Sporting News

[USO36]

Galaxy search for unknowns to play with Beckham

LOS ANGELES, Jan 17 (Reuters) - A week after signing David Beckham, perhaps the world's most famous soccer player, the Los Angeles Galaxy turned to the unknown on Wednesday announcing the MLS team would hold open trials.

For $130 would-be players will be given the opportunity to earn a spot on the squad alongside Beckham, who signed a five-year deal last Thursday that could net the former England captain $250 million.

The trials, which will be overseen by Galaxy head coach Frank Yallop, will be held on Feb. 10 at the Galaxy's home stadium in Carson with select players advancing to the second round the following day.

Open trials, known as tryouts, are not uncommon in North American professional sports and occasionally unearth a rare talent. Vince Papale, a 30-year old bartender attended an open tryout for the Philadelphia Eagles and made the team becoming the oldest rookie in NFL history.

Papale's story was made into a Hollywood movie.

[stephenconor]

lol nice post but 1 mistake


its FOOTBALL nor soccer :)

[williamp]

lol nice post but 1 mistake


its FOOTBALL nor soccer :)

cool nice post and don't mix them up sc they're the same (once again sc gets his grammer wrong lol)

[USO36]

The nation's No. 2 college football recruit, the one with three football factories and three fan bases hanging on his national signing day decision, the one they call the "next Reggie Bush," doesn't have a house.

The place he and his family called home was damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Then the levees broke and everyone scattered until he – Joe McKnight – returned to River Ridge, La., just west of New Orleans, and moved into a spare bedroom at his high school coach's house. Eventually his mother and younger brother returned too, but with all the hardship, all the insurance red tape, all they could muster was a tiny, tiny apartment.

So McKnight, all these months later, is still living apart from his family, with his high school coach, "rather than sleeping on a sofa," the coach, J.T. Curtis, said.

All of which brings a rather unique question to these final, furious hours of the often underhanded business of college football recruiting.


yes no
yes no
yes no


What happens when the nation's top remaining recruit – not only capable of demanding virtually anything he wants (money, cars, yes, even a house) on the lively, under-the-table recruiting market, but almost assuredly already offered them – actually needs all of those things, desperately?

"I think if a guy has his hand out and is looking for something, as has happened in the past, there are plenty of places more than willing to give it to him," said Curtis, who in a 33-year career has sent nearly 170 players on to Division I-A, including 11 to the NFL. "Fortunately, that is not Joe's priority."

There is no indication of any rule breaking going on here – either from the three finalists Louisiana State, Ole Miss or Southern California or any of the other 50 or so programs that tried to get the running back's signature Wednesday. But let's be honest, college coaches and boosters have certainly paid players far worse than McKnight to come to their campus. In college, he'll certainly play against (if not alongside) kids getting paid.

Then there are the agents, looking to get in early and lock up a potential NFL client. It is a little ironic they compare this kid to Reggie Bush. Certainly his family could use the kind of house that a fledgling San Diego marketing agent opened up to Bush's family during his final year at USC.

But because of the way we develop football players in this country – on college campuses not in minor leagues – McKnight can do little to help his family right now without risking his eligibility. McKnight, currently in seclusion trying to make his decision, wasn't available to comment for this story.

His high school coach is confident that everything is on the NCAA's up and up, but, then again, he certainly knows the drill. During his coaching career in SEC country, he's watched the NCAA hit the league's football programs 23 separate times for major violations. And he isn’t naïve to agents, either.

McKnight is certainly an intriguing prospect, 6-foot-1 and 200 pounds with 4.3 speed. His high school team at John Curtis Christian (founded by the coach's father) was so dominant he didn't play much but he did manage to score a touchdown 39.1 percent of the time he touched the ball on offense. Then he returned three punts for scores for good measure.

In winning consecutive state championships, he ran so many circles around so many defenders that he became a schoolboy legend on the Bayou and sent college recruiters into a frenzy.

And so while McKnight may not be the poorest kid to sign a letter of intent with a rich school Wednesday – he'll sign live on national television at noon ET – he certainly has a unique situation.

