| MOBILE, Ala. — So this is Mobile.
Interesting place, to say the least. Say the name, and it conjures up visions of
constant movement. Hustle bustle. An endless stream of activity.
Guess again.
In all my years on the pro football beat, seldom have I experienced a more laid-back
pace. While doing my daily jog early this morning down one of this fine old city’s
major thoroughfares, the 6:30 news report delivered the latest local headlines on my
Walkman.
"Suddenly, at 8:30 last night, a power failure blacked out a two-block portion of
the downtown area," the commentator explained with a sense of urgency.
"The cause of the blackout was a faulty connection at a downtown power-supply
station," she said. "The bottom line? The squirrel died."
Hot damn!
Luckily, the power failure didn’t affect the area where fellow PFW editor Trent
Modglin and I chose to eat dinner Tuesday night — a local eatery recommended by a
bellhop at our hotel about a half-block from where we were staying.
At 8 p.m. on a Tuesday evening, Trent and I were the only people in the place, save for
the proprietors. Clearly, the place was hardly hopping.
But there was an upside. Not only did I have one of the best Po’Boy sandwiches
ever, which featured the establishment’s own special sauce. After we were done
eating, the owner asked us if we wanted a lift back to our hotel so we could avoid the
steady drizzle that was falling. On the way back to the hotel, he nonchalantly ran a red
light at a major intersection.
"It’s OK," he drawled. "The cops all know me."
Now that’s what I call Southern hospitality.
Oh yeah, I guess I better mention something in this column about the Senior Bowl, which
is why Trent and I are hunkered down on Alabama’s Gulf shore. The game — an
annual showcase of NFL draft-eligible talent — is Saturday, and inside the
Adam’s Mark hotel, while the atmosphere is relaxed, the pace is hardly laid-back.
It’s like a "Who’s Who" of NFL people from every team in the
league, and you can bet your bottom dollar that the constant discussions taking place
around every corner are brimming with the kind of hot inside gridiron gossip that gets
guys like me extremely excited.
Same goes for the two-a-day practices held at separate sites for the North and South
teams just across the bay. The sideline is a sea of NFL people, all decked out in their
respective team garb. And while it might look as though everybody is standing around
having a good ol’ time, that isn’t the case.
Not when you consider that among the 110 players in last year’s game, 102 were
drafted by NFL teams.
As the week wears on, the futures of the graduating seniors appearing in this
year’s game will begin to take focus — as much the result of what they do in the
practices as in the game itself.
Perhaps even more so.
On the sideline of this morning’s practice at Fairhope Football Facility, what
seemed like a zillion different coaches were scribbling notes on little pads and making
comments into tape recorders.
"Great lateral movement," earnestly muttered an unidentified 49ers scout.
"Nice hips," one scout from the Chiefs said to another. "He really stays
under control."
The compilation of these observations will go a long way toward ultimately designing
the NFL’s future landscape.
And that really gives you pause for some serious reflection, even in a city where a
dead squirrel is the hot story away from the football field.
Time to run. Another practice beckons.
First, though, I’m thinking about running back to that eatery for another
Po’Boy.
With the special sauce, of course.
To Senior Bowl main page |
