Not_Joshin_Around

Pro Days!

After a looooong hiatus...blogging is BACK.  So in preparation for this year's Road to Sundays videos I want to introduce you to Masterplan's 2009 Draft Class:  Sam Allen (OL, Grand Valley State), Pete Ittersagen (CB/KR/PR, Wheaton College), Brad Jones (OLB, Colorado), and Breon Rogers (S/LB, Central Florida).  Check out their results and some footage of their Pro Days below:

Sam Allen at Grand Valley State Pro Day 

Pete Ittersagen's Pro Day at Northwestern , Pete's Pro Day Position Work

Brad Jones at Colorado Pro Day

How did Brett Favre do it?

One of the most eye-opening conversations I had with a client occurred prior to the 2007 NFL Draft.  It was January in Chicago and the Bears were headed to the Super Bowl.  I was getting a little caught up in the Super Bowl frenzy when I asked one of our clients which team he hoped to be drafted by.  He responded that it didn’t make a difference to him.  “But don’t you have a favorite team?” I pressed, “Isn’t there one team you grew up watching that you would love to play for?”

“My favorite team,” he responded, “will be the one that wants me to play for them.”

Right.  Duh, Tami.  Players don’t devote 4-5 (or even 8 or 9) years of their lives to becoming experts at their positions only to spit in the face of a team that will pay them to play (…at least, most guys don’t…).  The same way you ‘become one’ with your high school teammates and college teammates, when you are signed by an NFL team you embrace that team…and if you get traded, you embrace that team, and so on.  After all, this is a business, and these guys are professionals.

And so I started thinking about teams who spend decades at the bottom of the standings, who endure losing season after losing season after losing season.  Through releases & signings, trades, waivers, etc., a player on a sub-.500 team could find himself on a team that’s leading the conference, literally overnight.

But this is not true for fans.  For every 22 year old receiver who joins a losing team and spends the next 5 years trying to win 5 games, there is a 62 year old man somewhere who has spent the last 60 years hoping for the same.  Yes, it is really hard to play for a losing team; I’m not trying to knock that.  But it is really really hard to root for a losing team because if you’re a true fan, your allegiance will last longer than any single player’s career – you’re in it for the long haul…and as every Chicago Cubs fan knows, sometimes it’s a loooooong haul.

Where am I going with all this?  Brett Favre.  16 seasons with the Green Bay Packers.  16!!!!  An entire career…until now.  16 seasons of consistency, of a lot of the same players and coaches, of the same stadium, uniforms, and fans.  He has never had to treat football as business in the same way some players do.  He has never had to put on his “professional face” and adopt a new team, new home, new teammates, and new fans.  Players like this who spend an entire career – especially a LONG career – with the same team can’t possibly just be players anymore…how can they not also be fans?

I’m not saying he can’t do it, but how can Favre’s love of playing football not be inextricably tied, after 16 years, to his Packer-ness?  I can’t even imagine what must be going through Favre’s head, let alone the thoughts that would surface if the Packers were to meet the Jets in the Super Bowl…let alone if the Packers were to beat the Jets in the Super Bowl.  On the flip side, would victory taste as sweet if he was holding up that Lombardi Trophy in a Jets uniform instead of a Packers one?  So you tell me – which Brett Favre will we see by the end of the season:  consummate professional with jedi-like concentration?  Or homesick Packer?

(Masterplan's Operations Manager Tami Hardoby is a frequent contributor to this blog. You won't believe how happy she is that the Bills are 4-0 right now.)

THE SUN WILL COME UP TOMORROW

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Tonight marks the final major preseason game night of 2008...13 games this evening, 3 tomorrow night.  For me and my crew, 22 of my 24 clients final 2008 preseason games are tonight.  Then the sun will come up tomorrow.  For some players that sun will be a beautiful thing.  For others it will be a morning of immense disappointment.  For most it will mean a sleepless night.  But no matter what, the sun will come up tomorrow.

