Mike Mamula

Don Wassall

Don Wassall

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Somehow ended up skimming one of those articles the other day about the biggest NFL draft busts of all time which had the same time-honored top 3 -- Ryan Leaf, Tony Mandarich and Brian Bosworth -- and a few other whites in the top ten. It was so poorly written and cliche-filled that I can't even remember what site it was on.


Just now was looking at Draft Daddy and they've linked to an article where Mike Mamula defends himself against claims that he too is one of the biggest busts of all time. The Eagles took Mamula with the seventh pick of the first round in 1995. Reading the article and what DD wrote makes it obvious that Mamula underachieved but wasn't a bust much less one of the biggest busts ever,but we know how the media and the drunk white fans are so quick to label white players negatively while each year there are blacks drafted in the first round who are total busts who are quickly completely forgotten about. From DD:


Former Philadelphia Eagles' defensive end Mike Mamula speaks out about being labeled a bust.


DD.comment: As the article stated, Mamula did not perform up to the hype he got prior to that 1995 draft, but he was in an impossible situation in Philly playing defensive end at 245 pounds and getting a lot of attention from opponents -- he was more suited to be a 3-4 linebacker, ala Mike Vrabel (who's about the same age). Also, his Final N.F.L. Numbers were pretty good when you consider he only played five full seasons due to some major injuries.


Now, again, we aren't trying to say Mamula's career wasn't a bit of disappointment -- he never made a Pro Bowl and he retired from the N.F.L. at 27 due to mental fatigue. But we strongly disagree with the throngs in the media that claim he's one of biggest draft busts in history. If you are looking for the ultimate "draft bust" at defensive end, we'd think former Packers Top 10 pick Jamal Reynolds , who was a healthy inactive most Sundays of his career and was cut by several teams, would rank much higher on the "buster meter" than Mamula. Matter of fact, if you went back and looked at all the defensive lineman picked in the first round during the decade of the 1990's, you'd find most didn't put up the numbers Mamula did in their first 5 seasons.
 
They never put Courtney Brown on these lists.

In basketball, Shawn Bradley is the favorite player to bash. I long ago got tired of defending him and trying to explain why players like Kwame Brown were much, much worse.

Black skin is armor, it protects from criticism.
 
The Vikings took DE Derrick Alexander 4 picks later, and he played 5 seasons as well before retiring due to a degenerative hip if I recall correctly, and he manged 11.5 fewer sacks. However, I have never heard of a single talking head refer to him as one of the all-time biggest busts. Clearly, if you look at it without an ulterior motive then Alexander would at least be EQUAL in magnitude as a bust as Mamula.
 
Starting with the year Mandarich was drafted, 1989, and continuing through the '90s, here are the Steelers' first round busts:


1989: Tim Worley RB


1991: Huey Richardson DL -- read this Wikipedia summation of this bum's career: Richardson played only five games with the Steelers in 1991, registering no statistics. Following the 1991 season, long-time head coach Chuck Noll retired and was replaced by Bill Cowher. One of Cowher's first orders of business was to trade Richardson, the previous years' first round pick, to the Washington Redskins for a seventh round draft pick. After four uneventful games with the Redskins, he was released and signed with the New York Jets. At the end of the 1992 season, after seven games with the Jets, Richardson's short NFL career ended, registering no tackles or measurable statistics.


1993: Deon Figures CB -- managed to get himself shot in the offseason after a couple of years of non-production


1994: Charles Johnson WR -- stuck aroundlonger than he should haveas is the norm for highly drafted black receivers but wasn't much


1996: Jamain Stephens OL -- an early sumo pick plucked out of a small college with an IQ of about 15 and no mobility, complete bust


1999: Troy Edwards WR -- after being drafted crowed that he was going to dwarf Randy Moss's stats


That's six black busts in a ten year period just on one team, with Richardson and Stephens being colossal busts yet almost no one remembers them now.
 
Don, these draft pick stats are GREAT finds. I'm only 22, so I only remember some of these losers (Deon Figures especially).

