I pass along this information only to, ahem, enhance your
viewing pleasure of the draft tonight.
Online sportsbook Bovada.lv has posted an array of proposition
bets -- many of which will be influenced by what the Buffalo Bills do with
their eighth overall pick -- on various positions and prospects.
Bovada.lv sets the over-under total on quarterbacks drafted in
the first round at 1.5, safeties at 2.5 and receivers at 3.5.
When it comes to vetting football players, NFL security executives
go deeper than weights, heights, 40-yard dash times and a couple of interviews.
"You'd be shocked," Seattle Seahawks General Manager
John Schneider told reporters last week at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis. "Our
security guy does a Twitter and Facebook count."
It should be a lesson to any high school or college kid who
hopes to get a job with a major corporation someday that getting stupid with social-media is a fine
way to short-circuit a career before it begins.
"No," Te'o replied with a laugh when I asked him
if any of the teams have let him off the hook. "They're all asking me."
The interrogation went public this afternoon.
Te'o began to rehabilitate his reputation in the NFL media
community with an effective news conference in Lucas Oil Stadium. The
15-minute session was the first time Te'o met reporters in an uncontrolled
setting since the national championship game.
INDIANAPOLIS
-- Buffalo Bills General Manager Buddy Nix probably can speak more authoritatively
about telegrams than Facebook and catfishing.
Yet Nix can talk with confidence about Notre Dame linebacker
Manti Te'o as a football player.
"He's a good player," Nix told reporters Thursday
at the NFL scouting combine in Lucas Oil Stadium. "He's a guy that can
come in and help you early. I think he's a three-down player."
INDIANAPOLIS
-- The Buffalo Bills want some answers from Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o
this week.
Doug Whaley, the Bills' assistant general manager, told The
Buffalo News today in Indianapolis
that Te'o will be among the 60 college prospects they interview here at the NFL scouting
combine.
Te'o made international headlines last month when it was
revealed his dead girlfriend -- a significant part of an inspirational tale
about a kid playing through tragedy to become a Heisman Trophy runner-up --
didn't exist.
While that's about five times the length of an average
newspaper story, it still wasn't even space for me to include all of the
fascinating insight I gathered in my research about Lewis and how he should be
viewed as a human being, not merely one of the NFL's greatest players.
Dr. Lawrence Wenner, a professor of communication and ethics
at Loyola Marymount University,
delivered some attention-grabbing thoughts about how sports journalists
are complicit in the mythmaking machine.
Tim Graham returned to The Buffalo News in 2011 after covering the NFL for three years at ESPN and for one year at the Palm Beach Post. Before that, the Cleveland native spent seven seasons on the Buffalo Sabres beat for The News and was president of the Boxing Writers Association of America.
Buffalo native Mark Gaughan started working at The News in 1980 and has been covering the Bills exclusively since 1992. He is president of the Pro Football Writers of America, and he is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection committee.
Jay Skurski joined The News in January 2009. The Lewiston native attended St. Francis High School before graduating from the University of South Florida. He writes a weekly Fantasy column in addition to his beat writing duties.
