Artist rendering of what JaMarcus Russell might look like today.SI.com's Don Banks, in going through the oh-so-productive exercise of grading free agency a week after it began, offers this unsubstantiated nugget:
At this point, quarterback is again a concern, because no one knows if JaMarcus Russell is ready to take over the starting job. There are rumors that he's close to 300 pounds and not exactly prepared for his close-up.Apparently, Russell isn't so grotesquely overweight that he's remained virtually invisible this off-season. According the Oakland Tribune's Jerry McDonald, nobody's seen Russell since January and therefore it's, you know, kinda hard to gauge exactly what he looks like. "I talked to someone else in the organization whose business it would be to know Russell's current level of conditioning, and got nothing but a shrug. Didn't have a clue."
Whatever Russell weighs, the fact that he's holed up at an undisclosed location is another issue. McDonald has talked to several players who work out at the team facilities and none of them have seen Russell. Although, like Banks, they "are extremely curious to find out [what he looks like]."
I'm guessing Russell shows up at minicamp pushing four bills in part of some elaborate scheme to give owner Al Davis even more reason to fires that shiftless layabout, Lane Kiffin. And then the team will rightfully be in the capable hands of Andrew Walter. (Until he's sacked to death behind that offensive line, anyway.)
ADVERTISEMENT
_thumbnail.jpg "NASCAR Cowboy Hats")
