The Titans - Why Bother

Sometimes when I post things at Science Gone Mad, I worry that I come across as too negative. Anymore, I try to be as positive as possible. The addition of Mike Heimerdinger as the OC for the Titans, for example, might be a step in the right direction. Or it might be a catastrophe.

Then I looked at the other transactions the Titans have made in the month of January and I fount this:

Jan. 8: Roster additions for 2008: QB Ingle Martin (ended '07 season on Titans practice squad).

What in the sam fuck is this shit? Ingle Martin??? Apparently anyone who has ever taken a snap in Division I for any school at anytime can get a pro contract in today's NFL. Wasn't the closing down of NFL Europe supposed to stop this dilution of the talent pool? Ingle Martin??? Really? I thought I had seen it all when Brock Berlin started a game for the Rams this year, but this is simply unbelievable. There is no way to dress this up as a positive.

Ingle Martin, for those who don't know, was recruited to play for Florida and be the second coming of Danny Wuerffel. When Spurrier left to coach the Redskins (sorry Mack), new head coach and Football Genius Ron Zook benched Martin in favor of Chris Leak. You know Chris Leak....the guy who led the Gators to the BCS championship in 2006. Martin decided that he would rather lead in hell than serve in Gainesville, so he transferred to perennial division I-AA mediocrity with Furman.

(Sidebar. Furman's mascot is the Paladin. As you all know from Dungeons and Dragons, a Paladin is a "Christian Knight." A friend of mine played on the O-line for them in the mid-1990s and told me that the Student Council there lobbied the administration to change the school's mascot officially to the Christian Knights. They were in the final stages of approving it when an eagle eyed administrator realized that it would spell out Furman University Christian Knights. Aren't acronyms great?)

Martin must have played ok at Furman. No one would really know because no one really cares about Furman or the Southern Conference outside of App State. But, somehow he managed to be drafted in the 5th or 6th round by the Packers in 2006. (Leak wasn't drafted in 2007, which is one of the all-time injustices of pro football.) Remember, Brett Favre is irreplaceable, but Martin still managed to become the third stringer, which is to say he played no role of any significance whatsoever on the team. He later was cut, increasing the level of talent in the NFL.

I don't know what the rationale is to sign a player with virtually no ability above the high school level. Perhaps the Titans see themselves as some sort of NFL Salvation Army. Maybe the GM played golf with Martin's dad once or twice. Norm Chow might have thought he could make him into the next Carson Palmer. I don't really know. I do know that if the pool of available quarterbacks is that shallow then I should probably try to hit the gym a bit and get back into shape. I can only pass the ball about 10 yards on a good day, but you must not need much more than that to be in the QB Club.

For the short term, if Vince (Peace Be With Him) gets hurt, and Kerry Collins plays like, well, Kerry Collins, then our season is over. Martin has absolutely no business in an NFL stadium unless he is selling Budweiser.

1st round WR, 2nd Round RB, 3rd Round QB.