By Michael Kelley ’14 & Mick Kowaleski ’14
The NFL Draft is less than a week away. The Mike’d UP guys provide you with some predictions.
Kelley:
1.) Manti Te’o was wise in choosing not to attend the NFL Draft at the Radio City Music Hall next Thursday. But his PR nightmare will pick back up when he lets it slip in an interview on draft day that he recently created an eHarmony account to help cope with the tragic death of Lennay Kukua.
2.)After Tyrann Mathieu hears his name called, a live video feed displays him engaging in a celebratory smoke session with his closest friends. Too inappropriate?
3.) The Raiders, as they almost always seemingly do, use the third overall pick not on their desperate need for a defensive tackle, but instead on the fastest player in the draft, this year being Marquise Goodwin, a wide receiver out of Texas. Remember when Oakland used the seventh overall pick on Darrius Heyward-Bey?
Kowaleski:
1.) Since they need a quarterback so badly, the Philadelphia Eagles select signal-caller Geno Smith with their first overall pick. This gives head coach a grand total of three quarterbacks to fight over the starting job in training camp, alongside Michael Vick and Nick Foles
2.) Matt Barkley is drafted in the first round and throws a self-congratulatory SoCal party. However, within two years it is evident that he will join Todd Marinovich, Rob Johnson, Matt Leinart, Carson Palmer, and Mark Sanchez as hyped USC quarterbacks who failed mightily to live up to expectations.
3.) The Dallas Cowboys shock the world by selecting next year’s draft rights to Texas A&M quarterback Johnny “Football” Manziel. Roger Goodell shrugs and admits there’s nothing in the rulebook against it, and Jerry Jones rejoices as he realizes that the cocky fratboy Manziel will help the Cowboys truly deserve their spot as the most hated team in the NFL. Manziel leads the Cowboys to three championships after Tony Romo quits in frustration.
“Nobody gets me,” Romo says in tears, stomping off to his room and slamming the door.
After all-time great and Hall of Fame lock Kobe Bryant tore his ACL on April 13, NBA fans were forced to ask themselves: is this the last we’ve seen of the Black Mamba? The Mike’D UP guys answer.
Kelley: This is simple: No. Kobe tweeted after his injury that if he was “in a fight with a bear, you should pray for the bear. #MambaMentality”
The next day, he posted a picture of the front page of the LA Times that had a headline, “’Injury clouds the future for Bryant, Lakers.’ #motivationsunday”
Starting to get the gist of these tweets and hashtags? No chance the Black Mamba ends his storied career on that note. He will be back. Not with at the same level of play, but with the same grit and motivation that we have all come to admire.
Within triple digits of MJ’s scoring mark and one championship away from tying his six, there is still much to accomplish… at least in Kobe’s mind.
Never doubt the fire behind the #MambaMentality.
Kowaleski: I’ll preface this by admitting that the last thing I want is for Kobe to retire.
He, along with Derek Jeter and Peyton Manning, has been one of my “constants” since I started following pro sports. I haven’t truly watched a season without him participating in some form or fashion.
The reasons for his return are numerous. Kobe, a notoriously stubborn player, expressed a deep desire for his sixth ring this season. And like you said, he’s not far behind His Airness in the scoring ranks.
But can his 34-year old body physically recuperate from a torn ACL? Keep in mind that this is an old 34 years… he was drafted right out of high school in 1996 at the young age of age 18. He’s been in the league for 17 years, making him more like 38 in basketball years. Asking an athlete to rehab from a torn ACL after 17 years of basketball (which puts a ton of stress on the ligament) and have him play at his highest level is almost impossible.
Kobe said as much in his Facebook rant after the injury. “I’m supposed to come back from this and be the same player Or better at 35?!?” he asks. “How in the world am I supposed to do that??”
Maybe you can’t, Mamba. If there was ever an individual to will himself back from this, it would be Kobe. But there comes a point when you start writing your checks that your body can’t cash.
The saddest instance of this happening is Brett Favre’s last season. Now, Favre’s infamous tendency to unretire came back to bite him for sure, and there wasn’t much sympathy when his 297-game streak came to an end. But it was still somewhat sad in retrospect for his magic to run out. Kobe could be in a similar situation.
If he makes a comeback, it won’t be for very long.
