John Standeford, who left Purdue as the Big Ten's all-time leader in receptions, has been trying to make an NFL team since 2004. That means this latest purge of John by the Lions marks SIX years of continually being denied an opportunity to play as a pro receiver. In his six seasons in the furthest fringes of the league,the only regular season playing time he received was when he started the last four games of the Lions' sterling 0-16 season in 2008. Standeford caught 15 passes for 244 yards in those four games, which extrapolated over a full season comes out to 60 receptions for 976 yards on a wretched team. He was easily the second best receiver on the team last year. His reward was to be cut this year.
Will Mike Hass continue on for two more years trying toget a single fair chance to show he can be a productive NFL receiver, giving him, likeStandeford,six years of facing the sadistic, black-hearted NFL coaches who all know they must go along with the league's unwritten affirmative action policies and double standards when dealing with white and black athletes. You can only greatly admire their tenacity and faith in their ability, but everyone has his breaking point. Trying for six years to realize a dream that will continually be denied solely for racist reasons means falling six years behind your contemporaries in trying to establish a non-football career. Not only can't they make money playing pro football, they are punished financially by having to start so far behind everyone else in other fields.Edited by: Don Wassall
