NFL Draft Special Teams - Part II

And if you want, you can let us know in your review if you have an idea for a future episode as well. Thanks ahead of time for your support. And now it's showtime. Welcome to Special Teams, a production of I Heart Radio. Hello and welcome inside the newest episode of Special Teams with Jason Smith and Mike Harmon, our podcast that looks back at specific years of sports history and what great teams did to become so noteworthy.

You don't always have to be great. Sometimes you could be close to being great, and sometimes you could be not good at all. Very Special weeks we get to play with our format here a little bit. As last week we look back at what three Special Teams did during the NFL Draft, and we're gonna do it again this week and look at what three teams did in specific years in the NFL Draft and what made them

so good afterwards. We're gonna start in the San Francisco forty Niners, coming off their second Super Bowl with Bill Walsh and Joe Montana, and they traded up in the first round to take wide receiver Jerry Rice. This could go down as the worst trade in New England Patriots history because you wouldn't think about it now, but this is the pay trips. They had a great year at eighty five, right, I mean, they had a good run until the end, until yes, and until until the end.

Then it kind of, oh, no, we can use that wide receiver. So you kind of you kind of forget it because they did get to the Super Bowl. But man, if we had had Jerry Rice, who knows, you would never think of the Patriots making a bad Draft day trade now. But they make a trade with the forty Niners who move up in the first round. Uh, they swapped first round picks and Bill Walsh, head coach of the forty Niners, gives later picks to the Patriots because

they wanted to draft Jerry Rice. Why did Bill Walsh want Jerry Rice. This is not because they did extensive scouting. This is not because they sent a guy down and watched every single Mississippi Valley State game that Jerry Rice was in. It's because late one night, he was dozing off watching TV when the sports anchor tees hey and coming up, we have highlights of Jerry Rice at Mississippi Valley State. Because Rice was kind of a cult figure

back then. Look at this what this guy is doing at this really small college, and he saw the highlights of Jerry Rice, he decided I gotta go get this guy all because he woke up for it while dozing off at midnight watching TV. What if he had stayed asleep. What if he just decided on I need to see that guy, got scouting everything else because he woke up to watch Mississippi Valley State and Jerry Rice catching touchdowns.

I believe from Willie Totton, who was the quarterback nicely done, that could have changed NFL history if he had just stayed sleeping. Pretty crazy how things change. And as we talked about in the first episode of Special Teams, looking back at the draft, I mean circumstance, changing of fortunes, changing of legacies, and how players and coaches are viewed likewise.

Here all because you had a little bit of a an inflection in a local sports anchor's voice enough to jolt you from a nice slumber thinking about the greatness of Roger Craig and the other weapons at your disposal to go find Jerry Rice, the man widely referred to as the Goat. Well, but think about him with that Patriots uniform. That would have been pretty sweet back then. Oh yeah, that would have It would have been the old one with pat page really read. That would have

been nice. Think about that. Yeah. Uh, So they make this move and there were a couple of things that led him to being able to get Jerry Rice because he didn't go you know, it's not like Jerry Rice went number two or number three. Overall, there were many teams that passed him by, including the New York Jets, who picked at number ten. And I'm gonna tell the story, even though it's very painful for me, because you want me to just pretend like I'm playing a violin. No, no,

it's okay. So the Jets are picking a ten, right, and the Jets need a wide receiver, and they were completely torn between Jerry Rice and al Tune, Right, that's what they wanted. Al Tune, who was a really good receiver from Wisconsin, and they were split down the middle. And Rich Code tight who winds up screwing the Jets before he screwed them by being their head coach, was that their lead scouter. He was the guy that broke the tie, and he said, I don't think Jerry Rice

can get separation at the next level. So they said, let's go with al Tune. And al Tune was the guy that al Tune had a good career for the Jets, so it's really good, you know, got hurt later on, had concussions, but he was still pretty good. But he wasn't Jerry Rice, but a thousand yards seasons mixed in nearly a thousand, nearly three straight years of a thousand yards. So they had just lost rich Code tights phone number. They could have had Jerry Rice, who instead hangs around

until sixteen. Overall, Yeah, but something tells me that Rich Code type back of the day, in the era before cell phones, was standing next to that pay phone or standing next to that phone in his office as long as he possibly could. He might have slept in the office making sure he wasn't going to be omitted from any of these discussions. So Jets don't get him at number ten. And this really, I mean, this is just one of those things that tells you, well, you know, hey,

