Call Me Deacon Blues

I can't even tell you why this happened, but I am a big fan of the Alabama Crimson Tide football team. It might be because of the purity of the kind of college football they play down there in the South...you know, where the elephants are tight but the Tuscaloosa.

It's also great that one can enjoy NCAA football without all the silly political posturing that enters our lives, often unseen and unnoticed.

But here's the thing. The Ravens, the Baltimore Ravens, are having a little trouble with this year's top two draft choices. The first rounder, Sergio Kindle, somehow managed to fall down two flights of stairs and is in a hospital in Austin TX, suffering from a fractured skull. He will miss training camp, so you don't want to count on him as a starter any time soon.

Then the rookies came to camp this week and our second-round draft pick out of Alabama, Terrence Cody (above), a broth of a lad at 6' 4" and a listed 349 pounds (just shy of the mythical 350 mark) could not pass the physical conditioning test, which consists of walking past a tray full of donuts. No, the drill consists of running 25 yards, doubling back, resting for 70 seconds and repeating it twice. I was just joking before.

I might not be able to do that, what with my back needing surgery, and maybe not all of us could, especially those of us who are toting around 350, I mean 349 lbs. But Mr Cody has been to college, and this is where young people go to prepare for their careers. Someone should have mentioned to him that he might want to tone it up just a touch in time for his first day on his new job, for which he shall be paid $3.385 million over the next four years.

But besides all this good publicity, Mr Cody has also gotten himself a new nickname, courtesy of defensive line-mate Haloti Ngata, not exactly a slip of a man himself at 6' 4" and 345. Cody is now known as "Cheeseburger."

Roll Tide!