FanHouse Steve Justice

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 10 of 10 (read Chapter 9 here) installments that FanHouse will roll out every weekday leading up to the 2009 NFL Draft on April 25.

At 6:35 in the morning, gray mist encircles the stone barracks of West Point. First-year cadets stand in the hallways counting down the minutes until formation, Cadet Caleb Campbell tucks in the corner of his bed, the green cover tight and without wrinkles. He adjusts his hat and steps outside of Eisenhower Barracks room E313. It's 6:39 in the morning. Look quickly across the timeless cadet procession standing in the courtyard, past the parade ground bleachers that say Beat Navy, and it could be any year, any time, but only one place: West Point at morning.

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."

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 8 of 10 (read chapter 7 here) installments that FanHouse will roll out every weekday leading up to the 2009 NFL Draft on April 25.

It's a little more than two weeks until the NFL Combine and Kurt Hester remains furious with our forty starts.

"Y'all are starting like a bunch of p*****s," he says, "They're f**king horrible."

So horrible, in fact, that for our morning workout Hester has been forced to dig into his massive collection of workout supplies, stored in large plastic blue bins. Desperation has driven Hester to pull out Velcro belts that he can fasten to our waists. In Hester's terminology these are called pop belts.

"They don't even make these anymore," says Hester as he distributes the pop belts to us. "I had to break them out of the bottom of the bins because y'all just weren't listening to me about getting good first steps."

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 7 of 10 installments (read Part 6 here) that FanHouse will roll out every weekday leading up to the 2009 NFL Draft on April 25.

Our forty times are not improving. And Kurt Hester is coming undone over our continued failure. With less than a month to go until the combine, Hester sets up six taped lines on the field at a distance of ten yards. "I want y'all to try and run ten yards in six steps," he says. The idea behind the tape strips is to make us take longer strides so that we can get out of our starts faster. I do my best to make my strides match the six pieces of tape, but they're too far apart for me to cover in only six steps.

In "Rough Draft," lawyer-turned-writer-turned-football-player Clay Travis (right) recounts his experience training for the 2008 NFL draft alongside some future pros. The following is Part 5 of 10 installments (read Part 4 here) that FanHouse will roll out every weekday leading up to the 2009 NFL Draft on April 25.

The next day's workout begins quietly, Big Mike's absence has left a giant void, literally and figuratively. Kurt Hester senses the change in atmosphere brought on by Michael Oher's departure, and steps up his chatter accordingly. As we're running forty's, Hester encourages us. "This training is all about gaining an inch," he says, "I wish I could gain an inch. It would help my porn career." Greeted with laughter in between sets, Hester continues, "If I could keep gaining inches like you guys are gaining inches, I'd roll out to the bar in athletic shorts, hike my leg up, and say, 'What's up ladies?' "

Yesterday I outlined the tough choice for the Colts Pro Bowl center, Jeff Saturday. Today the news is worse for Peyton Manning, the Colts, and their fans ... according to Saturday's agent, Ralph Cindrich:

If Saturday opts against surgery, "I don't think he'll be able to get back on the field for at least six or seven weeks,'' Cindrich said. "He's down for a while.''

If Saturday has surgery, his recovery might last 11 weeks, Cindrich said. "But from all reports,'' he added, "he could be back before the end of the season.''

Ouch. This has to be a stomach punch to the Colts, as they've been slowly and surely getting all their injured players back on the field this preseason, culminating with Peyton Manning's hopeful return in the regular season opener.

Now -- barring something absolutely unforeseen -- Manning will be taking the first Colts' offensive snap in their new building from rookie Steve Justice, not his trusted leader of the line for the past four years. Week one against a stout Bears defensive front should be a good test for the kid.

Yesterday I outlined the tough choice for the Colts Pro Bowl center, Jeff Saturday. Today the news is worse for Peyton Manning, the Colts, and their fans ... according to Saturday's agent, Ralph Cindrich:

If Saturday opts against surgery, "I don't think he'll be able to get back on the field for at least six or seven weeks,'' Cindrich said. "He's down for a while.''

If Saturday has surgery, his recovery might last 11 weeks, Cindrich said. "But from all reports,'' he added, "he could be back before the end of the season.''

Ouch. This has to be a stomach punch to the Colts, as they've been slowly and surely getting all their injured players back on the field this preseason, culminating with Peyton Manning's hopeful return in the regular season opener.

Now -- barring something absolutely unforeseen -- Manning will be taking the first Colts' offensive snap in their new building from rookie Steve Justice, not his trusted leader of the line for the past four years. Week one against a stout Bears defensive front should be a good test for the kid.