that's so totally Jets. But the reason Rice was around for so long you talk about him not being able to get separation is because his forty time from the combine was disputed because it first got reported he he ran the forty and four point four or five seconds, which, okay, that's pretty good. It's not four two eights blazing. Yeah, it's not like what we see here in Yeah, that's still four four speed. And when you're talking about four four because that's it was always the big thing for

the longest four four speed, that was great. But then it got reported it could be as slow as four point seven one, which that's that. The guys don't get drafted that high when you run a four defensive getting close to that in this day and age, And I don't understand how that's not more exact. Look a look at the the guys, and I'll say it, if you're listening out there, and you a candid to combine standing there with your stop watching a dope. You don't need

to do it anymore. They've got lasers that do know. They didn't have the sharks with laser beings, but you still had guys with how does so many people get get have such a wide range of what Jerry Rice is forty wide range of ages and aptitude. So it's like guys running the forty. There's a wide range of how quick that trigger finger is? I had to sneeze, I'm sorry, so I started my wh you know, when

is he really? And that goes back to the other evaluation though, when you add the human element of deciding when is he officially running his forty? Right, you got the start to move forwards and wait for the first step before you start what I mean, what are we looking at? So? I mean that could be the difference

of point one point two seconds right there. But yeah, Jerry Rice always the joke was well the slowest, greatest, you know slow motion guy that was really moving a lot faster, kind of like you see in a bunch of your favorite Marvel movies. Well he was also that. He was also the guy one of the original guys where you could say about him. He had practice, sped, had games. You know. It was sometimes you see guys

with games, and Jerry Rice had games. He had did a little rope a dope and during his career he talked to Jerry Rice and any media event he'll laugh and be like getting low guys to sleep, right, I mean, how many guys kind of come up limping, They're ne really not thinking the next play, their cornerbacks gonna slump off a little bit, and what do you do? You cut inside him and away you go. Part of me. I I get it because this was Jerry Rice was

a real cult figure back in eighty five. He was the guy that late at night on Saturday on your local sports reporter was and hey, check out this crazy college football high like Jerry Rice and Willie Tott. Because Willie Tatt and throw like sixties. They were throwing the ball all over. It was like, oh my god, look at this team. And it was one of those of all the teams players across the country. Jerry Rice just so happened to get all this love because look at

what he was doing. It was a small college. It wasn't nowadays where everybody would know Jerry Rice, right, I mean, so I get that part of it. But still when you're at the comment with your time and the guy you would have that number, you know what I mean. Look, everybody knew enough about Jerry Rice. He actually went number one overall in the USFL draft in eighty five by Birmingham. But of course he chose the NFL over the USFL.

But also enough people knew about him at the end, you think that would be a pretty important thing for Jerry Rice's forty times. Let's figure that out what that is. Yeah, but again it goes to even in with the lasers focused and everything and all the science behind it, we still have disputed forty numbers for guys like, well, they clocked him here and then it's it's it's a matter of point oh five or point oh two or whatever else. We're talking hundreds instead of here. We're talking full tens

tense of a second that people are disputing. But it seemed like it turned out pretty well for him, So everybody else is ineptitude ruined him. The Jets would have ruined him. He would have never had this career. Never the other the Bengals passed on him too, Bess go

before Jerry Rice. Well, but just but just looking at the wide receiver position, right, because that's that's where the Jets can at least say, all right, somebody else still had an opportunity, and Eddie Brown from Miami goes to the Bengals at So that is how Jerry Rice wound up a forty niner and maybe the worst trade the Patriots have ever made. You know. The Bears picked later in that round, drafted William the Refrigerator Perry who starred in the Super Bowl that yes he did, in case

you remember, Yes he did. He was, he had a he had a he had a decently large NFL career, He had a good run. He did he well, he was famous. He was refrigerator Perry. Legend. Uh. Coming up next, it's not just one draft what this next team did, but what they did in the first round, three drafts in a row that will likely never be matched. It's special teams with Jason Smith and Mike Harmon as we look back at special teams in the hat A Fell Draft.

