So, earlier last week I mentioned that Ronnie Lott was throwing a charity event in San Francisco. Before I get into the abomination that is Brent Jones in a Raiders jersey (ok maybe it's not the end of the world), I have to admit that I lucked out. Kirk Reynolds was the PR guy handling a lot of this event and he was kind enough to get me a media credential. So, first off, big thanks to Kirk. Thanks to him I spent last Friday the 18th knocking back free booze, enjoying some quality food and watching some crazy fantasy picks go down. There are more pictures after the jump, but this one clearly has to be shown now.
The event included a variety of players, many of whom spent time with both the 49ers AND Raiders, including Ronnie Lott, Jerry Rice and Tom Rathman. Some other ex and current Raiders were in attendance including Marcus Allen, Tim Brown, Darren McFadden and Nnamdi Asomugha. As this definitely leaned towards a Raider event (although the 49ers Gold Rush girls were the cheerleaders in attendance), I'll cut Jones a little slack for sporting the Raiders jersey. After I took this picture, Jones walked by and all I said was, "Brent, Raiders jersey? Really???" He threw out a comment about just supporting the event. So I'll give him that.
Nonetheless, when the red eye showed up there was no way I was going to remove it. I think it's fitting that Jones appears to have a Satanic glow in his eyes as he wears the hated silver and black. It was certainly jarring to see him in the jersey and I actually had to think for a minute about whether he had spent a year on the dark side and I somehow had purged it from my mind.
There's more after the jump, but I can definitely give you the line of the night, courtesy of Jerry Rice. He was was up on stage being interviewed and somebody asked him about Norv Turner. Before the question was finished (I don't even remember the question itself), Rice blurts out, "Worst Coach Ever" without batting an eye. He's also not too impressed with Randy Moss as he made a point to mention how it took Moss more games to set the record. Not bitter at all.
More details and pictures after the jump....
Since people had to pay a nice little sum to get in, it made for a tamer event than one might have expected. The players were happy to take pictures with people, but for the most part they weren't bothered a whole ton. I actually only got one picture of myself with an athlete, which you can see after the jump. Other than that I wanted to more just experience what was going on. I've never been to Bimbos 365 and I have to say it's a great place for this sort of event. It's big enough to fit a lot of people comfortably, but the design makes it seem like you're in a cozy little event. All in all, a great facility.
As for the fantasy draft itself? Well, Michael Irvin was in attendance and was captain of one team and his trash talking days are definitely not finished. His team won last season so he was full of all sorts of confidence. When they introduced him rather subtly the first time, he made them do it again and introduce him as "The Playmaker" Michael Irvin. Seeing that on ESPN might have bugged me, but something was rather humorous about the whole thing. He was definitely enjoying himself.
In the draft, I lost track after pick 6 as I decided to hit the margarita bar. QBs get 6 points for touchdown passes so that made for some higher QB picks than normal. The top 6 picks were:
1. Ladanian Tomlinson - Rice's team
2. Brian Westbrook - Warren Moon's team
3. Tom Brady
4. Adrian Peterson
5. Tony Romo - By Lott's team and referred to as "the first mistake" by the announcers
6. Peyton Manning
Fooch and Darren McFadden - With some media in attendance he was obviously on his best behavior, but even so, he was a really nice guy. And unfortunately for those driving on 880, he is not bringing his amazingly awesome car from Arkansas.
This isn't the best picture, but this is the best shot I could get of McFadden playing guitar hero on the Nintendo Wii. I don't know what this says about the man, but he was playing to the soothing sounds of "Hit Me With Your Best Shot," by Pat Benatar. Raiders fans, take that for what it's worth.
Thanks again to Kirk for getting me into the event. I had a lot of fun and not much beats seeing Charles Haley playing the bowling game on a Nintendo Wii.