I'm not sure what you're trying to prove? Are you suggesting there is some sort of vast media and social stereotyping based on race with concern to "draft busts?"
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. The funny thing is, 100% of idiotic drunken white "football fans," when asked who's the biggest bust....would instinctively scream: "Ryan Leaf!" What a joke, Leaf wasnt very good, but at least he wasnt instantly praised and given endoursements and spokesperson jobs and millions of dollars the second he was drafted #1.

When asked the same question, I normally say: "Michael Vick."Edited by: Thrashen
 
reclaimsocal said:
I think its easier to make a list of High Black QB draft picks who weren't busts.


1.  Donovan McNabb


Am I missing anyone?


 
Click to expand...

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Here we go yet again, the annual ritual of portraying whites as theprototypical NFL busts when there have been far more black ones.
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Besides the three cover boys there's 22 whites out of the 50 listed inESPN's article (including of course Mamula), which is 44 percent,while my rough estimate is that whites have been no more than 20 to 25 percent of highly drafted busts, if that. Looking at just the 2005 draft to take a recent one at random, there's a dozen blacks from the first round alone who look like certifiable busts due to poor play, injury problems, or arrests -- Cedric Benson, Cadillac Williams, Pacman Jones, Troy Williamson, Carlos Rogers, Mike Williams, Travis Johnson, Erasmus James, Alex Barron, Fabian Washington, Jason Campbell, Marlin Jackson.





Shuler. Leaf. Marinovich. Each sizzled in college but fizzled in the NFL. In Part 1 of a special two-part draft report, we rank the top 50 disappointments


http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/index


Edited by: Don Wassall
 
"Courtney Brown avoids the list once again."

Along with his equally sucky PSU teammate, Lavar Arrington.

This list is, as is standard whenever "sportwriters" blather about the NFL busts, totally fabricated (not unlike the entire league in general).

This list is racially biased based solely on statistics. For the past decade, there have only been about 5 white players (on average) selected each and every first round of the ultra-phony NFL draft.

Like I've said for many years....NOTHING involving race surprises me, not in this version of America.Edited by: Thrashen
 
Many of the players you guys are naming are busts, but no where near the level of busts on the ESPN list. Lavar Arrington? Really?

Just because a guys drafted in the first round and didn't pan out doesn't make him an all time bust like Mike Mamula or Ryan Leaf. Expectations have a lot to do with it. Not to mention that white QBs are often the biggest busts, many times because the media expects black QBs to struggle in the league, while their white counterparts are supposedly more intelligent and have a better grasp of the game.
 
I don't think Arrington is an all-time bust. But Brown is, and he never appears in these discussions. He played at an average level for one single year and then practically disappeared. He was the number 1 overall pick!

He absolutely, positively deserves to be on these lists, let alone a list 50 players deep.

I don't agree with Don on everything but he is right on the money pointing out the Steelers alone have plenty of massive black busts who people don't even talk about. They were such busts that people forgot about them completely. They are exactly like Kwame Brown in basketball.
 
"Not to mention that white QBs are often the biggest busts, many times because the media expects black QBs to struggle in the league, while their white counterparts are supposedly more intelligent and have a better grasp of the game."

Wow, seriously, don't make me laugh. You've obviously never heard of the following black QBs, each drafted in the 1st round....and all of which were said to "revolutionize" the QB position by your precious draft "experts" at ESPN and the like:

Vince Young (3rd overall)
Akili Smith (3rd overall)
Andre Ware (7th overall)
Byron Leftwich (7th overall)
Michael Vick (1st overall)

Honestly, you need to think before you post something so stupid on a website full of football fans who actually have free will to think for themselves.

Sure, there have been ALOT more white QBs taken in the first round than black ones...no sh*t, no one here is debating that. The point is, there have been hundreds upon hundreds of black players taken in the first round in the past 15 years (and about 4-5 white players per year, at best). Would you, my brainwashed friend, at least agree that STATISTICALLY speaking, black players should dominate this list of "busts?" If your answer is 'no,' you might consider admitting yourself to your local nut house.

What we're suggesting here at CF concerning this foolishly typical "list" is that it's racially biased in suggesting that most of the 1st round busts have been "super-hyped" white players....when the opposite is true.

Whatever, believe what you want, you can live in a dream world for all I care.
 
