NFL Draft: Michigan Football’s Joe Bolden to Play on Sundays?
By Mike Clark
With the NFL Draft just around the corner, can former Michigan football linebacker Joe Bolden expect to be playing on fall Sunday afternoons?
I bought a 2016 NFL Draft guide the other day at the book store.
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Yes, I’ll admit, I’m one of those people, the ones who actually find it interesting to learn how scouts, coaches and executives feel about certain college football players. I’m also like millions of other football fans around the country in that I simply like to know who my team might be considering when the draft rolls around.
But a big reason for picking up this year’s edition was to see what the football “experts” had to say about some Michigan guys who might hear their names called during that fateful April weekend.
More specifically, I was interested in what scouts thought about former Michigan football linebacker Joe Bolden. Over the past couple years I’ve really come to admire and appreciate the toughness and leadership Bolden exhibited for any Wolverines fan to see. And if you are a Michigan fan and you haven’t noticed those two qualities, then I hate to break it to you, but you apparently haven’t really been paying attention.
Joe Bolden, of course, was a team captain for Michigan who recorded well over 200 career tackles. If you happened to notice one guy who seemed to be in the thick of the mess on every play, then yes, you noticed Mr. Bolden.
If you need a quick refresher course on what Bolden brought to the game each and every Saturday, just check out the now-famous video of him running along the front of the stands pumping up the fans at the Big House after being ejected from the Michigan State game for “targeting.”
The call itself was roundly criticized by virtually everyone who saw the play. But it was Bolden’s passionate reaction afterward that most fans remember.
The draft guide I bought describes the top linebackers available with the usual scout-speak: This guy excels at “stacking at the line of scrimmage.” Another guy has “fluid hips that allow him to change direction effortlessly.” Yet another “sheds blocks and fills aggressively.” One of my favorite nuggets of scouting wisdom is the observation that some of the players have “tight ankles.”
What the guide said about Bolden was actually not much, other than that he is undersized for the linebacker position and might have trouble getting off of blocks.
I’m not a scout. To be honest, I really struggle to understand much of what they say in their analyses of players. But I do know that some teams in the NFL look for things other than 40 times, bench press reps, or fluid hips. Come to think of it, a few teams that are consistent postseason participants seem to make a habit of drafting players who don’t check off all the boxes in the scouting handbook. You know, they’re actually interested in players who can play the game. One of those teams might just be onto something by selecting Bolden.
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I’ve watched that video of him pumping up the fans on his way off the field several times and there’s one thing I just can’t make out. How are his ankles?