As we resume here on special teams, taking a look back at special teams in the NFL Draft, Our second week breaking down what teams did something so special and individual NFL drafts. Something a little bit different in this next segment we have for you is we're not just gonna look back at what one team did in one draft, but we're gonna look back at what one team did in the first round. Three consecutive drafts in a row

back and one in the first round. The Dallas Cowboys made their dynasty of the nineties by taking Michael Irvin, Troy Aikman, and Emmett Smith all in the first round of their drafts. I would say there's been no more greater success of a three year running the draft than what the Cowboys did here and get in the triple and no, that's about as good as it cats, But

you gotta dial it back to seven. I mean seven was a pretty pretty big year when you look at it, because in the first round they took a defensive tackle out of Nebraska named Danny Noonan. No no, no. And in the second round they took the quarterback out a Baylor named Ron Francis Ron Freill. Well, he did turn out to have a great career with the Penguins. Career, I'll tell you was good. I mean when the Whalers

trade Ronnie Francis, that was very sick. So we had to make a make a point of well, here's a couple of guys that you know the names, but not for the reason of their success with the Dallas cow ron Francis and Alf Samuelson and look Danny Noon and never panned out. I mean he couldn't even get in the college. You have any money for college, Well, you know what, there's a way. You gotta start with the juco and then used to transfer rules to your advantage.

He did win the Catty Tournament. I mean, have been able to get you a low Noble scholarship somewhere looks pretty good on the young person's resume. Winning the Caddy scholarship, that's right. But the Dallas Cowboys, who going into this draft, they knew they needed a receiver. They take Michael Erin out of Miami eleventh overall. I remember when he was taken,

he came out the media. They had cameras on him and he goes Dallas Cowboys baby super Bowl bound and he's shaking hands out and they going, boy, this team was terrible. Really sudden to the Super Bowl. I liked Michael Irvin's bravado, and that turned out to be his entire NFL and post NFL career was pretty much what we know Michael Irvin for right, man, you go back in that draft, you had Sterling Sharp. People forget how

good Sterling Sharp was. Well, people forget this draft is that the Cowboys needed a receiver and they would have been great no matter what, because the first three receivers taken in this draft that were taken before Michael Irvin were Tim Brown, then Sterling Sharp, and then Michael Irvin. They would have been fine with any of these those three fell there. Yes, you would have had yourself one hell of a player. Uh. And for Michael Irvin, I mean that's that's a guy, just a legend, bringing that

Miami swagger on a whole other level. Uh. He always complimented my suit and tie combinations. It's and parties and stuff like that. You know, I was a little bold with some of the things I would wear. Not the purple shorts that I wear in the studio with you on a night on nightly, definitely night We're talking pin striped suits and bold ties. Yes, going next level. It's

crazy that he was even a round out eleven. Because he had a phenomenal career at Miami, and especially because there were no quarterbacks taken that year until the third round, he was not the year of the quarterback. I mean, we'd only seen this a couple of times in the last thirty plus years in this draft, and in those were the only NFL drafts that didn't have a quarterback taken in the first round. The first quarterback drafted here third round, Tom Tupa, who was taken mainly because he

was a punter, so you don't remember him. You can throw a little bit. Hey, we got a backup quarterback. We got our number one punter. Let's just do it. He's just one of those guys that I always said, you know, he played quarterback in college. He can throw the ball a little bit, so look out for the trick player. But yes, Chris Chandler was first quarterback off the board. I mean that, you just don't You'll never

see that again. There's never gonna be an NFL draft ever again where a quarterback isn't taken in the first round. To mention, just go through and look at the players selected ahead of Irvin, many of who went on to great success. Neil Smith, Benny Blades, Paul Gruber. We already talked about Brown and Sterling Sharp. Andre Bruce was the number one pick over Andre Bruce. Want a bust, right, So you got him, but everything else kinda played out right, and the number one pick goes wrong, as it does

so often. Good luck with that, Cincinnati. But it's one of those things that as you go through, you got a lot of stalwart players that were drafted in that first round. I remember Jerry Glanville saying about Andre Bruce, who was such a buss. He was he was like at the end of his rope with him uh at the Falcons and he said, you know, everybody in the NFL has size, strength, and speed, which is what Andre

Bruce had. And then he said, but everybody else needs to bring something to the party, and like that was what it was. Like Andre Bruce did. He he was he was big, and he was an athlete, but he didn't have anything else that took to be an NFL star. Do you know One of my first media jobs was working with Jimmy Glanville really doing fantasy football analysis for something called The Football Network, which that was around for

about eight minutes it was on. We were on Spike TV and we're doing a fantasy show and it was him. We had Danny Sherion and the odds maker forgetting the host name, but Glanville at the week they would have me on and we do sleepers and we'd go through these things. And he was obsessed with my cheekbones, and I was always trying to guess my ethnicity. Really, my deal was he took some shots at my weight. Is very weird. We got along very well. No, that's it's

