New Dodgers Introduced to the Press

[Nittany Dodgers]

The Nittany Dodger Head Coach, Joe Pa, and General Manager Tommy La held a press conference to introduce the new Dodger personnel. The players in attendance included Dominic Rhodes, Chad Pennington, and Patrick Ramsey.

“We feel Randy Rhodes was well worth the price we gave up for him. Between he and James, and Curtis Martin as our #1 we should have one of the most explosive tandems in the league,” said Joe Pa. Rhodes leaned over and reminded Joe that his first name was Dominic. “Oh, sorry. Of course I mean Dominic Rhodes.” He then patted Rhodes on the back and exclaimed “I can’t wait to hear some ‘Crazy Train’ riffs in the locker room after our games.”

“What Joe means is that Dominic was well worth a #1 pick,” Tommy La quickly interjected. “Sure, we had to give up Marty Booker and Muhsin Muhammad, but we wouldn’t have matched Marty’s contract offer, so he would have been gone either way. Moving Muhammad’s contract was beneficial to our salary cap situation as well. We look at it as a win-win.”

Tommy was later asked about the curious selection of Patrick Ramsey with their first rookie draft choice, especially when they had only one receiver on the roster, and Chad Pennington already on the Development Squad. “We didn’t feel there was a receiver out there that would be able to come in and help us right away. Since that was the case, we went for the best player on the board.” In true General Manager fashion, Tommy also tried to pass the garbage that Patrick was #1 on their board. “We definitely had our eye on Ramsey since the draft began. Sure, if William Green was still on the board when we went on the clock we would have had to look at him seriously, but we really wanted Patrick. I feel he’ll bring a lot to this club.”

What about the wide receiver situation? “We still have one pick left,” explained Tommy La. “If there is a quality receiver on the board, we might make a move in that direction. Otherwise we feel there is a lot of talent on the free agent market. I think we’ll be able to bring in enough targets for Rich Gannon to throw to. Obviously our offense will depend on Martin and Edge/Rhodes, so we don’t need all stars. Just some people who can catch the ball.”

Where was Edge? Why is he not at the press conference? “I want to make fully clear that Edge is not in a contract dispute. He is simply practicing for the upcoming summer basketball leagues in Florida. We have no reason to believe why repeated quick movements on a basketball court, as well and regular jumping would in any way impede his rehabilitation schedule. We expect him to be 100% by the regular season.”

[Philadelphia Freedom]

Good piece you can never have too many options at QB. It suprised me Ramsey was still there so it is kind of hard to pass on him. If either he or Pennington (please be Pennington, cause that 3rd number 1 pick would be nice) look like they are going to get a lot of playing time you have your back up to Gannon.

[Nittany Dodgers]

Yeah, well it looks like its going to be a Cade McNown rookie year kind of rotation for Pennington, so I think my #1 is safe. As long as he starts in 2003 I'll be happy though. Then he can pave the way for the Patrick Ramsey era of the Nittany Dodgers (if there ever was a sentence I never thought I'd say, that was it).

[Philadelphia Freedom]

A guy can dream about Pennington having a breakout year in 2002. I admit that it is a pretty big dream but what the heck...