FanHouse Jared DeVries

It's 111 miles from Iowa City to Parkersburg, Iowa, but sometimes the two places seem a lot closer. Today there's no distance whatsoever. Ed Thomas, legendary coach of the Aplington-Parkersburg High School Falcons, was shot and killed by one of his former players Wednesday morning.

While Thomas sent his players to a wide variety of colleges and other walks of life, the connections between Aplington-Parkersburg and the University of Iowa go deep. Countless Falcons have gone on to become Hawkeyes; several of those players have made the leap to the NFL. The list includes Green Bay's Aaron Kampman, Detroit's Jared DeVries, and Denver's Casey Wiegmann. That's not bad for a pair of towns whose population adds up to less than 3,000 people.

As might be expected, many of Coach Thomas's former players feel a great loss. Some of Thomas's best-known players have shared their feelings -- as best as they can -- with the world.

Every week, NFL FanHouse hits the lowlights from Sunday's action, looking at those players who did the most to move their head coaches that much closer to returning to the Bed and Breakfast business.

Anthony Smith, Steelers
Didn't see that coming, did you? First, let me say that I don't have any real problems with Smith, a second-year safety used primarily as a backup until starter Ryan Clark went on injured reserve earlier this season, smacking his gums during the week. It's football; guys yell and scream and run into each other for a living.

The problem, however, is that Smith single-handedly torpedoed Pittsburgh's already-slim chances with what can kindly be described as "his play." Early in the second quarter with the Pats leading 7-3, Smith bit on a play-action pass that resulted in 63-yard touchdown pass to Randy Moss.

And on New England's first drive of the second half, they ran the same play that the Steelers used to break the Bengals' back in the 2005 wild-card game: wide receiver throwback, quarterback hits the deep post. But instead of Antwaan Randle El, Ben Roethlisberger and Cedrick Wilson, it was Moss, Tom Brady, and Jabar Gaffney. The guy responsible for not letting Gaffney get behind the defense? Yep, Mr. Smith.
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The Lion's have had some memorably spectacular collapses throughout the years, especially during Team President Matt Millen's checkered tenure. The mere fact the team is 21-64 during that tenure speaks volumes to their amazing ability to snatch defeat from the gaping maw of victory. However, few Lion's losses will ever be be remembered as being more tragic, or potentially catastrophic to their future, than this loss to Minnesota which came at a time when the team so badly needed to chalk up a victory.

Few team's have the ability to so methodically squander away a fourteen point fourth quarter lead. Few team's can feature so profound an inability to salt away a game and lose in a manner that consistently defied all odds. Fumbles, penalties, interceptions and general ineptitude formed the means in which the Lion's collapsed on Sunday. In my eyes, the fact that Jared DeVries improbably blocked a PAT attempt, preserving a meager 1 point lead late in the game, should have been enough of a tide-turning play for the Lion's to emerge victorious. Instead they continue on a losing course that shows no immediate signs of ceasing.

Most troubling for me, besides the rash of injuries to the team's starter's (Damien Woody, Fernando Bryant, Roy Williams, Kevin Jones, Shaun Cody, and Paris Lenon all missed significant playing time), was the Jekyll-like transformation of one of the team's few bright spots, QB Jon Kitna, into a stumbling, bumbling turnover-generating parody of himself late in the game. Through his obvious desperation and struggle to find victory, he effectively became a Lion's QB before our very eyes.

The Lion's are well on their way to finding themselves with another top 5 draft pick in the 2007 draft. In a best case scenario, the Lion's will finish 6-5 and move Matt Millen's career record as president to 27-69 in 96 games. This should be a strong enough body of evidence for the Ford's to be able to determine that they can ill afford to place the future of their franchise into such incapable hands any longer, I hope.