really odd. So the Cowboys start at the beginning of their dynasty by taking Michael ven eleventh overall. What happens that year, Well, they're terrible and they draft number one overall in nine they need a quarterback. What do they do. They take Troy Aikman out of U c. L A number one overall. That This is one of the legendary drafts in the NFL, as four of the first five picks, including Dion Sanders, wound up in the Hall of Fame. Aikman, to start things off with the Dallas Cowboys, was the

only player at the draft this year. He's the guy that started the trend of going to the draft, Aikman was there, held the jersey. Suddenly it's it's not a bad idea. And now everybody goes to the draft when you can. So we're all the draft. And here's Troy Aikman, who started out as an option wishbone quarterback at Oklahoma, breaks his leg, loses his job because they got other better quarterbacks in Oklahoma. Goes to U C. L A. Now I'm a pocket passer, and here he is sure

fire number one overall pick in the draft. But the big thing for this draft for the Dallas Cowboys was you had such a huge changing of the guard. Right. This is when Jerry Jones takes over the Dallas franchise. He got rid of Tom Lange and Jimmy Johnson comes in. Yes, Gil Grant your friend, he got many he does not like you. Um. He was no longer in charge of personnel Tech Shram had moved on, and it was a

whole new world order for these Dallas Cowboys. And this is where things got really interesting because with Jimmy Johnson coming in head coach at Miami in the supplemental draft and the Spring of eighty nine, which happens after the NFL Draft, it's when you know you're able to pick a player who for some reason falls through the cracks, wants to leave school and get to the NFL. Early Steve Walsh, who was his quarterback at Miami, wanted to

leave for the National Football League. Stef Walts is one of the most decorated quarterbacks in college football, and Jimmy Johnson took him at number two overall in the supplemental draft. So now you take Troy Aikman number one overall in the draft. Then later on in the supplemental draft you take Steve Walsh. Wait a minute, why are we doing this? Why are we taking another quarterback when we just drafted our franchise quarterback at number one. Here's the rub of this.

Not only did he just take another quarterback, his own guy, so obviously did he really want Troy Aikman. What he did was, when you take a pick in the supplemental draft, you forfeit the same pick in the NFL draft next year. And because Dallas turned out to be one in fifteen in Aikman's rookie year, that turned out to be the number one overall pick in the draft. So the nineteen ninety they would have had the number one pick, but they lost it because they took Steve Walsh in the

supplemental draft. You tell me a head coach who survives that we drafted a guy at number one overall, who's gonna be our quarterback? We go one in fifteen, I draft my her back from college to put him in. Who's really never gonna make it, doesn't have the arm strength of the National Football League. We are terrible. Aikman gets hurt and we finished at the bottom of the league and we don't even have the number one pick the next year. Tell me a head coach that survives that.

No body today's day body. No. But it also shows at that point Jerry Jones first getting his hands around the organization. Uh, we got Troy, and um, I don't know the supplemental stuff, but I go to g n C and try to have you get something over the counter. Of course that's the way to go. I mean that that was I mean, just thinking about that back then, even I thought that was weird, and I was eighteen years old, and I'm going, that's weird. Why the hell

would they do that? I mean, did they not like Troy Aikman Behind the scenes was Jimmy Johnson sending a message. I mean there's a million things that go through that process. You can tell that Jimmy Johnson wanted Steve Walsh to be his quarterback, want him to win the job. But he couldn't even though and got hurt and had a really bad rookie year. Like Aikman throws for nine touchdowns and eighteen picks, he didn't look like a star. He was owing eleven. You know, he got hurt in his

first three years in the NFL. He was displaced at times as the starting quarterback. Luckily he made it too, which began the Cowboys run of excellence. I mean he wouldn't make it now after those injuries. Teams would cut bait and go this guy can't stay healthy for three years. We got to move on from him. Troman's just an injury played quarterback. But this shows you, Steve Walsh, how

ill equipped he was for the NFL. With all of Aikman's injuries and the fact that you have your head coach who basically hand picked you to say coming and win this job, you still couldn't be the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys. Well, they got a good haul for him when they traded him first, second, and third round picks for Steve Walsh by the New Orleans was out of the Oh my good that was that trade went down. I'm like, again, I'm eighteen years old, going, that's a

bad trade. I knew I had a future. Want you were ready, that's what you're giving up for Steve Walsh. For Steve Walsh who couldn't throw it more than twenty yards. Steve Walsh, No, he uh struggling. You know, he had a lot of also with the Bears. He had a lot of moxie in college and he won and it was part of moxie. This was the heyday of the of of the Miami Hurricanes, the national championship teams with all the stars on it, all the star power Jimmy

