BCSP BLACK COLLEGE NFL REPORT
NFL numbers stuck on 67
Opening Day Rosters | NFL Numbers
LUT WILLIAMS
BCSP Editor
After cuts and retirements, new draft picks,
free agents and the like, the total of 67 is the same as it
has been for the past two years.
Notably, all eight black college players selected in the 2003 Draft made their respective teams (Bethune-Cookman DB Rashean Mathis and Howard OT Marques Ogden-Jacksonville, Tuskegee DB Drayton Florence and Arkansas-Pine Bluff OT Courtney Van Buren-San Diego, Morgan State TE Vishante Shiancoe and Tuskegee DB Frank Walker-New York Giants, Alabama A&M LB Robert Mathis-Indianapolis and Hampton WR/KR Zuriel Smith-Dallas.
Perhaps of even greater note are the rookie free agents and players not in the league a year ago that made opening day rosters.
Undrafted two-time Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year (LB) Tracey White of Howard, impressed the Seattle Seahawks staff enough in training camp and the exhibition season to earn a spot on their squad.
But perhaps the biggest surprise was former North Carolina A&T safety Dwaine Carpenter (6-2, 218) who gets his first shot in the league after making the San Francisco 49ers team. Carpenter, 26, who last played for A&T in 1999, is described in a San Francisco newspaper as coming to the Niners as a "street" free agent. A few well-placed phone calls got him into camp after earning all-Arena League honors this year as a defensive specialist for the Buffalo Destroyers. A year before Carpenter played with the Rochester Brigade of Arena League 2. Carpenter last played outdoors four years ago at A&T.
Niners defensive backfield coach Brett Maxie, a Texas Southern product, says he saw something in Carpenter. "This guy is special. Trust me," said Maxie.
The Jacksonville Jaguars with seven and the Baltimore Ravens with six are the NFL teams with the most black college products on their rosters. Former Texas Southern wide receiver Cortez Hankton made the Jaguars as a rookie free agent. Veteran wide receiver Matthew Hatchette (Langston), out of the league last season, also made the team after an impressive year in NFL Europe.
Both Jacksonville and Baltimore have former Grambling State and NFL quarterback James Harris in common. Harris left last year as Baltimore's director of pro personnel to become Jacksonville's vice president of player personnel.
Black college NFL veterans Jerry Rice (19th year), Shannon Sharpe (14th), Aeneas Williams (13th), Robert Porcher (12th) and Michael Strahan (11th) continue to uphold the high standards of play that have kept them in the league for so long. Conspicuously absent this year are veterans Jake Reed, James Williams and Eddie Robinson. Jackson State, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, South Carolina State, Tennessee State and Tuskegee all have four players in the league. Former Tuskegee cornerback Roosevelt Williams, the top black college pick in the 2002 draft, was cut by Chicago but picked up by Denver.
Receivers (17) have almost caught up to defensive backs (18) as the position that most black college players in the NFL play. Defensive and offensive linemen (13) are next.
© 2003 Azeez Communications, Inc.