Vince Young (3rd overall)
- not a bust. not good. but not a bust
Akili Smith (3rd overall) -
was on the list
Andre Ware (7th overall)
- was on the list.
Byron Leftwich (7th overall)
- not a bust. average QB.
Michael Vick (1st overall) - bust.

Did you read? Being drafted in the first round and not panning out does not make you one of the biggest busts in history. There are non statistical factors like expectations, who is this player replacing, etc.

"The point is, there have been hundreds upon hundreds of black players
taken in the first round in the past 15 years (and about 4-5 white
players per year, at best). Would you, my brainwashed friend, at least
agree that STATISTICALLY speaking, black players should dominate this
list of "busts?""

You clearly don't know what a "bust" is.
 
"He played at an average level for one single year and then practically disappeared. He was the number 1 overall pick! He absolutely, positively deserves to be on these lists, let alone a list 50 players deep."

Well said, Nevada. Also, I don't actually think Arrington was an all-time bust either, just one of the many examples of a super-hyped college player who never panned out (although he was drafted in the 1st round, along with Courtney Brown).

My point is, there have been about 700 Arrington-type black players over the past 15-20 years...yet every media puppet, when referencing draft busts, says the name "Brian Bosworth" like a trained animal. I wonder why?What PHYSICAL FEATURE makes Bosworth different from Arrington or Brown?

Public Enemy, perhaps you'd be better suited with your fellow Eagles fans, oinking all day long about how much Ryan Leaf, Tony Mandrich, Brian Bosworth, Heath Shuler, Todd Marinovich, and Steve Emtman failed as NFL players.

I know what a bust is, I should, every NFL team is chock full of them. Edited by: Thrashen
 
Arrington - 3 Pro Bowls
Bosworth - 0

"Prior to his entering the NFL supplemental draft, Bosworth had sent
letters to various NFL teams stating that, if they drafted him, he
wouldn't report to their training camp and he wouldn't play for them."

"Bosworth was drafted by the Seahawks in the 1987 </span>supplemental draft, and signed what was both the biggest contract in
team history and the biggest rookie contract in NFL history."

Just saying...
 
If Mamula was a bust, then Arrington was a considerably bigger bust. Arrington entered the NFL with more hype and higher expectations. Mamula ended his career with 31.5 sacks over 77 games and 6 seasons. Here's what "3 time Pro Bowler" Arrington achieved in sacks over 7 seasons starting with 2000: 4.0, 0.5, 11.0, 6.0, 1.0, 0.0, 1.0.


Total career sacks for "big play specialist" Arrington: 23.5.
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And he's not a bust but Mamula is???


What's even sicker is that Arrington did indeed make 3 Pro Bowls. What more graphic evidence does anyone need of the blatant racial favoritism that goes into bestowing such "honors"?


And Byron Leftwich is an "average" quarterback?
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Tim Couch, who is routinely mentioned as an all-time bust, had 64 TD passes in 5 seasons with an expansion team. "Lord Byron" has 52 TD passes in 5 seasons, most of it spent with a playoff contender. Go back to grade school, troll, this board is for people who know what they're talking about.
 
Using Pro Bowl appearnces to justify anything other then that the player was popular is foolish. Just from the team I follow closely, the Vikings, I can tell you that Darren Sharper is more of a hinderence then a help and yet he was named to yet another Pro Bowl last year. He hasn't been playing at even an average level for a few years now.


I can also remember an OT we had for years, Tim Irwin, who was one of the most solid guys I have ever seen at the position and he was never rewarded with a Pro Bowl invite.


John Randle was another one where he made Pro Bowls long after his effectiveness was at an end. Once teams figured him out, they would allow him to take himself out of plays with his upfield rush moves. Yet, he was still in Hawaii.


If you really want to talk about busts, how can you not put Demetrius Underwood at the top of the list? This was a first round selection who never even made it through a practice with the team that drafted him because he was mental. Any list that does not have him at or near the top has no credibility imho.
 
"What's even sicker is that Arrington did indeed make 3 Pro Bowls. What more graphic evidence does anyone need of the blatant racial favoritism that goes into bestowing such "honors"?