Johnson's teams, and and of course he's the quarterback. He gets a lot of credit for it. But I mean, you know, it's not like anybody else would really run for Steve Walsh at that point. And normally a shrug and go, yeah, they're done. The first, second, and third pick you wind up get. I mean that that's just you just stepped into a few were the Dallas Cowboys there. I mean, you're sitting there and going all right, and eight he had three thousand yards and twenty nine touchdown

and twelve picks. He could be that guy for you. I would love to see the sales job that Jerry Jones did to get that trade to go through in all serious is I mean, because if you were to tell me that he would have just gotten a one and gotten a numb one back for him, you would have shrugged and Okay, cool, they don't have the number one overall pick. But look that they were able to get and obviously we'll get that in a moment. But if you were able to recoup just the first rounder,

you win. But to add an additional second and third and then be able to spin those off for another more parts, I mean, just great work. You wonder what happened to that GM acumen years and that's I mean. Do you think about the Cowboys were still able to build their dynasty after going through that, and now to get to because now you have Aikman in place. Look, Aikman got hurt. He was not good for a few years,

and it really took a while. You get to the draft and some of the players that the Cowboys could have had at the number one overall pick are Cortez Kennedy Hall of Famer, junior Sayale, hall of famer. You know they could have could have had Jeff George, sure could have had Richmond Webb. You know, it was great for many years there. There there were some great draft

picks there that were available at the top. Now, the way the draft went was Jeff George number one overall, the Indianapolis Blair Thomas Jets more on him in a second, to the Jets number two running back out of Penn State than it went Kennedy, Keith McCanns junior sayal, those are your first five picks. They were all there for the Dallas number six with Mark Carrier. Yeah then he and he had a great year too, he played well, and they were all there for the Dallas Cowboys. Right.

But in showing you how things can go your way even when you screw it up, all right, here's how things go away, even when you screw it up. So that's where the Cowboys would have been in. They don't pick their their only pick is at number seventeen. So okay, remember go to pick number one overall. Didn't do it?

This is when they drafted Emmett Smith. Why did Emmett Smith, who turned into probably on anybody's list, the third best running back in the history of the National Football League Because everybody's got either Barry Sanders or Jim Brown ahead of him. Somebody would have Walter Payton to better recognize guys that can throw and would run you over. Yeah, were you talking about you know, three times Super Bowl champion, all time NFL rushing leader, You talking about that against

the world? It was? It was, alright, So at worst he is the fourth best running back, all right. Nobody thought he was a high pick because scouts thought he was too small and he was too slow for the NFL. He didn't have that. He had a great year at Florida, a great career Florida, but he wasn't well. Our mouths are watering over this guy. Dallas went into this draft saying, we have to get a running back. Right. They had,

they had the wide receiver, they had the quarterback. They thought, we're still trying to figure things out with Achman and Steve Young at this point and Steve Walsh at this point, but now we need the running back. Blair Thomas was by far and away the best running back on the board at a Penn State. He's the guy everybody wanted. Blair Thomas was the guy because the Cowboys don't have

that early pick. They don't take Blair Thomas when you know they would have taken him, and could he have turned out to have a different career if he wasn't playing on the Jets. You can say that from any players, but sure, should we do a podcast that's all the guys. You couldn't do that. What if they'd gone anywhere but the Jets and maybe maybe with the Cowboys offensive line, Blair Thomas would have been great, But we just know what they did on the on the field, and Blair

Thomas was an incredible bust. The thing is he was the right pick. Everybody had him as that good a player. I mean, everybody thought he was that good. So if the Cowboys are picking number one overall they need a running back, they're taking Blair Thomas. So he eventually years, years, years, long after the Yets just started years. I mean, look, his his breakthrough game was one of the worst Jets

losses ever. Blair Thomas and in his second year he ran for hundred twenty five yards against your Bears on Monday Night football, and I vividly remember Dan Deardorf saying, two minute warning, the Jetropolitans have the ball, barring disaster, It'll be a pipe plane ride back to Gotham for Bruce Coslic and the Jets. And what happens. Blair Thomas fumbles, the Bears tie it, and they went on the final play of overtime, Cap Bozo and Jim Harbaugh, and I

still can't think about that game. It was I can't. I can't think about that. Right. It was awful. I'll give you a fifth month now. That game was just terrible. That was absolutely awful. Five yards to carry as a rookie, Yes, that's what I mean. He stunk. Uh, they would have taken him number two, and the Jets would have had somebody else. Maybe they would have had a Hall of Fame player. So the Cowboys then they don't pick until seventeen.

