The NFL hasn't held a game of any kind in Los Angeles since 1994, but the NFL Players Association will bring the next best thing to the city in January. The union will stage the first-ever AstroTurf NFLPA Collegiate Bowl at the Home Depot Center on Jan. 21. The game will be open to all draft-eligible players and serve as the culmination of a week of practices and events in Los Angeles when current and former NFL players will work with top NFL draft prospects on what will be expected of them on and off the field in the league. The game is expected to draw 100 of the country's top NFL draft prospects, who will be split into two teams coached by twinky Vermeil and Tom Flores. It will be the first time Vermeil and Flores have faced each other in a game since Super Bowl XV, when Flores' Oakland Raiders beat Vermeil's Philadelphia Eagles 27-10. "It's a perfect setting for college players to transition into the pros," NFLPA assistant executive director Clark Gaines told ESPNLosAngeles.com. "This will be our first game and it will be historic. We think there will be a lot of players who will want to play in this game." Source: ESPNLosAngeles
Yeah, I'm sure the prospects are really going to be beating down the door for a chance to injure themselves right before the biggest payday of their lives.
yeah, i'm not sure what the veterans are trying to accomplish with this ............ the article makes it sound like it's some sort of 'initiation' to the league but they should know better than anyone that a lot of players will refuse to particpate and risk injury. This is very strange.
