Saturday, April 09, 2005

Football: "Little Joe" stands tall

Joe Hamilton might be shunned by the NFL, but he's a bonafide star in the Arena Football League. Here's a nice story on the former Yellow Jacket and Hiesman runner-up. Joe is still chasing the NFL dream, but has a built-in disadvantage - his height:

"I mean, you had some teams that wouldn't even talk to me at the [NFL] Combine -- they weren't interested at all. So you basically can cut the 28 teams in half when it comes to me. That was my pool. Everyone else was looking for that prototype."


Check out this quote. People don't even want him to succeed:

The Bucs brought in Brad Johnson in 2001 to be their starter and moved King to second-string. That left Hamilton fighting for the third-string slot with big-bodied, big-armed Ryan Leaf, the second pick of the 1998 NFL Draft. Hamilton won.


"We really wanted Ryan to have that spot," said Dungy. "But Joe just outperformed him."


Last quote from Little Joe:

"I'm not worried about it man," he said. "I still would like to play in the NFL, but I'm playing this Arena game and loving it.


"But still, I know I can play this game in the NFL. I still look at guys in the NFL and say, 'I can do that, too,' "


The real sad part of this is that the NFL will never know what he might have done. If he had ever gotten a legitimate shot and failed that would be one thing. But he was never even given a chance. That's disappointing, unfair and short-sighted. You just have to shake your head, especially when you see some of the 6'4" "prototype" lame-brains QB'ing in the league now. Amazing.