The Next AJ Feeley?

I know I’m a couple days late on this, but the Birds announced the other day that they signed their 5th round pick, former Olympic Free Style Mogul Skier, Jeremy Bloom to a four year deal. Is this significant in terms of production on the field? Not really. He may contribute in the return game at some point next year, but I wouldn’t count on it. According to special teams coach, John Harbaugh, Bloom needs to get back to his football speed and stated:

“I think his change of direction and burst is being redeveloped. He has to get that back. I guess when you are in those [skiing] boots; it's like being in a cast. So, his ankle strength and the fluid movement stuff - he looks really good. To me it's exciting, because he runs a 4.49 coming right out of skis and you can see he does not have the ankle flexibility. When you see him walk, you can tell he's not quite where he was before with the ankle flexibility and all that stuff. 3 months from now, when our trainers and weight coaches get through with him, I think he is going to be really exciting. What you see with him right now is just a shadow."

As my good buddy the Captain said, what kind of crap is this? Ankle flexibility? How the hell does training as a skier reduce someone’s speed? You either can run a 4.3 or not. I’ll buy that a world class athlete may need a couple weeks of training to get back up to peak speed, but this is utterly ridiculous to me. My guess is that this white boy ain’t running a 4.3 forty, unless he’s zipping downhill on his skis.

Anyhow, the point of this post is that where Bloom really will produce this year is in the amount of attention he gets from your wife, girlfriend, or significant other. My wife got one look at him on the 11:00 news when he made an appearance at the White House with the other 2006 Winter Olympians and she was immediately smitten with his so called “Abercrombie good looks”. She forgot all about her former Eagles heart throb, AJ Feeley in a nano second.


Plus, my main man Johnny Gold is already calling him a pretty boy. Believe me, the last thing an athlete wants in this world is for Johnny Gold to put a label on you. Rarely does a guy shake a Johnny Gold label. I then noticed him in an Under Armour print campaign with big name players like Julius Jones, AJ Hawk, Jonathan Vilma and Vernon Davis. I’m now fed up.

With respect to Jeremy Bloom, I’m like a resident of Missouri because he has to show me he can play. No benefits of the doubt here, but I’m sure he’ll get plenty of slack from your lady once she catches a look of him.