Actually have a bit to report today after yesterdays slow day.
The big news from yesterday was the signings of OL Rob Hunt and Isaiah Ross. The New Orleans Saints official website has the lowdown.
Hunt, a 6-4, 301-pound product of North Dakota State, is a former fifth-round draft choice of the Indianapolis Colts in 2005. He spent the 2005 and 2006 seasons on the practice squad of the Denver Broncos and was later signed by the Kansas City Chiefs, with whom he played in the 2007 preseason. The native of Cavalier, North Dakota can also play guard and played two seasons in NFL Europe (Rhein, 2006 and Berlin, 2007) prior to the 2008 campaign with the AFL’s VooDoo.
Ross (6-3, 320) has spent the last two springs playing indoors in the Arena League, 2007 with the Nashville Kats and ’08 with the VooDoo. Playing indoors, Ross caught 14 passes for 140 yards and five touchdowns in addition to his blocking duties for the VooDoo during the 2008 season. He first signed out of the University of Nevada as a rookie free agent with the San Diego Chargers in 2004 and went on to start 10 games for the Frankfurt Galaxy of NFL Europe in 2005.
I think thats pretty cool that they both played for the Voodoo.
Also of note, the team released OL Marquay Love and Carnell Stewart. So basically we just pulled the old switch-a-roo.
RotoWorld has their Minicamp Tour of the NFC South right here. This is what they had to say.
New Orleans Saints: The Saints have been mentioned as a possible landing spot for LaMont Jordan and other running backs. That supports my belief that Deuce McAllister is highly unlikely to contribute much this season. Unfortunately, another teammate would be bad news for Rotoworld's favorite ADP value, Pierre Thomas. … Marques Colston's knee surgery proved to be minor, and he was fully practicing in June. Colston still has room to improve entering his third season, making him a potential top-five wideout. … Robert Meachem predictably enjoyed an improved offseason. The second-year pro has an outside chance to start, although I expect Devery Henderson, David Patten, and Meachem to cancel each other out.
Seems like the word is out about Pierre Thomas.
Here is a video from MSNBC from the same guy who wrote the above RotoWorld piece, Greg Rosenthal.
I hate these stupid interviews with these know it alls. They just don't give off the heir of legitimacy. I do like the stats they had on Colston though.
All the way from the UK is this article from the Voice about the International Series game at Wembley. It's all the same stuff from Bush and Tomlinson's PR tour a little while ago.
“I’m really excited, its my first time playing out of the country, I'm excited to come over here and help promote football and make it big over here. I’m looking forward to it,” he said.
“I’m still in the early stages of my career I haven’t reached my peak yet. Hopefully this will be a great year for me. I have been working tremendously hard,” he explained.
He added: “It’s going to be a tough game. Obviously LaDainian is a great player. We’re going to have to block the hype out and just concentrate.”
Yes Reggie...hopefully.
The article ends with this kinda funny Did you Know section.
• Did you know….?
• The National Football league (NFL) is the largest professional American football league in the world.
• It was formed by eleven teams in 1920. The league currently consists of thirty-two teams from American cities and regions, divided evenly into two conferences The American Football Conference (AFC) and National Football Conference (NFC).
• At the end of the regular season, six teams from each conference play in the NFL playoffs, a twelve team single elimination tournament that culminates with the championship game, known as the superbowl.
• Over the years the superbowl has become the most-watched U.S. television broadcast of the year, and has become likened to a de facto U.S. national holiday.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Bowl - cite_note-0 In addition, many popular singers and musicians have performed during the Super Bowl's pre-game and halftime ceremonies.
• The NFL has the highest per game attendance of any domestic professional sports league in the world drawing over 67,000 spectators per game.
On top of the OL signings yesterday was the signing of Brian Adams. No, not everyone's favorite Canadian rocker. Adams will be the new assistant director of college scouting for the Saints after leaving the Panthers as their college scout. This all comes from an article in Rock Hill, SC's Herald. The good news is this.
The Carolina Panthers lost yet another member of their scouting department, the third at the end of a year of significant personnel turnover for the team.
Maybe this means the Panthers will be a team in turmoil this year!
The New Orleans Saints official website also had some info about a fund raising event this weekend being put on by Mike McKenzie's 34 Ways Foundation at the W Hotel here in town.
Regarding the event, McKenzie states “The people of New Orleans have lost a lot. They’ve lost not just material things, but they’ve lost family, friends, and their livelihoods. We are raising funds for a facility that will provide the guidance and support necessary to uplift this devastated community, especially for the youth who have nowhere to go when they’re not in school. We are here to try to rebuild the New Orleans community from the inside out.”