While we were slumming with John McCain and his staffers over at the Conrad Hotel in Indianapolis, our pal Peter King was hanging out in Matt Ryan's suite at the Omni. In case you missed it, Peter compared his 2007 interview with JaMarcus Russell with his 2008 session with Matt Ryan.
It's sad that I had to pose as a bellman to land an exclusive with Ryan. You can imagine the look on agent Tom Condon's face when I handed Ryan a Sharpie and asked him to design several plays on the bathroom mirror.
Peter obviously thinks that Ryan will be the better pro. I'm not so sure. He seems like a wonderful kid, but Russell still has more ability. I kept hearing stories about how Raiders coach Lane Kiffin never wanted Russell, so I asked a high-ranking club official about it on the plane ride from Dallas to Indianapolis.
"Lane actually likes the kid a lot," he said. "He thinks he has a chance to be unbelievable."
I thought Peter made one particularly interesting observation:
"Russell was a normal college kid, trying to adjust to life as an icon with everyone trying to grab a piece of him, a little awkward in the bright lights," he writes. "He was being led around by his uncle, Ray Russell, who was involved in the interview throughout. Ryan was Joe Cool, Joe Prepared, looking me in the eye, answering questions in complete and thoughtful sentences. His agent, Tom Condon, sat way in the back of the suite, out of earshot of the interview."
I would say Condon has less to worry about since he represents about half the quarterbacks in the league. Obviously the moral of this story is to always look Peter King in the eye.
And in honor of coffeenerdness, every Starbucks in the country is closing tonight from 5:30-9 to "perfect our art of espresso." Here's an idea: Perfect it during your off hours. The guy at the Starbucks window offered the following explanation earlier today:
"We're taking some time to re-focus. We sort of got away from what we do best."
What's that? Burning coffee and selling it for $4 a cup. OK, I'll be back in a minute. My tall Americano is ready.
