OK, so I didn’t get the post ready before I left. Nor did I type it up while I was on vacation. For that I apologize, but I think the timing will work out for the better–Monday will make more sense than Friday for these posts anyway, once the season actually starts. Now, if I can only keep these on track…
On the positive side, I’ve finally started preparing for the draft (obligatory self promoting link), and it’s given me an idea for the next few week’s worth of CotW’s, in what may become an annual tradition.
This week’s card is…The Workout Warrior.
The “Workout Warrior” is a player who improved his draft position significantly at the NFL Combine, putting up a good 40-yard dash time, showing a nice vertical leap, or putting up a lot of reps on the bench, or whatever. Then, when it’s actually time to suit up and play the game with the pads, well…their performance doesn’t necessarily match up to their draft position.
Representing The Workout Warrior in 2008 will be the player that has become synonymous with the term: Philadelphia Eagles DE Mike Mamula, on his 1999 Upper Deck card.
Mamula was an undersized Defensive End coming out of Boston College after a 17-sack junior season in 1995, and considered to be about a 3rd round pick.
In a move that was the big spark in today’s movement of players dropping out of school after they declare for the draft to focus on working out for the combine, Mamula practiced the drills that would be used at the combine repeatedly for months before.
He then went to the combine and put on what is considered one of the best combine performances in history by a defensive end, with a 40-yard time matching many fast linebackers, and putting up as many reps on the bench as the strongest offensive lineman.
Coming out of the combine, there was a lot of speculation that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers wanted to draft Mamula at #7 overall, speculation that the Bucs helped fuel by sending multiple coaches to a private workout at Boston College.
But the Philadelphia Eagles, trying for two seasons to replace Reggie White, had their sights set on Mamula too, and the morning of the draft, pulled off a trade with the Bucs for that #7 pick to grab Mamula.
Mamula went on to have an ok, albeit relatively short, career with the Eagles–he registered 209 tackles and 31.5 sacks in 77 games over six seasons, missing one season (1998) due to injury, but tallying 8 sacks in 1996, and 8.5 in 1999. In his last season, he still put up 5.5 sacks.
While not a horrible career, not exactly what you hope to get from #7 overall–especially compared to what the Bucs got. With the #12 pick overall received in the trade, they took Warren Sapp, and they used the two second round picks they received to trade back into the end of the first round, taking Derrick Brooks at #28.
As for the card itself, it’s a 1999 Upper Deck, #166, and it books for $0.30. I can’t be sure where I got the card, although it likely came from a retail box, as that seems like what I was collecting back then. That, or it came from one of those $%^& mixed tins I’m so famous for.
Check back next week to see the next Countdown to the Draft Card of the Week…
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