Here is the way the preseason generally plays out.  During Weeks One and Two teams "generally" play their first three units proportionally, with each team having subtle nuances.  Week Three is generally the first unit for two and a half to three quarters and then the second unit wraps up the game.  Most teams feel it is important to have one game where their first unit plays a half, then comes out and straps it back up to get that feeling of half time adjustments and restarting the engines.  (The old guys need to be reminded what it feels like to get those stiff bodies moving again after sitting for fifteen minutes!)

Then, the day after Week Three, concludes teams make their first required roster cuts.  This year that meant removing five players from the roster in some form or fashion, i.e. release, IR, NFI, PUP, etc.  (If you want a general course on all these just ask and I can commit time to that in a future blog).  Then there is one day of prep, one day of walk throughs and then Week Four game day!  Yes, it comes that quick. 

Week Four generally is a week of rest for the first unit and a time to prepare you second unit for the possible need for them to contribute significantly during the regular season.  It is also a time to take a good hard look in an extended environment at the third/fourth units.  While most teams have pretty much made up their minds who they will be keeping in Week One of the regular season at this point, it is still a night for a player to make his case for staying around. 

You see, while teams likely know WHO they want to keep, they do not always now HOW they will keep them.  Do they try to hide a guy, slide him through waivers and re-sign him to Practice Squad?  Do they play him to see how he performs but then run the risk of showcasing him to 31 other NFL clubs?  If he is in a battle between being relegated to Practice Squad or making the 53 man roster this game becomes a huge night.  Regardless, it is THE audition for the other 31 teams.  This is the real stage for guys who want to make an impression with pro scouts from other clubs.  This can be the difference between sliding through waivers and ending up on Practice Squad or being claimed to another teams active roster and getting a full paycheck in week one.  The difference?  A little over 300% in raw dollars before you factor in benefits. 

But that is not where it ends.  Teams only have eight Practice Squad spots.  They will need to remove 22 guys from their rosters this Saturday.  Most teams will sign back their own guys for week one to Practice Squad because they are in game prep and have little time to evaluate and schedule workouts.  That said, if a player makes an impression with his play on the field tonight or tomorrow night, is released and then does not get re-signed by his club, other teams will begin immediately scheduling workouts for the player to get him in and compare him to what they already have in an effort to upgrade their Practice Squad.  Those workouts "generally" happen on Tuesdays because that tends to be the "off" day for players each week.  Consequently coaches and scouts are available to come in and watch the workout.  Because the final roster cuts happen this Saturday and waivers do not clear until Sunday, and teams are scrambling to sign back their own guys to Practice Squad, very few workouts occur that first Tuesday. 

So that encapsulates the over arching craziness of my Labor Day Weekend each year...truly a weekend of Labor.  But the sun will come up tomorrow.

But there is even more going on than that.  There are the individual stories.  Where my heart is engaged.  I have one vet who was released at the first cuts.  He was running with the second team during the off-season and first pre season game and put on a great show, leading his club statistically in several categories.  The second week he was sat down so they could watch some of the "younger guys" ...then he was released without another game opportunity to showcase himself.  And so he sits, waiting for rosters to settle, teams wondering why he was released early after his performance in week one, me running interference on that front.

Then there is the rookie.  Played a ton in Week One and was super productive.  Week Two his reps were diminished.  Week Three, as is usually the case for non-starting rookies, his reps were further diminished while starters played most of the game.  Then came the firs cuts, and he was visited by the Turk.  Their reasoning?  "We did not get to see enough of you in games to make an evaluation...but we want you back on Practice Squad if no one signs you between now and then." 

What?!?!?  OK, the team controls the player's reps in a game, so if they did not play him enough to make a full evaluation that is their own fault.  IF they do want to sign him back to Practice Squad then they have played a good game of chess.  They cut a player early who they have played sparingly in the expectation no one will claim him or sign him over the subsequent five days and they can get him back on Practice Squad without competing for his services.  IF they are lacking in veracity, then they have set the hopes of a young man on something that is not going to happen, and those hopes will be dashed...all because they lack the intestinal fortitude to look someone in the eye and tell them the truth.  And to tell YOU the truth...I do not know what the answer is on this one.  The next few days will tell us all that answer, and I will tell you.  My experience has been..."all of the above."  Which one will hold true in this young player's case with this team...the sun will come up tomorrow.

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