The Out Route

I've always supported players going all out in order to get their chance. Get to the field early and leave late. Spend the offseason conditioning and working on your mistakes. Do what you need to do to show your coach you're the man.

Within the law.

According to ESPN.com, the backup punter for Northern Colorado University actually stabbed the team's starting punter. Looks like Mitch Cozad decided to go for the Charles Bronson method instead of the working hard method.

Starting punter Rafael Mendoza was stabbed from behind in his kicking leg after parking his car near his building. Now, Cozad had to know that he'd get caught. Especially because he was stupid enough to strip the tape covering his license plate outside of an open liquor store, where someone was able to take down the plate and report the suspicious activity to the cops. If this were the wild west, that'd be a perfectly fine way for punters to compete for the starting job. Otherwise, it's just dumb.

This is the stuff crappy TV movies are made of. However, I'd have to take some creative liscensing if I were the one writing the script. One possibility is that Cozad would not get caught until the end of the season, so I could have the constant shots of him sitting in team meetings looking completely evil with sinister music in the background. Also, I'd probably have Mendoza see Cozad before the stabbing so he can say, "Hey, Mitch, what's going on? What's wrong Mitch? I don't like that look you're giving me. Is that a knife, Mitch? Mitch? No!" If you're a Fox excutive reading this, think about it. There's potential here. More potential than Hell's Kitchen.

The only person who benefits from this is the third-string punter. Then again, maybe he's the Jack Ruby in all this -- who knows how deep it goes. All we really know is this is the only time we'll ever hear about North Colorado State. And that's OK by me.