Talking Points: nuking the notebook May 5, 2008

Photo by giginger

Time to nuke the notebook and start anew with a clean slate. The collection of old news and odd tidbits that just barely survive the disaster like so many roaches below:

• Rivals.com on Eric Berry:
  
  The Legend of Eric Berry - Alright, I knew he was good and on the verge of greatness, but Eric Berry's legendary status grew even more for me this spring. Not because of the plays he made -- which were plentiful -- but because of the way he went about his business. This is an All-America candidate who had a phenomenal freshman season that went to the coaches to be put on the punt return team?! Because in his words, he wants to help Dennis Rogan get into the end zone. Additionally, the more you watch Berry, the more you see people gravitate to him. When your best player is a guy that everyone wants to be friends with and one that everyone respects then you truly have a special player. Because of that, this spring I realized just how special Berry is.
• The continuation of Leonard's lamentation:
  
  "I want to give you an example of my life," he said. "I don't ever want you to do what I did or have to feel what I feel because it's not an easy thing to deal with. I killed someone and I think about it every day."

  He knows the Gutweiler family will never forgive him and he understands. He wants them to forgive him, but "It's not in my hands. I understand what they're going through. If or when they decide they're ready to forgive me, well that's all in their hands."

  But in the meantime, he suffers privately every day. October 19 will haunt him the rest of his life. It is his birthday, and he says he hates his birthday.

  "I don't celebrate it," he said. "I don't want anyone to give me presents. What's there to celebrate? It's an annual reminder of what I did.

• Pearl on Lofton (audio). Lofton on Lofton (audio). Somebody who knew Lofton on Lofton.
• Fulmer's Belly on the draft. Hello, Cleveland! (That one's got some fuzzy mold on it, but it's still tasty.)
• All right. The Buzz Bissinger stuff: Orson (Most bloggers have better credentials than most journalists). Double-T Nation (One of the primary benefits of blogs is the consolidation of information). Black Shoe Diaries (objecting on behalf of many fine blogs to Buzz's gross over-generalization that "blogs are dedicated to cruelty"). Rock M Nation (the definitive synopsis of the entire affair: "Rabble! Rabble! Rabble! Rabble! Rabble! Rabble! Rabble! Rabble!"). Dawg Sports (inviting Buzz to read but warning him to watch his language because "in these parts, vulgarity is no substitute for argument."). And finally, Buzz: "Embarrassed." Uh-huh.
• SMQ has an excellent post analyzing the recruiting rankings and the NFL draft and concluding that "five-star recruits have roughly a one-in-four chance of eventually being drafted, twice as high as four-star recruits, who themselves are about three times more likely to get picked than three-star prospects . . . ."
• Burnt Orange Nation has a whole new way of looking at the red zone. Very interesting stuff.
• Huh: three synchronized swimmers faint in pool simultaneously. These girls do everything together!
• Awwww. A senior softball player who had never hit a home run, hits one and then tears up her knee while running the bases so badly that she can't continue. What happens next? Awwww.