Big Lead Sports Bar

3/06/2008

Leave Britney Alone Guy a Steeler-To-Be?

The Steelers continued their "Free Agents You've Never Heard Of" Parade today, bringing in Chris Crocker for a look-see.

Actually, some of you might know Chris Crocker. A quick Googling shows that Chris Crocker is an openly gay internet personality and self-described "edutainer", known best for his "Leave Britney Alone!" viral video last fall.

Unfortunately, it looks like that wasn't the same Chris Crocker that was at Steeler HQ on Thursday. Now that would have been some big news.
The prospective signee is in fact a 5'11", 193-pound safety who played with the great Atlanta Falcons last season. To my knowledge, he's never made a YouTube video, although he may or may not be a Britney Spears supporter.

Not only has Crocker played for the Falcons, but he was originally a third-round pick of the Cleveland Browns in the 3rd round of the 2003 draft. Can you say "pedigree"?
Crocker's pretty much been a reverse King Midas; every team he joins seem to absolutely stink. Evidence, you ask?
03 Browns 5-11
04 Browns 4-12
05 Browns 6-10
06 Falcons 7-9
07 Falcons 4-12
Yikes. That's 26-54, or an average of about 5-11 per year. The teams' respective failures are surprising, as they were coached up by the Murderer's Row of Butch Davis, Terry Robiskie, Romeo Crennel, Jim Mora Jr., and Bobby Petrino. Or maybe it's less surprising considering the quarterbacks of those teams were Kelly Holcomb, Tim Couch, Luke McCown, Jeff Garcia, Trent Dilfer, Charlie Frye, Ron Mexico, Joey Harrington, Byron Leftwich, and Chris Redman.
Has this Crocker dude had some horrible luck or what?
Crocker has actually started 46 of 48 games the past three seasons after just six starts in his first two seasons. Last year he had 55 tackles, three picks, and a sack in 14 starts for Head Coach/Former Head Coach Petrino.
The Steelers haven't exactly broken out the checkbook for other teams' free agents this offseason, signing just one of the five players who've come to town to see if Mike Tomlin is as cool in person as he appears to be on TV. So I'm not sure if we can look forward to Crocker suiting up alongside Troy Polamalu next year. But if he does, rest assured that this will not be the last time that this joke will be referenced.

Chris Crocker - internet celebrity [Wikipedia]

Chris Crocker- football player [Wikipedia]

1 comment:

okel dokel said...

I know we are "cap strapped" but this is just scraping the bottom of the barrel. Kind of the "Totally Dirt Cheap Beer" of the brewery.