So again here's how things work out for them. The guy that Cowboys wanted at that point was linebacker James Francis. Al Right, he's a guy went to Baylor, he was a guy on their board. However, Cincinnati took James Francis at twelve. So now the Cowboys are stuck. What are we gonna do when we get down We're picking at seventeen. I have no idea what we want. He wasn't even

their plan, all right, Emmett Smith wasn't even their plan. Still, the Cowboys when they pick, they trade up to seventeen with the Pittsburgh Steelers because at that point they figure, well, let's get the running back, let's get Emmett Smith. So they trade with the Steelers and they draft Mt. Smith.

The Steelers who probably would not have drafted Emtt Smith because at that point they had Tim Worley and Barry Foster I think was a rookie on the team be a couple of years for Barry Foster was really good. So they're probably thinking, we're okay here with Worley and Barry Foster, we're not gonna take Emma Smith. Can you imagine the Pittsburgh Steelers with Emmitt Smiths just been drafted, right, he was a year before that, you know, and he

was gonna be decent out of Georgia. And can you imagine what the Steelers would have been like with Emmett Smith throughout the nineties of the Dallas Cowboys. So look at all these things that happened for the Cowboys. They lose their number one overall pick that had they got it, they would have taken Blair Thomas. Then they wanted James Francis, who gets taken. So they trade up with the Steelers who don't want Emmett Smith, and they wind up getting

Emtt Smith. That is what you call a horseshoe appropriate in Dallas. Right, you are lucky and it all worked out. Look, they made the trade up to go get the guy. So give him credit for recognizing, hey, we've got to go get him. You look at the next couple of picks. Tony Bennett out of Mississippi goes to the Packers, Then Darryl Thompson, running back out of Minnesota goes to the Packers, and then the Falcons take Steve Broussard out of Washington State.

Before Pittsburgh selects at twenty one with the Dallas trade pick, they take Eric Green the tight end. So out of liberty. Liberty, liberty, yeah, liberty nicely done a lot of that stuff. I mean, he got two more running backs go right there, So you know, could have been major fortunes changed, and I guess all that luck happened in those three years. That was the first. That was my first deal with the

guy downstairs. And uh, I lost my first soul, but luckily in my hor Crocks I got no that was I knowed the question have made all these like that? If you were to have, oh this is a sports talk radio, a bit for the agent, and if you were to split Jerry's soul, it's Baltimore and to horcrux is where would you find them? Look Jerry Jones, when when he came into the NFL, he was was a breath of fresh air because he came in. I'm gonna do it my way. I'm gonna get rid of my

old coach. I'm gonna bring in the new coach. Then gonna get rid of that coach. I'm gonna bring in another coach. Tom Landry's hat. He did well. He did, yes, he did, and but we had never seen anybody like him owner wise, And you know, here he is years later, and he's still as influential an owner as ever. And he turned the Cowboys into champions and it's been a long time since they got back there. But there's been no owner who is gained more headlines and had more

influence than Jerry Jones. He came in and changed the National Football Yeah, I mean you look at you build Jerry World and all the stadiums that come there after. Talk about the influence of how the league expands and where their business options lie. Look at how influential he was to making things happen in Los Angeles and bringing the Rams and Chargers there. I mean, that was a

lot of his doing as the most influential guy. Looking at that powerhouse stadium and the brand that is the Dallas Cowboys and really for us, I mean one of the more entertaining figures in all of sports, and that run Michael Irvin, Troy Aikman, Emmett Smith now unmatched in nflster. I just that's on Thomas thing. I just you know, it's funny drafted Jeff George number one. If they'd end the number one, I mean, look forget about We're done with the kid, dude. Let let me just end right here.