Curtis claims McKnight is obeying all the rules. If the player is doing it because he believes it is the proper thing to do and believes in the NCAA's amateur rules, then good for him; he is a person of great principle.

Because to do so would be to ignore a world around him that's been complicated by grown-up things like hurricanes and FEMA and insurance companies, that is filled with desperate coaches, cash-machine agents and insanely rich boosters who can solve many of those complications instantly.

It would be to wade through mixed messages – NCAA rules on one side, NCAA representatives smashing those rules on the other.

It would mean agreeing to keep his mom and brother in that small apartment while he goes and makes millions for his college coach and tens of millions for his new school, not including all the ancillary businesses, including, indeed, media like me.

Yes, he gets a shot at a free education, no small thing there. Yes, he gets the thrill of college football and the satisfaction that comes from doing it within the agreed upon guidelines. And yes, he may get untold fame and fortune in the NFL in three years, but you want to tell a Katrina family about patience right now?

Would you be as principled as Joe McKnight just may be? Even after the levees broke?

I can't, 100 percent, say I would.

"Well, I can say this, he's not driving a new car," Curtis said. "He's just trying to maintain his focus on his priorities. That stuff (cheating) is one of the things we try to stay away from. Has that happened (with other players)? Obviously that has happened in the past and it is tempting. But it is about maintaining priorities and I think Joe is doing that."

On Wednesday, Joe McKnight will make a college choice, the first step to helping his family move forward. In the process, he'll thrill one fan base and break the hearts of two others. If he winds up as good as advertised, he may even shift the balance of power in college football.

You'd hope he makes that decision for all the right reasons but with deals like this kid, in places like post-Katrina New Orleans, I'm hard-pressed to know for sure what constitutes "right" in college athletics anymore

[USO36]

As consistent as the spring flowers on fruit trees, the NFL's annual harvest of quarterback studies begin to bloom right about now. They come in color-coded booklets, rife with pie charts and power-point graphs, and stuffed with enough statistical oddities and decimal points to drive an accountant mad.

"We broke down the success of the first two quarterbacks taken in each draft for I don't know how many years," Cleveland Browns general manager Phil Savage told Yahoo! Sports while attending the pro day workout of LSU quarterback JaMarcus Russell in March. "You know what we found? The way it almost always works out is one of them works out, and the other doesn't. For whatever reason, it's almost always that way with the first two quarterbacks taken in the draft."

That's sobering news for all the NFL personnel brokers who have been moving Russell and Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn up and down their draft boards, as if speculating on the future of pork bellies. But it's when you get beyond the marquee names – the typical first round types – that the really frightening conjecture begins. And there will be plenty this year, with a cluster of passers who have received less acclaim than Quinn and Russell … but no less attention.

"It's a diverse quarterback group, from those that [Baltimore Ravens director of scouting] Eric DeCosta has given me to look at," Ravens coach Brian Billick said. "What's intriguing is that there appears to be some options in about every round that may present themselves."

Beyond the top two, there is a tantalizing quartet that will likely be sprinkled between rounds 2-4 – Michigan State's Drew Stanton, Stanford's Trent Edwards, BYU's John Beck and Houston's Kevin Kolb. With as many as 10 teams looking to improve their quarterback depth or groom a future starter, that foursome has drawn plenty of attention as having "star" potential.



"You might see [Ohio State's] Troy Smith in there on a few boards, too, but from a size and physique standpoint, that foursome kind of bubbles to the top," said an NFC North personnel man.

In a way, the second tier of quarterbacks can be divided into two categories: "system" quarterbacks who reaped success in wide-open attacks as seniors (Beck and Kolb), and "gifted" quarterbacks blessed with first-round tools but who suffered through punishing final seasons (Stanton and Edwards).

As the NFC personnel man put it, "I would say you expected more out of [Stanton] and Edwards, and because of some cir***stances, they didn't quite satisfy [projections]. … Beck and Kolb, you kind of expected what you got – remarkable yardage and touchdowns, which is usually what you see from senior quarterbacks at those schools."

Judging from behind-the-scene buzz, Beck and Kolb aren't just your typical BYU and Houston quarterbacks, destined to struggle in the league because their systems masked weak arms. In fact, Beck and Kolb both seem to have more than adequate arm strength. While Stanton has gotten more hype for the velocity on his ball, Kolb's zip might be just as impressive.

