Thursday, January 09, 2025

A Familiar Name

A story headlined Miami Dolphins Sign 12 Players to Futures Contracts notes that one of the dozen players who signed a Futures Contract is former Dartmouth corner Isaiah Johnson '22, who finished his career playing two year at Syracuse. From the story (LINK):

Johnson entered the NFL as an undrafted college free agent with Miami on May 10, 2024, and spent the season on the practice squad. He played his final two collegiate seasons at Syracuse (2022-23), where he appeared in 25 games with 19 starts and totaled 115 tackles (74 solo), two interceptions, nine passes defensed and one forced fumble. He began his career at Dartmouth (2018-21), where he earned first-team All-Ivy League honors in 2021 after registering 55 tackles (38 solo), one interception returned for a touchdown and seven passes defensed.

Johnson's bio should say, College: Dartmouth/Syracuse.

So, what exactly, is a Futures Contract? Good question. From an SBNation story (LINK):

Whether a player is on the practice squad of a team whose season is over or simply a free agent, they are free to sign with any NFL team for the following year. But since rosters are locked when a team season is over, these players signed a type of contract, a Reserve/Future contract, where they do not count on the teams salary cap or roster count until the beginning of the league year. Once a player signs one of these contracts, the are on the NFL’s Reserve/Future List and they are not free to negotiate with other teams as they are under contract even though the league year has not kicked in. Teams can sign as many players to futures contracts as they choose as long as it does not put them over the 90-man limit that takes effect the first day of the new league year.

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The note on Isaiah Johnson sent me scurrying to see what I could find on defensive end Niko Lalos '20, who spent the past several years on the New Orleans Saints' practice squad. The most recent mention came on Nov. 6, when he was listed as being released by the team.

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Something that occurred to me with the news that the Ivy League has OK'd playing in the FCS playoffs. 

Barring a national championship or the Ivy League back-tracking on the playoffs (neither of which seems likely), the 1996 Dartmouth football team will be the last in Big Green history to finish a season unbeaten.

Granted, a creative writer can claim that a team "went undefeated in the regular season," but as they say, that's weak sauce.

Green Alert Take: I clearly remember interviewing a coach (not from Dartmouth) when I was at the newspaper who told me after his team dropped a holiday tournament game, "We lost, but we're still undefeated." Uh, not quite.

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Well, I blew that one. Yesterday's BGA included this bit about a former Dartmouth player. Unfortunately, I left out the million dollar quote that gave the piece meaning. It's now included at the bottom:

The Athletic has a story headlined,  ‘Look good, feel good, play good’: Buffalo Bills barbers behind the chairs of treasured ritual. Mark Carrier, the team's director of player engagement. From the story (LINK):

(I)f an athlete believes something is important — no matter how trivial it might seem to anyone else — then it is important. Period.

So why mention that here? Because of this bit from the piece:

Carrier’s eyes were opened to the power of fashion when his son, Jon Marc Carrier, made recruiting visits in 2012. Jon Marc was going to play wideout in the Ivy League, where considerations usually go way beyond the football field. He chose Dartmouth over Brown. 

“I asked him why, and he said ‘Because they wear Nike shoes,’” Marc Carrier said, shaking his head. “The other one wore some other shoe. ‘I cannot wear those other brands.’ He picked his college education based on Nikes. How these guys look and dress gets more and more important to them.” 

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EXTRA POINT

This is a follow on yesterday's note about cleaning up the last of the fallen needles from our Christmas tree. I mentioned that I used our Dyson vac, a powerful hand vac and a wet index finger to get those ornery holdout needles. I should have mentioned my old friend Robo. Our robotic vacuum is hard at work as we speak collecting the wayward needles that managed to end up under one of the two couches in our living room. I'll be interested when I clean out Robo's bin to see how many needles it collected.