I'm looking at all the stats on the Pro Football Reference of the first round picks that they had for their NFL careers. Like here's the first round pick and here's the stats of their career. Right, so you look and see Jeff George all right, you know, uh, you know in his career thousand yards passing, dur touchdowns. You know, that's what you get from an Okay quarterback. You know, Blair Blair Thomas. I look at him yards for his career and seven touchdowns. Everybody else has zero's next to

their name. And then you get all the way down. Emmett Smith carries yard touchdowns, three thousand, two hundred and twenty four yards receiving. I mean it's it's like you look, you, here's all these guys and then here's Emmett in mock you by not putting up the defensive stats and a boot. So there it is. There is part to the Triplets being trafted by the Dallas Cowboys. Who is left in our final installment of Special Teams NFL Draft You will

find out next this next team Special Teams. The podcast with Jason Smith and Mike Harmon didn't so much do something special as they had to avoid fans not liking what they did in order to do special things. Is that a good way to describe it? I think that about sums it up nicely. In the Cleveland Browns rafted number one overall and they took Tim Couch, who, coming

out of Kentucky with his army. Everybody thought Tim Couch was the best quarterback prospect in college football, wide open offense and the welcome back to the Browns as an entity in the National Football League. This was going to be the face of the new, newly constituted, resurrected Cleveland Browns franchise. After that happened, this is where things went heywire.

The Eagles picked second, they needed a quarterback. However, they made a big run publicly they're fans wanting Ricky Williams, which I never understood because they had do Stanley, who was really good. Staley was coming off a season in which he had fift hundred total yards over a thousand arts rushing. He was twenty three years old. Alright, Deuce Staley was phenomenal. But I don't know why there was this big push that the Eagles and their fans wanted

Ricky Williams. But they wanted Ricky Williams, and Andy Reid, then head coach of the Eagles, decided, yeah, it's nice you want Ricky, but we're gonna go at number two and draft. Where's he from? Where's he from? Where? Syracuse? Donovan McNabb, Last time you've been able to say anything so proudly? Uh No, we we won the Camping World Bowl two years ago. The Camping will come on, man, Camping World. Forgot about the Camping World World, Bloody, I'm sorry.

A couple of appearances in the Pinstripe Bowl, Yeah, every day. The Pinstripe Bawl was our home for a couple of years. It was. But McNabb goes number two overall and immediately Eagles fans boo the pick at the draft. Look, Eagles fans, Jets fans, no matter what happened at the NFL draft, those fans are not happy and they booed McNabb and it became a touchstone moment in the NFL Draft. You'll still see it later. And I hated Philadelphia at that

point because McNabb was my guy. Sure was Syracuse. He was fantastic. He got us to the Orange Bowl senior year. I mean, we got waxed by Florida, but I mean we would Syracuse in the or and made sense Orange Man in the Orange Bowl. But I mean we got us to the Orange Bowl. I mean, we were in the bleeping Orange Bowl. Man, we had never played on in a game that high, and he had done that for us. Then I started thinking, Okay, maybe we underachieved

because he goes number two overall. We should have done other things the other years. But still he got We got to the Orange Bowl and he winds up going number two overall. He's my guy, and the Eagles fans can't stand him. They wanted Ricky Williams. Man, that was the guy Staley, But that was the guy everybody knew. Right, Charlie Garner was leaving, he was gone and moved on to to San Francisco. You have do Staley. Yeah, that's fine. You wanted the new shiny toy. You wanted the guy

with the dreads. He wanted the guy with all the records, all the hype, all the curiosity. He he was the story of that draft, right, as evidenced by the trade that ended up defining the draft. But when you look at what Philadelphia wanted, Donovan McNabb was not top on the list. I don't know that they should have been as exciting. I mean, I love my guy Rodney Pete, but between he coy, Dentoner and Bobby Hoyne. You didn't exactly have a murderers row of the Andy Reid knew

what they needed. It's like, yeah, we don't need another good running back, we'd heat a quarterback. Because mcdab was also my guy that I ended up going to s in Chicago, right in downtown Chicago, one of the historic buildings in a great school. My second choice if I decided to continue beating myself up and trying to figure out how to play football with my diminutive, diminutive um fire plug type body are very fire plug. Mont Carmel

was going to be the choice. I would have been there, just ahead of Donovan McNabb, but the idea being no, it's for me. It was done. But Mount Carmel was a school always kept an eye on and what they were doing. And McNabb was a guy that was a

Chicago legend for what he did at that school. And then he goes to Syracuse to keep an eye on him and you're watching him play and now you've got him on this big stage like all right, here we go, and they when the Eagles selected him, and that an initial You can check all the old Chicago returns of what happened when Donald mcnabgo Who was like, wait a minute, what is what is going on here? So yeah, it's it's become one of the more famous spots of the

last twenty plus years. Look what he did in his decade as the Eagle starting quarterback. He got them to the playoffs eight times, right, won the NFC East five times, got to five NFC Championship games, and assue uper Bowl. He threw for more than thirty thousand yards to touchdowns, three thousand yards rushing, twenty rushing touchdowns. The guy could do it all. But this is the most interesting part

about mcnapp. Despite all of that, he never really got past being booed as a draft pick, not from him, but from the way he was treated by Eagles fans. Even though they retired his number. You know, they still cheered when he did great things. He still had that contentious relationship because not all the time would he say the right things. But that happens times with the quarterback.

