Bottom of the Bird Cage 5/1

It’s the 121st day of the year.

Back on May 1, 1931 the Empire State Building in New York was dedicated. At 102 stories tall, it was the world’s tallest building at the time. On May 1, 1960, Francis Gary Powers was shot down while flying a U-2 spy plane over the Soviet Union. That was back in what was known as the Cold War for those who can remember the days when Americans and Russians all thought the other guy was about to blow them up.

It was a huge day in baseball on May 1, 1991 as Rickey Henderson set the major league record for stolen bases when he got his 939th while with the Oakland A’s. That same day, Nolan Ryan threw his seventh no-hitter.

And born on May 1, 1925 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania was Chuck Bednarik. By the time he was done playing football he was known as “Concrete Charlie,” the last of the 60-minute players in pro football. During his 12 seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles (1949-60) he played center and linebacker and never left the field. He was the last of the two-way players. He was a tough guy but not because he played so much football; he was part of 30 combat missions over Germany in a B-24 aircraft where he was a gunner.

Although in failing health, Bednarik still lives in the Philadelphia area and he’s never been shy about commenting on today’s pro football players. He calls them “pussyfoots” and complains that they are “sucking air after just five plays.” He mentioned a few years ago that he didn’t think most of them “could tackle my wife Emma.”

Today, Concrete Charlie is 84.

Here’s a few shots from the AFC West, plus an inspirational story out of Miami that you should read.

From Denver Post columnist Terry Frei: To a point, I’m convinced that kind of “targeting” is the way to go. To a point. With the reality in mind that 31 other teams are drafting, too. I said this after the firing of Mike Shanahan, and I’ll repeat it here: Despite the obvious needs on defense, donning blinkers and considering only defense-oriented candidates as the next head coach, and then overcompensating in the draft because of desperation, was fraught with peril, too.

So I didn’t have a problem with McDaniels’ background on offense, nor automatically with taking Moreno at No. 12. Getting a great running back there is a steal. But when you’re scoffing at the “conventional” wisdom, as Pat Bowlen did when making the hire, and as McDaniels has done so many times since taking over (see Jay Cutler), it all comes back to this: There’s no safety net. You better be right.

McDaniels and his staff in essence were saying here’s a list of guys not only they’d like to have, but like to coach. It’s dangerous if you haven’t kept an open mind long enough in formulating a list of “favorites.” When you’ve essentially ruled out nearly 160 players taken in two days by other teams, while knowing that some of them are going to turn out to be great, it lessens your margin for error.

Target players? Sure. But have a full board of at least 200 players, including some who come with major risks and even character flaws, acknowledging that need for seven- round balance, so to speak. McDaniels knows this team has a ways to go now before it has “character” gatekeepers at the lockers nearest the doors, as did the Patriots, and they can be counted on to keep a Randy Moss (or Brandon Marshall) in line.

Yet every great team has a mix

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Interesting take here, and certainly one that Chiefs fans should take note of because one of the architects of the Patriots Way was of course Scott Pioli. If you believe in putting together the 53 players that best fit, then there’s no other way to go about the draft than what Pioli and apparently McDaniels did. That does shrink the pool, but Pioli/McDaniels would say that it also shrinks the failure factor as well. Not sure I would agree given that the Patriots drafted a few duds in their day as well. This is no longer a best available athlete approach, but the best player available who we like approach.

From the San Diego Union-Tribune:
It seems like a win-win. The Chargers get their biggest impact player back, and he’s ticked off. “This year is literally going to be about unleashing,” Shawne Merriman said. “Unleashing so much I’ve got pent up in me.”

There has always been a lot going on inside Merriman. But now there is a storm boiling inside the 271 pounds of mohawked linebacker, whose 39½ sacks from 2005 to 2007 are the most by a player in his first three seasons. He is ready to burst after a season on the sideline and the ongoing indications that his time in San Diego is not long.

“It’s going to be an interesting year,” he said. “I’m bringing all the ruckus. I’m going to do the ‘Lights Out’ dance so often people will be glad to see me go – like, ‘Get that dance out of here.’ ”

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The ‘09 season is a very important one for Merriman because he must show that what we saw in the past was real and what he’s really about, and not just a meteor flashing across the football sky. There’s no question he can be almost frightening in his speed and power if both are used to arrive at the quarterback. The late Derrick Thomas was never concerned about blasting the passer; he just wanted to knock the football out of his hands. Merriman would rather have the QB carried off on a stretcher. The Chargers defense badly needs him to return to form.

From the San Francisco Chronicle: Raiders first-round pick Darrius Heyward-Bey said he wants his deal done in Darren McFadden time (well before camp), not JaMarcus Russell time (long after camp). “It’s very important,” Heyward-Bey said. “I want to get the deal done fast so I can get out there with JaMarcus and the rest of the guys to build that chemistry that I want to give that the rest of the team needs. I’m really looking forward to doing that.”

So, when will the Raiders get their No. 7 overall pick signed?

Probably somewhere closer to the middle of McFadden’s record-fast May signing and Russell’s record-late September signing. The Raiders always get these deals done after July 4th. McFadden was the exception as his camp pushed the issue to get it done and over with. Heyward-Bey is represented by superagents Tom Condon and Ben Dogra. That means two things.

One, kiss goodbye any notion of getting a discount by drafting someone projected to go in the 20s. Besides, everything is done by scale and slots. The No. 7 is going to make a little less than No. 6 and a little more than No. 8. Only quarterbacks get an exception because of their premium status. Two, and this is important, the deal should get done without a holdout. Condon represents Nnamdi Asomugha and Shane Lechler, two Pro Bowlers who were ready to leave Oakland as free agents this past offseason.

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Oakland needs Heyward-Bey to be an impact player in ‘09. If he’s not, then that will set back the growth of Russell at quarterback. The Raiders know this and so does Condon. As surprising as the pick was, get ready for the contract he signs. I’m willing to bet right now it shatters whatever the top deal was for a No. 7 pick in the history of the draft. Condon knows how to get that type of deal and the Raiders must have their wide receiver with them to start training camp.

From the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel: Players often consider the locker room a second home where they can bond with teammates. Sadly, that was literally the case for Tulsa receiver Brennan Marion, an undrafted free agent participating in this weekend’s Dolphins rookie minicamp. He was homeless for three months of his sophomore season and had to sleep in the locker room at De Anza Junior College near San Francisco.

“There were nights I slept on the bathroom floor, the locker room, the bus or the press box. We had a key,” said Marion, a 5-foot-11, 190-pounder with 4.3 40 speed, who used his arms or paper towels as a makeshift pillow. “All this just to make my goals and dream come true and now because I didn’t get drafted it feels like I did it for no reason. But I’m going to make it work.”

Marion has overcome far tougher obstacles than breaking into a crowded receivers’ corps that features a former undrafted college free agent in Davone Bess. Raised mostly by a single mother, Richelle Bey, Marion attended a different school every year since sixth grade around the Pittsburgh area because, “Mom would have different boyfriends and after a fight would move on.”

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Take the time to read this story! It’s an amazing tale of a young man trying to survive in the world with very little in the way of a safety net. That he’s now at an NFL rookie mini-camp and not in jail or on the streets is testimony to the help he received from his coach, but largely due to his unwillingness to go in that direction.