FanHouse BobbyCarpenter

Everyone makes mistakes. But when those mistakes are magnified by intense scrutiny of the NFL draft, well, they become much more embarrassing than, say, my typical Friday morning, mustard-stain-on-khakis incident.

Which is why the NFL FanHouse braintrust got together to determine who is the biggest bust for each NFL team. They're not listed in terms of stupidity -- they're all stupid relative to a team's total draft performance. Meaning, of course, some teams "bust" is much different than another organization's; we did it this way to avoid just linking you to DetroitLions.com.

Instead, we're putting it in current draft order, sans trades, and allowing this list to serve as a reminder of each's team's ability to properly execute a fail. The "bust factor" was based primarily on three things: statistical production (or lack thereof), position in the draft and other available options during that year's draft.

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Raise your hand if you didn't see this coming. I'm not seeing many hands raised. Ed Werder, resident Cowboy's expert at ESPN, has a rather incredible article on Thursday talking about a potential conflict that is on the verge of consuming us all. I hope you're ready for it. I'm already going to the store to stock up on bread and toilet paper.

Apparently, Terrell Owens, always with a sunny disposition and rosy outlook on life, is growing jealous of the relationship and friendship that is shared by Dallas quarterback Tony Romo, and tight end Jason Witten.

Seriously.

I have to assume this is true, simply because it's so crazy that you couldn't possibly make it up. Plus, it sounds like vintage Owens behavior. Linebacker Bradie James is quoted in Werder's piece as saying he "plays peacemaker" between Owens and Romo, while a second, unnamed player takes it a couple of steps further, comparing this situation to the apocalyptic -- in a football sense -- situations that Owens created in San Francisco and Philadelphia. And we all know how that ended.

Despite a belief that Takeo Spikes didn't have the ability to be a starter in the NFL anymore, both San Francisco, where he signed, and Detroit, where he didn't, had visions of him running with their first teams. And now that Spikes has chosen the 49ers over the Lions, there's a hole at strongside linebacker in Detroit. Technically the Lions do have a depth chart at that position in that they've got names written on paper, but in an ideal world there will be a better option than Darnell Bing, Alex Lewis, or Leon Joe taking backs head on this season. And so a decision has to be made.

Spikes was the best option available, unless the team wants to try to finagle Bobby Carpenter, who has been a disappointment playing out of position in a 3-4, from Dallas via trade. So a bit of creative accounting is in order, and the Lions are pretty flush at middle linebacker.

Rookie Jordan Dizon, incumbent starter Paris Lenon, and Buster Davis, a talented 2007 third-round pick let go by Arizona, all reside in the middle, and the starter will either be Dizon or Lenon. The thinking is that the loser of that battle will automatically win the strongside spot. But for now it's all moot anyway as defensive coordinator Joe Barry keeps any potential leverage with outside help in tact by insisting nobody is changing positions. Don't expect that to last.

It seems smart to just move forward with the guys you've got and pick a guy to slide over so that he can get reps at that position, but that's not happening. And thus, the Lions will probably begin their season with an underprepared linebacker on the outside.

Astute Saints fans weren't counting on Dan Morgan to start at weakside linebacker, or even be on the opening day roster. And now that we know his five-plus concussions haven't inhibited him from making the smart choice about retirement, those of us are vindicated. It's also clear to everyone now that the Saints haven't upgraded that spot in the front seven at all, and that's the fault of a flawed Saints philosophy.

The team hasn't had a good set of linebackers since the early '90s. The best linebacker they've had since, Jonathan Vilma, hasn't even gone through a day of training camp. In the past, bad linebacking could be attributed to bad drafting, but Sean Payton has gone in the opposite direction.

In over two years since Payton has taken over, he's preferred veteran, unspectacular linebackers at the expense sometimes of age, health, and ability. Vilma and, arguably, Scott Fujita are exceptions. But aside from those two, we've seen Scott Shanle, Mark Simoneau, Brian Simmons, Anthony Simmons, Dhani Jones, and now Morgan brought in with decidedly average results, if any at all -- Jones didn't last a preseason, and Anthony Simmons retired in the offseason just as Morgan has. Even Vilma, with his knee, is a gamble.

Which means you'll see Shanle and Simoneau fight for the weakside job, with maybe another listless vet thrown in for "competition." But for once at this position the Saints should target upside -- perhaps a deal with Dallas for Bobby Carpenter, the former first-rounder who seems lost outside of his native 4-3. The team has gambled on plenty of linebackers lately, this is just a different sort of gamble.

When he was the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, Bill Parcells made the call to pick Ohio State linebacker Bobby Carpenter in the first round of the 2006 draft. Parcells loved Carpenter and viewed him as the typical "Parcells guy," just as Carpenter's father, former New York Giants fullback Rob Carpenter, had been a generation before.

However, not many Cowboys fans love Carpenter. You can't exactly call Carpenter a bust, but he's only started one game in his two seasons in Dallas, and he's not expected to start this year, either. He's OK on special teams, but when the best you can say about a player after two years is "OK on special teams," that's disappointing for a first-round pick.

But Parcells still loves Carpenter. The Star-Telegram reports that Parcells attempted to get the Cowboys to trade Carpenter to the Dolphins before the draft. And in a sign that the Cowboys still see some potential in Carpenter, they said no.

I'm skeptical that Carpenter will ever be a good NFL linebacker, but if a football man as astute as Parcells likes him -- and if the Cowboys still want him -- he obviously has potential.

While the US Hockey Hall of Fame doesn't have the same cache and prestige that the one in downtown Toronto, the honor of being inducted in the USHHOF is still something special for those involved.

This year's inductees are John "The Beezer" Vanbiesbrouck, who once led the third-year Florida Panthers to the Cup finals, Bobby Carpenter, a master checking forward who once scored 50 goals in a season, Aaron Broten, a member of the famous Broten clan, and former NCAA coach/builder John MacInnes.

As the Beezer is one of my all-time favorite players, I'm quite happy to see him get this honor. His chances are making the BIG HHOF are a bit iffy, so this might be the best he'll get.

"It's been a great progress, a time of progression, to see USA Hockey grow," Vanbiesbrouck said. "To see it grow in the light of where hockey is said to have started, and that's in Canada, but the presence of USA Hockey is universal. It's around the globe."

"I've had the opportunity with Aaron and Bobby to have played in many World Championships and Canada Cups, and every time we got together – even if we played on different teams – we really united by the bond of being American," he said. "And I think that is something that is constant in my life and I think about it all the time, the freedoms we live under. And so, it's truly a humbling time for me to sit here and to know I'm going into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame as an American for my accomplishments."

If Beezer really wanted to contribute to the US HHOF, perhaps he should donate a few hundred to the shrine to get an actual working website.

For a full list of US HHOF inductees, click here.