FanHouse Mike Mamula

In "Rough Draft," lawyer-turned-writer-turned-football-player Clay Travis recounts his experience training for the 2008 NFL draft alongside some future pros. The following is Part 9 of 10 (read Chapter 8 here) installments that FanHouse will roll out every weekday leading up to the 2009 NFL Draft on April 25.

The corner of Craig Stevens' left eye is twitching. He can't stop it. We're sitting across the table from one another and again and again the eye twitches, a metronome of ocular discomfort.

"Can you see it?" he asks.

"Yeah," I say.

He nods, flexes his arms on the table, "I can't get it to stop. I was really worried about it, but then my girlfriend told me that sometimes your eye can start twitching when you get really stressed."

"Has your eye ever done this? Before a big game or anything like that?" I ask.

"No," Stevens says, "I think it's going to stop as soon as I finish the combine."

I only had only watched NFL Network for a few minutes this morning when I heard the words I dread hearing every year at the Scouting Combine: Mike Mamula.

Yes, it's 2009 -- 14 years after Mamula put on a show at the Combine -- and we're still hearing his name used as the shorthand for "guy who looks good in shorts and a t-shirt but isn't good at football." And that's a real shame, because it misrepresents both ends of Mamula's career: his combine performance wasn't the only reason he was the seventh overall pick of the Philadelphia Eagles in 1995, and his NFL career wasn't as bad as it's made out to be.

Ohio State defensive end Vernon Gholston is the No. 1 player on my draft board, the player I think will be the best professional of anyone drafted this weekend. He lasted until the sixth pick, when the Jets chose him; he'll likely play outside linebacker in coach Eric Mangini's 3-4 defense.

Gholston's stock skyrocketed after he had a phenomenal combine, and that led to some doubters labeling him the next Mike Mamula. That bothers me for two reasons.

First, it's unfair to Mike Mamula. And second, it ignores how well Gholston played on the field at Ohio State. I said Gholston would be a Top 10 pick during the 2007 season, before I knew how fast he could run the 40-yard dash (4.58 seconds) or how many times he could bench press 225 pounds (37).

Gholston is a great athlete in track shoes and a T-shirt, but this team just got a great football player in cleats and shoulder pads, too.

Previously on FanHouse:
Darren McFadden Thinks He'll Be a Jet
The Jets Aren't Just a Team, They're a Family; A Family Guy Kinda Family
Chad Pennington to the Ravens? Draft Week Rumor Mill Churns Out a Doozy
Matt Ryan Not Visiting With Jets This Week
How Does Kerry Rhodes Extension Affect Jets Draft Strategy?
Are The Jets Hoping Matt Ryan Drops to Them on Draft Day?
FanHouse Mock Draft: New York Jets Select DE/LB Vernon Gholston No. 6