On Draft

So wait, there's a duck that's more than three feet tall? 

TigerBlog saw a story about Long Boi, who supposedly was a giant mallard, the biggest one ever. As it turns out, that's not exactly true, though TB did find this epic sentence in a story:

Although the “world’s tallest duck” title has not been officially bestowed upon Long Boi by any official duck measuring entities, this dapper duck received the “Waterfowl of the Year” award in the University of Bantshire’s Waterfowl University Rankings in 2020.

That is just too good. There is so much amazing stuff in that one sentence, not the least of which are 1) there are "official duck measuring entities" and 2) that there is a Waterfowl of the Year.

If you didn't click through the story, this is how it starts:

Longboi has been crowned the best waterfowl in the country in the University of Bantshire’s Waterfowl University Rankings. The dapper duck was a crowd favourite from the start, winning his heat with 67% of the vote. The Indian Runner Duck cross beat the Lancaster Ducks in the finals by more than 90 votes, and beat Swansea’s swans by more than 1000.

That's two dapper ducks. Well, one dapper duck, twice.

If you're looking for a better sentence than that one, you won't get it today. TB can't beat that right now.

Seguing away from a giant duck, TigerBlog was correct when he said he wasn't going to watch the NFL draft last night, despite the presence of such generational talents. If you read yesterday, you get the reference. 

TB received a comment from his post yesterday about the overuse of the phrase "generational talent." He mentioned that there have been about five such generational talents in his lifetime, which generated this:

Your calculation of five generational talents in your lifetime is right on target. By definition, a GT comes along once in a G. So that's basically one every 20 years.

So that would make TB at a minimum 80 years old?  

Speaking of the NFL draft, which continues until the start of the next mock drafts, TB was on his Office of Athletic Communications zoom call yesterday when the subject of the draft came up. TB's colleague Warren Croxton is a huge Philadelphia Eagles fan (and fan of all Philly teams), and Warren most certainly wanted the Eagles to get either a top wide receiver or cornerback. Well, actually he wanted a quarterback, but that didn't seem likely.

How'd that work out for him?

Princeton football has had 16 players selected in the NFL draft, of whom three were in the last eight years: Seth Devalve in Round 4 in 2016, Caraun Reid in Round 5 in 2014 and Mike Catapano in Round 7 in 2013. The Tigers have also had great success of late with undrafted free agents, including John Lovett (Super Bowl ring with Kansas City last year) and Stephen Carlson (entering Year 3 with the Browns after having recovered onsides kicks in back-to-back wins over Pittsburgh last year). Both Carlson and fellow UFA Jesper Horsted had NFL touchdown receptions in their rookie years. 

The first Princeton player chosen in an NFL draft was Dick Kazmaier, the 1951 Heisman Trophy winner. Kazmaier was selected by the Chicago Bears, but he famously chose Harvard Business School over the NFL.

Frank McPhee, cousin of author John McPhee, was drafted in 1953 by the Cardinals, who at the time were located in Chicago. Eventually they'd make their way to St. Louis and Arizona.

Princeton has had one No. 1 pick. That was in the 1966 draft, when Charlie Gogolak, the placekicker, was taken with the No. 6 overall selection. 

There have only been five kickers who have ever been chosen in Round 1 of the NFL draft, three placekickers, one punter and one who did both. The others, by the way, are:

2000 Sebastian Janikowski (PK), 17th overall
1979 Russell Erxleben (PK), 11th overall
1978 Steve Little (punter/PK), 15th overall
1973 Ray Guy (punter), 23rd overall

Gogolak remains to this day the highest selection at No. 6. Unless someone took a placekicker higher than that last night. TB wasn't watching.