Unlike the 1998 Colts --- With the first pick, the DFL Sixth District passes on Manning. Picks, instead, Ryan Leaf. We will win with Ryan Leaf all shout, wearing their Wellstone Green Ryan Leaf tee-shirts. Something to be seen.
Win with Leaf. Leaf is the one. DFL, DFL, DFL.
Manning has a good arm, a presence, but doesn't have Leaf's schmooze mobility. He has not seen the other side of the mountain, or did not imply that in any of his speeches.
Leaf's much better, in the pocket.
That's it in a nutshell, or check Larry Schumacher's live blogging [for St. Cloud TImes, the only newspaper covering the event].
Schumacher was set up to give all the exciting news as it happened, from Andover's Civic Center - Bunker Lake Civic Center, whatever it's called. I was sitting there, getting up to walk every so often, seeing all that Ryan Leaf green all over - the big Green Machine, with its war room in back. All the coaches wearing head sets.
Wellstone did the color proud. It has since lost some stature. But it is the color of a Leaf, until autumn, where most leaves are brown, dead, shriveled up by November.
The DFL draft event - Dan Erhart was there and James Norman was there.
And Bill McCarthy indicated to me that it was not he alone that favored Ryan Leaf over Peyton Manning, but it was a general consensus. A done deal of "Labor" from years previously. And while Leaf had a career record going into the draft, so did Manning.
Something Different - Wholly Unrelated to the Quality of the Sixth District DFL's Decision Making
There's an interesting CBS 60 Minutes post online, about rampant corruption in Iraq. Leaders on the take. Having trouble quarterbacking a clean-up. I suppose the best thing is to not have a position on cleaning up such corrupt stuff, but to let the next administration come in and insist in the first two months in office they enunciate a firm plan for resolving it. That's a clear and winning leadership position, on Iraq.
It makes sense. You have no answer, or choose not to give one on the Iraq situation, then you say it's somebody else's problem, not yours.
Nobody would see through that.
________UPDATE_______
Going into it, there were stat sheets. Where is Ryan Leaf now? See, here, here, here, here, and here.