Mamula narrative never dies

Some use Mike Mamula as a representative of a NFL Combine warrior who never lived up to the hype. I like to use his story as an example of the laziness and predictability of the media. While the frequency of of mentions of Mamula's performance has died down a bit the past few seasons, he is still noted ever time the NFL Combine rolls around.

What I liked about this article is that it actually includes just how impressive Mamula was during his workout in Indianapolis. He performed in 1995. Now -- in 2017 -- many of his numbers remain the best ever for a defensive lineman. Teams can use Mamula as a cautionary tale of putting too much emphasis on the Combine. But prospects should still use him as a role model. Mamula had his moment and he crushed it. No apologies necessary.

Narrative changed?

We are days away from the NFL Draft and Mike Mamula is nowhere to be found. Usually this time of year articles and blogposts are filled with references to the former Combine wunderkind. In many of these posts, he is wrongly labeled as a bust and as someone who only got drafted because of his NFL Combine performance. As any BC fan knows, neither is the case. Mamula's final college season was dominant. He was going to be a first day draft pick before the Combine. The great workout only elevated him that much more.

I don't know why there are fewer stories this year. My Bing alert only mentions him six times in the last seven days. Maybe writers are moving on. Or perhaps there are just new targets. Either way, I hope he starts getting the credit he finally deserves for both his college and NFL career.

New Hall of Famers and other links

BC announced the newest members of its Hall of Fame. Inductees include Mike Mamula, Marty McInnis, Amy LaCombe, Maria Cicero, Antonio Granger, Casey Schmidt and Lou Tessier. The one bit of controversy was the announcement that Mark Chmura was also included. Some people feel that Chmura's 2000 incident with his babysitter should exclude him from such an honor. At this point I am fine with him being included. He was found not guilty and I think this is more about honoring his achievements while at BC.  Chmura's put the incident behind him, so shouldn't most BC fans?


ESPNBoston posted great feature on former captain and current Director of Ops Peter Frates. As most know, Frates is battling ALS. It is nice to see his story reach a wider audience via ESPN.

This compares the APR trends of all the ACC football and basketball programs. Football improved slightly while basketball fell.

Hockey East invited UConn to join the conference. I find it interesting that we allowed this entry but have opposed UConn as an ACC school. I guess most of the bad blood between the schools was really related to football and basketball.