Day of the Stafford

The Lions picked Matthew Stafford with their number 1 pick and signed him to a 78 million dollar deal of which 41.7 mill is guaranteed. Amazing, considering how bad the economy is doing. We always knew top athletes made boatloads of money and I personally had no issues with that. I am not one of those guys who begrudged these guys making a lot of money or said things like "I can't believe he makes 16 mill for throwing a stupid ball around". In fact, I sometimes argue that top-notch athletes like LeBron or MJ during his peak were grossly underpaid if you consider their overall impact on the business. But even I look at this 78 million differently in the light of today's economic climate. It sounds too high and kinda wrong that a kid out of school is making that kinda money, especially Stafford who was not that big a name in college football and especially in a town like Detroit which is in economic shambles. I have not even heard of this guy until the draft-hype kicked in.

Two interesting points to note here. One, looks like the economy has had close to zero impact on the NFL. We all know the NFL is the king in our culture and I don't think they are going to have any issues selling season tickets. They may lose some money on TV ads from businesses, but I guess thats more of a problem for the TV channels who have already signed long-time contracts with NFL. I see a lot of reports about how the NBA is going to be in trouble because of the economy and I see some impact on MLB too early this season. This Stafford contract is another proof that NFL is just different. Secondly, timing is everything in life. We see this time and again with QBs in the draft. You can make 10 times more than what you deserve if you enter the draft in a year with not too many good QB options and if the team at the top needs a QB. The Niners and Alex Smith are a good example of this from a few years back. I don't know how good Stafford is going to be, but he is pretty lucky to be where he is today. This is not a loaded draft and the Lions were desperate.

Speaking of the Lions, they changed their uniforms recently and I thought that should fix all their problems after their 0-16 season! Why even spend time and money on the draft? Anyways, they had 3 drafts on day 1 and I hope they do better in their first, full, post-Matt Millen year. The draft this year was not too interesting. Not many big-time names. Not many offensive stars. Very few explosive running backs in this draft. Mark Sanchez was probably the most popular name and he went to the Jets. Thats a good match for now. The Raiders as usual shocked everybody with their 7-Th pick by drafting somebody who is tall and runs very fast. I think that dude might have been available on Monday post-draft! Thats how much of a reach that pick was. The Niners picked the bigger-named WR in Michael Crabtree, who for some reason had fallen down the draft-boards. At the end of the day, this draft was kinda boring with very little action and recognizable faces.

In the NBA, Kobe killed the Jazz. As simple as that. After missing 19 of 24 shots in game 3, he come out today and made 18 of 24 shots. I don't remember seeing anybody look that unstoppable. He was just scary-good today. If I am LeBron, I hate what I saw today in Kobe and I hope he doesn't pull something like this against the Cavs in the finals. He rarely even hit the rim today with his jumpers. It seems like the Spurs are done. Timmy is not healthy, Ginobli is out and the rest of the Spurs are too old. Parker can only do so much and his 43 was not enough against the Mavs. Like I had predicted, dope-head Josh Howard is killing the Spurs and when he is on, the Mavs are not easy to deal with. We might have a 6 over 3 upset here and a Denver-Dallas semis in the future. Thats not too bad because the Spurs can be boring at times. It might be rebuild time for the Spurs and Timmy might be slowing down finally.