But usually when you're playing well and you're achieving, they let it go because you're still doing well on the field. But it's like he never really got that love that he should have gotten from the Eagles fans, And it goes all the way back to the draft because a large portion of the fan base they were so wrapped up in wanting Ricky Williams that when he came, it's like, I'm never gonna forgive him. He's never gonna be my guy because I wanted somebody else. Even though Ricky Williams

didn't nearly have the NFL career then McNab had. Sometimes you just don't get past that. And I don't know the that relationship with him and the fans ever got past that moment. No, I mean it just certainly have seen it in other comments even in his post playing career, where there still seems to be that distance that never really healed. Go back to draft, I mean, it's the biggest night of your life, right, this is what's changing you.

It's setting up your family when you're drafted number two overall. Back then, the kind of money that you were getting as a number two overall pick, I mean you're talking generational wealth. So in theory, it's the greatest moment of your life. You're you're recognized as one of the best in the game. There should be a city waiting to throw rose pedals at your feet, and instead you're getting booed, not only at the draft but at local establishments. The

poison pens are out of what are we doing? You had it set up, you could go pick this running back, this once in a lifetime workhorse guy. And and again at the time the NFL, other than a Dan Marino and Bred Farve and a few other guys, you weren't.

You weren't throwing the ball around the yard necessarily the same way, right, So having the running back I get it to a point, but this was your new face of the franchise and not embracing it and trusting that the brass there knew what they were doing just made no sense and obviously went on to a fantastic career. And the other part is you can look back, and if you're Andy Reid, I would say to the eagle stands, I go look at that. Here. There were five quarterbacks

taken in the first twelve picks. Okay, five the first picks. Here's who they were. Tim Couch We mentioned him, right, he was out of the NFL. Never did anything, really, he was out in a couple of years. Then you had McNabb. You had Dante Culpepper, who had a good career, but not the career that McNabb flashed a bit unfortunately, couldn't get right right physically, always carried more on his

frame and never was able to recover from the injury. Uh. And he's the reason Nick Saban never went back to the NFL. Achille Smith, who we talked about last week and podcast Who Is Best Serie threw three touchdowns. I think he had a good run here except not at all. And then Kate mcmoun who was out of the league by two thousand and two. Day, we get all of those five picks and look, we got the best one

and it was a quarterback, and still it wasn't really enough. Crazy, right, I like that you we even though we were talking about the Eagles, and uh, you get because you kind of blamed him. You started with Syricus with the Eagles, and I could tell that you as your voice kind of shifted my guy. You never accepted my guy. You know, he was great. I interviewed him once when I was

at NFL Network. He sat down with us to do a fantasy hit and we started talking and I said, I'm Syracuse to you know, ninety two, and he was, oh, yeah, yeah, I said, you know, um, you know, I'm gonna try to get you back to Syracuse as a head coach. He goes, oh no, no, I couldn't be a head coach. Maybe strength the conditioning coach. I go, I gotta get you back there. Sign you on right now. I'm like, all right, I'll get you there. I just gotta get

back there. But it just didn't happen. The other thing with mcna of his, I mean he took a lot of big hits other than a couple of seasons, you know, two thousand five, two thousand six. We always go back to the Super Bowl and you'll have the astros on that. But for the most part, be he showed up on Sundays. Right. He might have been banged up here ad injuries out there. Right, we always have like Ben Roethlisberger, the you're gonna have the asterisk on him and then side he's gonna go.

He's gonna give it a go. But some tremendous runs, some tremendous seasons along the way. But yeah, that the booing on Draft night every April, it becomes Hey, remember, let's take a look back, and that's part of the reason he finds himself in the list of Special teams, because that is a draft that you mentioned the five guys, only one really gave you a career worth writing more than two or three paragraphs about a six time pro bowler who was also the big East offensive player of

the Dead Kate of the sure no question. Yeah. So that's our look back, our two week look at what some special teams did in the NFL Draft. I'm Jason Smith, He's Mike Harmon. Our show airs on Fox Sports Radio Monday through Friday seven to eleven pm Pacific, tend to two on the East Coast. You have an idea for a future episode of Special Teams, hit us up on Twitter at how about a Fresca or Mike at Swollen Dome.

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