason I started this blog is so that I would be a part of my husband's life during football season. I wasn't sure how well my plan had worked until a few weeks ago when my husband was at Twin Peaks (imagine Hooters with trashier uniforms) with a friend watching the playoffs and was texting me the whole time about the game. It's nice to know I was top of mind when surrounded by so many um...peaks.
I mean, seriously? If you wore that on a mountain you would die. It's not realistic.
2.) I have learned to live without Project Runway and Glee. In order to follow this sport, I really had to take inventory of the TV I was watching and get rid of the dead weight. It turns out I don't need ego-maniacal designers or mash-ups of Adele songs to entertain me. It may sound ridiculous but you have no idea how liberating it is. Auf Weidersehen yourself, Heidi Klum.
I don't even care if you're together or not!
3.) I am the only person I know who likes Cam Newton. Seriously, even the guys on ESPN hate him. Maybe I am missing something but I will always be a Cam fan

4.) My husband does not classify 10 straight hours of watching football on the couch as "laying around". The other day I just wanted to have a lazy Saturday while my husband wanted to run all over town. When I complained he said, "I can't just lay around all day!". When I pointed out that that is exactly what we had done for the last 16 Sundays I was told, "yeah, but that's football.". You can't argue with logic that incredible.

5.) I have learned that, to men, any football is better than no football. There were games when someone like the Raiders would be playing someone like the Cardinals...and even though there were complaints about how terrible the game was, it was not terrible enough to hand over the remote control so I could watch my taped episode of Pretty Little Liars. I have even caught my husband watching high school football on a Friday night. And why is it that high school football games always look like they were taped in 1985?

6.) I am the girl who signs up for 3 months of unlimited yoga, is great about going for the first month, and then starts to find any reason not to go near the place. Writing this blog showed me that when I really dedicate myself to something I have what it takes to see it through.

7.) And to go along with #6 I have learned that I really love writing. I have had more fun writing this blog the last 5 months! It has given me something to focus on outside of work and I am not really ready for it to be over. So in the off season you can look forward to periodic posts on what is going on in the NFL so you can stay in the loop and blow the guys in your life away with the little tid bits you find here.

Thanks so much to all of you who read, praised, and encouraged me. I really hope you meant it because you have inspired to me to keep going which means I will be blowing up your Facebook page for months to come! Please leave your comments and feedback and see you in the off season!

xoxo,
Gridiron For Girls (I have been waiting YEARS for a reason to use a Gossip Girl-esque sign off!)