And Byron Leftwich is an "average" quarterback?Tim Couch, who is routinely mentioned as an all-time bust, had 64 TD passes in 5 seasons with an expansion team."Lord Byron" has 52 TD passes in 5 seasons, most of it spent with a playoff contender. Go back to grade school, troll, this board is for people who know what they're talking about."

Thank you, Don, great post. Using NFL pro-bowl appearances as leverage in an argument is just about as hollow as you can get. They might as well call it the Popularity Bowl...how do you think Vince Young and Mike Vick ever were voted in? Oh, right, probably based on their exciting, big-play potential (code for they can't actually play QB in the NFL, but they're trying).
 
After tonight's edition of "Paff to the Draff," the NFL Network aired "The Top 10 Biggest Draft Busts." The content was tipped off by the promo right before it aired, previewing four busts, all white quarterbacks, and also footage of Ryan Leaf yelling at a reporter and Brian Bosworth being run over by Bo Jackson. Narrated by a black -- hardly a surprise given that the NFL Network hires blacks at a rate of roughly six times their proportion of the population -- here is the show'slist:


10. David Klingler


9. Heath Shuler


8. Lawrence Phillips (replete with footage of Dick Vermeil crying the day he cut Phillips)


7. Art Schlichter


6. Andray Bruce


5. Tim Couch


4. Rick Mirer


3. Brian Bosworth (the famous play with Bo Jackson had to have been shown a minimum of a half dozen times during the hour)


2. Tony Mandarich


1. Ryan Leaf


A mere 8 whites out of 10 in a league with innnumerablebig-time black flops during the Caste System era, par for the course for the media. Surprisingly, Mamula wasn't included; he must have been Number 11 and just missed making the Cultural Marxist script for the program.Edited by: Don Wassall
 
I'd take OT Tony Mandarich anyday over sumo Mike Williams. Remember him?... drafted 4th overall by the Bills' in '02. OT Kevin Shaffer, out of Tulsa, was picked in the 7th round of that Draft and he's having a good career.

http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/players/playerpage/302125


I'd also put Robert Gallery on my team. The black team can have Mike Williams, Leonard Davis, Derrick Dockery, D'Brickashaw, Andre Gurode and Marcus McNeil. My team would likely clobber these "revolutionizers" of the game....
 
Ah yes, it's Combine time, which means the NFL Network is once again jubilantly airingthe "Top 10 Busts of All Time" on a regular basis, bashing Mamula, Mandarich, Shuler, Leaf, Bosworth and friends.
I ran across this blog post today by a White writer who mentions three quarterback busts -- Ryan Leaf, Joey Harrington and Akili Smith. Maybe, like that crazy black Bleacher Report writer, he thinks DuhMarcus is a brilliant talent who is being held down by The Man.

He writes that Matt Ryan "could still wind up being a bust," and then, referring to guys with great Combine measurables who didn't pan out, he could only come up withgood oldMike Mamula andMatt Jones. Mamula had ahalf-decent NFL career, and Jones was headed for a thousand yard season in 2008 andalso had the best rookie season of any of the five WRs drafted in the first round in 2005 despite never getting anywhere close to fair treatment by Black Jack Del Rio. Since Mamula was drafted there have been easily over 100 blacks picked in the first round who qualify as genuine busts, but Mamula and Jones are the ones this assclown mentions.

Comments can be posted after the article if anyone wants to call him on his racism.

http://views.washingtonpost.com/theleague/panelists/2010/02/must-see-combine-stalter.htmlEdited by: Don Wassall
 
Deadlift said:
I'd take OT Tony Mandarich anyday over sumo Mike Williams. Remember him?... drafted 4th overall by the Bills' in '02. OT Kevin Shaffer, out of Tulsa, was picked in the 7th round of that Draft and he's having a good career.
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I just noticed this two year old post by Deadlift. It's not hard to forget sumo Mike Williams since the Blackskins dragged him away froma stack of extra large pizzasand out of retirement to start on their awful o-line in 2009. I just did a search for Williams and found an article about how he hoped to slim down to 360 pounds after Washington signed him. Bad black players get lots and lots of opportunities to show how bad they are in the NFL. Edited by: Don Wassall
 
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