Happy Tuesday, fellow Rams' fans! Plenty of news and notes to get to. With training camp a scant six weeks away, the air is filled with optimism, notes from rookies everyone is excited about, and anything-and-everything NFL writers can use to fill some space. Like a quick rundown of the Vegas poker scene!
Every year, the World Series of Poker comes to sunny Las Vegas. The Main Event gets all the attention, but the WSOP is actually over 100 tournaments, with buy-ins ranging from $500 to $1,000,000.. Tournaments begin in late May and last until the beginning of July. The entire poker world descends upon the ritzy town to flood it with money, "just one times", bad beats, and coin flips for millions of dollars.
The first time I ever went to a tournament as a spectator, I went to the final table of the 2010 Main Event, and got lucky enough to see what is widely considered to be the craziest hand in final table history. The hand was heads up to the flop between Michael Mizrachi and Ben Jarvis. Mizrachi was having the WSOP of a lifetime, getting his first bracelet (major tourney win) earlier in the year, and had now outlasted THOUSANDS to make it to the final table of the main event. As I watched all of this happen, I was nearly comatose with the ups and downs of it all. I even had my girlfriend with me, and even she, as a non-fan of poker, about lost her mind watching this happen. What a moment.
Alright, enough with the old man reminiscing! On to the Random Ramsdom!
Rams news
Michael Brockers coming right along - StlToday with a great story about the progress Rams first round pick Michael Brockers has made since the start of minicamps. One of his teammates, new Ram William Hayes, was quoted as saying, "He's probably got the most potential of any rookie I've seen since I've been in the NFL." Hayes, for the record, played with Jake Locker, Kenny Britt, and Chris Johnson in their rookie years. Brockers actually said he needs some work on his pass defense. Where did we hear that before? Oh yea, from this guy.
Oh my god Steve Smith - I'm trying not to get too excited about this guy, but NFL.com did a piece on him, and his potential impact with the Rams. Holy cow, I'm semi-giddy after reading this. Hopefully, he can bounce back and be the pro bowl caliber player he was with the Giants.
Some notes from the final OTA - Chris Givens impresses yet again, to go along with the impressive work of Greg Salas. Let's take this with a couple tablespoons of salt (please, don't really eat that much salt), because the word out of camp this time last year was we had found our new #1 in a young man by the name of Brandon Gibson. But perhaps there is hope on the horizon.
Latest CVC proposal includes early lease termination option - This whole thing stinks. If you live in St Louis and want the team to stay, alert your local authorities that you are watching this situation closely, and your vote (and campaign contributions) could hinge on what happens.
HOFer Marshall Faulk thinks the violence level in football is fine - He makes some good points, like football being an aggression outlet for plenty of young men. Although his opinion won't be very popular in some parts, I agree with him, and I think it's great to hear it from him, considering he is both a Hall of Fame player, and a guy who was on the receiving end of hits, not the dishing out end.
Non-Rams stuff
Ochocinco signs with Miami - The LOLPhins strike again. Between Ross, Ireland, Ochocinco, and Hard Knocks, that team is the new Raiders. All that drama, and they are hoping to develop a young, raw quarterback like Ryan Tannehill? Good luck, Joe Philbin!
Quarterback competitions are bad for quarterbacks - Despite what some may say about competition being the way to bring the best out of people, quarterback competitions tend to be bad for the players, due to missed reps. Interesting read, and two of the teams currently with QB competitions are NFC West competition, where Arizona has Kolb and Skelton, and the Seahawks, with rookie Russell Wilson, Tavaris Jackson, and newly signed Matt Flynn.
Jerome Simpson suspended 3 games - Just to be clear, failing a drug test for smoking marijuana is 4 games, while getting 2.5 POUNDS of pot sent to your home is 3 games. Got that? Good!
Mike Vick things him being ranked at 70 by NFL Network is a "joke" - In an interview with The Fanatic, he railed against the other players voting him a 70, saying "I know how good I am and what I bring to the table for my football team. The things that I can do on the football field sometimes can be uncanny...". I think the players were pretty generous to the QB with barely a 1 to 1 TD to int ratio who failed to lead the "dream team" to the playoffs.
At least one Saint sounds like he NEVER wants Brees back - Former Missour Tigers' Quarterback Chase Daniel is having the time of his life leading the first team offense while the team has been negotiating with franchise quarterback Drew Brees
Non-news news
The Brazilians have unleashed their baby water-craving zombies - Hopefully for the rest of us, all of them only survive for a few seconds. But if you do happen to see one, trust me...just give it some water. I make jest, but truly a crazy, sad story.
Thanks for the read! Have a Ramtastic Day!