But it's Kolb's lack of time under center and Houston's reputation for producing quarterbacks who bomb in the NFL that have been the biggest weights on his shoulders. While his size (6-foot3, 218 pounds) and intangibles appear to be in line with NFL cravings, he's rarely stepped under center in his college career, and played in an offense that's similar to a two-minute drill, where he's calling protections and choosing options based off of a set play. The issue with snaps under center came up at the Senior Bowl, where Kolb worked his way into a comfort level. However, the tag as a "system" quarterback has been slow to fade.

"That's all [teams] ask about," Kolb said. "That's one of their biggest concerns – and for good reason. You can't be mad at them for it. I put up a lot of numbers in that system. In the past, they had some bad things turn out that way. … People would try to plug me in with David Klingler and Andre Ware, two great players who didn't have as highly successful NFL careers as they would have liked. But that's not even the same system. It's even different coaches. It's just the same school."

Ware was the 1989 Heisman Trophy winner, but he played in only 14 games in four seasons for the Detroit Lions. Klingler, who set a then single-season record of 54 touchdown passes in 1990, was a first-round choice of the Cincinnati Bengals in 1992. However, he lasted as a starter for just two seasons before losing his job to Jeff Blake.

Beck faces some of the same issues as Kolb, but for different reasons. While Kolb's arm strength helps disarm fears about the system tag, Beck doesn't have that luxury. Instead, Beck has more of a West Coast offense arm – suited for a precise short and intermediate game. Some say shades of Ty Detmer, a player who Beck is naming his soon to be born son after. But Beck doesn't cringe from the comparisons. Instead, he embraces what scouts seem to like most: maturity and readiness.

At 26 (he spent three years on a Mormon mission), it's likely Beck's age will be used against him on draft boards, but he's got a wealth of experience other quarterbacks don't have. While guys like Kolb and Stanton spent college under one offense, Beck saw a flurry of changes after taking over as a freshman starter. Some in the scouting community believe he is the most NFL ready amongst the second wave of quarterbacks, and he's drawn the eye of league quarterback gurus like Lions offensive coordinator Mike Martz.

"There are things that I have experienced that made me who I am," Beck said. "I've been through a lot of coaching changes, a lot of scheme changes, and there's a lot of pressure at BYU at the quarterback spot. So pressure on my shoulders is nothing I'm unaccustomed to."

Stanton and Edwards dealt with unique pressure, too, during their careers though it came slightly earlier. Both were consensus All Americans in high school and among the most avidly recruited quarterbacks in the country. And both went with somewhat unconventional college choices that have haunted them ever since. Despite being recruited by the typical NFL quarterback factories like Miami and USC, Stanton went with Michigan State and Edwards went with Stanford. And by the time their careers ended, both saw their head coaches fired after failing to field competitive programs.

Along the way, their fates ran a parallel line: season-ending injuries, inconsistent performances and offensive lines that often left them pummeled. But what hasn't escaped personnel men are the raw abilities that made them so coveted coming out of high school. Both are big (Stanton at 6-3, 225 and Edwards at 6-4, 230) and feature strong arms. Coming into the 2006 season, some scouts had Stanton and Edwards projected as the two players hot in pursuit of Quinn as college football's best quarterback.

That was before Edwards missed the final five games of the season with a broken foot, and Stanton hobbled through his senior campaign with a pair of concussions and an offensive line that did little to protect him. Suddenly, Stanton looked like a player who made questionable decisions under fire, while Edwards seemed downright fragile. Not that they aren't buoyed by potential.

"Both are very fine quarterback prospects," said an AFC general manager. "It's all part of an equation. You just have to sit down and look at the film and see what the cir***stances were that surrounded that talent. Sometimes struggling can be a good thing. You know guys like that won't be surprised when they have to fight through some things, which all quarterbacks do in the NFL when they get thrown into the fire.

"With all quarterbacks, it comes down to your own system, the measurables and the player's leadership ability. But at some point, you have to look at a kid and trust your gut when it tells you he can succeed."