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Take a good look at this picture.
High school football? Nah, that's a bigger draw any night of the week in Texas.
Okay, how about Odessa Permian freshman football? Semi-pro arena league something-or-other? Punt, Pass and Kick competition?
Nope, nope and nope.
Now take a look at the endzone logo in this next picture.
Nation? Stephen Colbert has a football game?!
No! It's Texas vs. The Nation in the Alamodome. Remember, the game is always held the day before the Super Bowl.
'Member? You 'member.
Remember the game's organizer and promoter Kenny Hansmire saying that El Paso disrespected the NFL logo by only bringing 28,000 to the Sun Bowl for last year's game?
If you don't, here's the clip. Just click and play:
Honestly, each part of that whole cheesy spiel made me laugh.
"I got three phone calls from an owner's daughter, and you all can guess who that might be," was good. Did you hear the one about the traveling promoter and the owner's daughter?
The part about the NFL calling him three times was good, too, like Roger Goodell has Hansmire on speed dial.
But the kicker has to be the one about the Pro Football Hall of Fame's logo being disrespected.
Like El Paso hocked a loog on Canton's Hallowed Shield and ground it in with its heel. Like, in righteous anger, the football spirits of Mean Joe Greene, John Matuszak and Dick Butkus should then materialize, marauding and pillaging El Paso in slow-motion, NFL Films-style.
After Kenny's knee-jerk reaction he apologized to El Paso, but the damage was clearly done. Kenny then took his beloved Logo and planted it firmly on the Alamodome's field...where it has been promptly ignored by San Antonio and South Texas, as was predicted here last year.
We hate to say we told you so, Kenny, but...
No, wait. We don't hate to say it at all.
We told you so.
San Antonio's reaction is exactly what everyone expected.
The game worked in El Paso because we don't see a whole lot of large-scale events -- the kind Dallas, San Antonio and Houston see all the time.
But, remember? UTEP basketball was playing an important game in its conference title run that night.
Remember? El Pasoans were unsure about the weather.
Getting 28,000-plus under those circumstances is great for El Paso, and should be considered great for any football game that doesn't really matter.
Credit Hansmire for doing lots of heavy lifting to get sponsorship from the Pro Football Hall of Fame, visiting schools, bringing in big names and more. The man is a good promoter.
How good? Check out this piece by WFAA-TV investigative reporter Byron Harris. Harris singles out Hansmire in roughly the last third.
Wow, not only money from the city and county, but $1.1 million from the state?
Harris' story didn't get into Texas vs. The Nation's real economic impact in El Paso, but it was minimal.
The straw that might have broken the game's back here was City Council's insistence -- after Hansmire's outburst -- that public funding would be tied to how many actual hotel rooms were occupied by people present for the event. With that caveat, the game wouldn't have made much. The only "tourists" who traveled to this game were a few professional football people.
Hansmire loved to brag about how Texas vs. The Nation brought the NFL to El Paso -- scouts, assistant general managers and more.
But not only were there few recognizable NFL faces in El Paso hotel lobbies, of those football officials who were here, many in line for the continental breakfast went straight for the Canadian bacon.
National or Canadian Football League, there really weren't that many of them.
It still doesn't change that the game was something else to do here. Doesn't change that any national exposure -- whether its CBS for the Sun Bowl or CBS College Sports for Texas vs. The Nation -- is still national exposure.
This wasn't a raw deal for anybody. Until Hansmire made it a raw deal for himself.
If Hansmire thought this game could play in Texas cities east of here -- heck, if he thought it could ever out-grow El Paso -- all he has to do is look at those Alamodome snapshots.
Texas vs. The Nation, which started off in El Paso as the nation's most well-attended college all-star game despite the fact it had no stars, is now dying. You could feel it the moment you heard Hansmire's ill-advised words.
Remember, Kenny? Remember the Alamodome.
UTEP head football coach Mike Price announces the Miners' signees, then answers the media's question at UTEP's National Letter of Intent Signing Day press conference...Story below. (Advance video to the 6:30 mark for Coach Price's comments.)
Many times, when a football program starts signing a significant percentage of players out of the junior college ranks, it signals a coach under pressure. UTEP's coaching staff would point out they have to replace 25 seniors, many of them linemen, and one a four-year starter at quarterback. Any way you look at it, almost 25-percent of 2011 incoming class will be juco transfers -- a blend of size and skill as the Miners strive to plug those holes. Make no mistake, though, the pressure is there -- Mike Price both wants and needs to win now. In Price's case, most of the pressure he feels is internal, despite any public complaint. But if he is honest with himself, it isn't just a desire to compete and win, it's a race against the clock -- both his own at age 64, and the one attached to a doomsday device called Apathy. If UTEP bombs in 2011, Apathy could wipe out the Miners' most loyal fans. Believe it or not, over Price's seven seasons at the helm, Miners home games have outdrawn every non-Big XII football school in Texas, including TCU, even though they've finished under .500 for five straight seasons. It's a testament to a local hunger for football; for a good, inexpensive ticket, and a UTEP team that fills both needs as the big game in town. A 6-7 record and a bowl berth in 2010 actually brought UTEP's attendance average up a smidge, from 29,010 in 2009 to 29,350. But Apathy looms, and, though the Miners have been trying hard to stop the countdown, five straight losing seasons after raising the bar has done nothing but cut those wires that make its clock run faster. With the loss of so much experience, size, skill and speed, 2011 could be a disaster in the making, and Price doesn't have the time for a three- or four-year rebuilding job. That said, the Miners have found some large bodies for the lines on both sides of the ball and two new quarterbacks -- Nick Lamaison of Mt. San Antonio College in California, and a freshman Price calls the future face of the program in San Antonio Central Catholic's Blaire Sullivan. All-in-all, Price says as many as nine players from a 21-player group will have an opportunity to play next season. But Price's spread-option attack is nothing without a quarterback to run it. Appropriate, then, that Price called Sullivan the future, because Lamaison is the present. The fact that two of Lamaison's teammates, OL James Martin and WR Mike Edwards, are coming to play with their teammate speaks volumes about his situation. Though talented, each in his own right, three-man package deals are rare. According to California-based sports blogger James Choy, Lamaison was close to signing with Lane Kiffin at Tennessee, but Kiffin's departure for USC after just one year on the job jumbled Lamaison's prospects. Regardless, Mt. SAC won a state and community college national championship last season with him at the helm. Now, let's see how he does with wire cutters.
* * * * *
The complete list of UTEP's incoming class is below.
QB Nick Lamaison
(Photos courtesy: James Choy/jameschoynews.wordpress.com)
2011 UTEP Signees
Name Pos Ht Wt 40 Time Hometown (High School/Previous School)
You can listen to Duke on the KLAQ Morning Show, weekdays 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. on 95.5 FM.
Duke comments on sports in general, but usually sticks close to home.
E-mail Duke at dkeith@klaq.com.
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