When Alan Thicke Trumps Steven Jackson
The Blues will be celebrating this year's draft with what their calling "Hockeyfest", a weekend including hockey games, autograph signings and celebrity appearances at Scottrade Center on Friday, June 20 through Sunday, June 22, all of which will be centered on the 2008 NHL Draft. High profile Blues prospects T.J. Oshie, Lars Eller, Patrik Berglund, and the Blues' eventual 2008 first round draft pick are scheduled to play in the All-Star Hockey Game. Also getting in the mix will be a handful of celebrities.
Link for "Hockeyfest"
And I'll tell ya, nothing screams "celebrity" like Dr. Jason Seaver of Growing Pains fame.
"As long as we've got each other... ... ..."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIcXDo82S_Y
So yeah; somehow, somewhere along the way, the Blues got in contact with Alan Thicke's "people" and realized he'd be a perfect fit for a Blues celebrity hockey game. While it may seem funny and far fetched to have Thicke on the ice, know that Alan never let in a goal when he played against Kirk Cameron and Jeremy Miller in the original Ice Hockey on Nintendo during film breaks.
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As for Steven Jackson, he's ranked #3 on Scouts INC and ESPN's running back rankings. It's one of the the more shocking occurrences of the 21st Century because I tend to agree with the ranking, even if the justification for such ranking is because of the weak crop of elite running backs.
Don't mistake my words, the Rams are fortunate to have Jackson, but until the Rams win anything significant with Jackson as their back, I'll think of him as a beastly stat hound and nothing else. He still dances around at the line of scrimmage at times and fails to hit the hole hard, but no one will disagree that Jackson is Top 5 NFL material.
Sayeth Scouts INC:
"Superpower -- His versatility. Jackson is an excellent inside-out runner who is smooth and fluid. He is light on his feet for his size and can make the first defender miss in the hole. He can run around or through defenders, making it difficult to get him off his feet. He has excellent hands and creates numerous mismatches for an opposing defensive coordinator.
Kryptonite -- Like many backs who get many touches, durability is a concern. At times, he could run a little more physically in short-yardage situations."
Jackson sits at #3 behind #1 LaDainian Tomlinson and #2 Adrian Peterson. Brian Westbrook and Larry Johnson round out the Top 5. If it was my list, I'd place Westbrook at 2, Peterson at 4 and Joseph Addai at slot 5, with Jackson keeping the 3rd ranking. But if I shared the same opinions as Scouts INC, I'd be less intelligent and accurately project 3% of all draft picks.
Howard Balzer has yet to comment on the matter.