Shrine Game: Thursday Notes & Game Preview

[ckparrothead]

Thursday Notes & Game Preview
http://www.universaldraft.com/2010/01/23/shrine-practice-report-thursday-notes-game-preview/

Let me first offer my regretful condolences to Richard Lines (Con), our beloved fellow draftnik here at Universal Draft, who was flagged by airport security as an armed and extremely dangerous terrorist just as he tried to board a simple flight from a random Caribbean island to Orlando in order to fulfill his lifelong dream of seeing an East-West Shrine practice up close. I don’t think he deserved the full-cavity search, or the way he was posed in obscene ****-erotic positions with other suspected terrorizers. It’s been at least 20 years since Richard blew anything up, and that old hag Mrs. Carmody deserved to have her mailbox blown up with the way she kept yelling at Con and his friends just for playing ball on the street.

With Richard detained by island authorities, yours truly became one of a bare handful of people that can say he saw every single non-Walkthrough practice in the run-up to the 2010 East-West Shrine Game. Most folks headed off after the Wednesday practices were through, and of the few that remained long enough for the East squad’s Thursday morning practice, many of those were not present for the afternoon’s West practice. And of those that made it to the afternoon practice, only I made it through the practice once the skies opened up a torrent of wet stuff on our heads.

Do I get a medal or something? Let me rephrase that. I want a medal, now.

Anyhow, the gambit paid off in other ways. I got some good nuggets out of the coaches and players once they saw that they still had one dedicated person out there pretending to scribble notes on a pad filled with X-rated drawings. Several players agreed to interview with me at a later date, and gave me their email addresses so that I can hound them about it. So, look forward to that.

Oh, and I’ve wanted to say this for a week, but Go F–k Yourselves, San Diego. (big smile)

Still can’t believe they let the Jets into the AFC Championship Game.

So, what did I glean from these practices that practically nobody saw?

All week I have been talking up various individuals like Freddie Barnes, but he was among several players that did not seem to have brought their focus to the Thursday practices. The players were in shells, and banging around pretty good, but there were some dropped balls and some changing of the guard a little bit...

There will be a Shrine Week wrap-up after the game that integrates week-long observations with the game happenings.

Other reports from this week's Shrine coverage...

Wednesday Notes
http://www.universaldraft.com/2010/01/21/shrine-practice-report-wednesday/

Tuesday Notes
http://www.universaldraft.com/2010/01/20/shrine-practice-report-tuesday-east-practice/

Monday Notes
http://www.universaldraft.com/2010/01/19/shrine-practice-report-monday/