Milk Carton All-Star of the Week: Mike Mamula

The 2011 NFL Combine wrapped up its proceedings a couple days ago, with a couple people putting on a clinic(Alabama's Julio Jones, Texas A&M linebacker Von Miller) and a couple doing their best Fergie impression and winding up tripping....stumbling....Anyway, guys who rise at the Combine and go from zero to hero seemingly overnight seem to bring up the name of a cautionary tale of taking a guy based solely on an impressive workout. This week, we re-hash that man's story for the Milk Carton All-Star of the Week.

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Mike Mamula was a linebacker for the better half of his college career at Boston College. After redshirting his first year and missing the second to injury, he exploded onto the scene at linebacker as junior, racking up 84 tackles and 11 sacks in BC's 3-4 defense. For his senior season, BC moved to the then-more-conventional 4-3 defense and stuck Mamula at defensive end. That didn't stop him from tallying 73 tackles and 17 sacks(four of them against Kansas State in the Aloha Bowl). Mamula followed up that impressive senior season by absolutely dominating the 1995 NFL Combine. He managed 26 reps of the bench press(225lbs), outdoing All-World offensive tackle Tony Boselli. He ran a 4.58 in the 40, which would even be impressive now in 2011 and was jaw-dropping back in the 90's when defensive ends ran like elephants. Mamula added a 49 out of 50 on his Wonderlic to top things off.

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That performance caught the eye of the Philadelphia Eagles. Needing a defensive end after having watched Reggie White jump to Green Bay a couple years prior, the Eagles traded their first round pick(12th overall) and two second-rounders to Tampa Bay to move up five spots to select Mamula. The guy the Bucs ended up with at #12? Some defensive tackle out of "The U" named Warren Sapp. Perhaps you've heard of him. Other guys Philly passed up on by taking Mamula: Ty Law, Derrick Brooks(also taken by Tampa that same year, after a trade with Dallas), Hugh Douglas(who would end up being bigger star in Philly, after a few years with the Jets, than Mamula ever was) and the late Korey Stringer. Mamula only made it five years in the NFL, notching 31.5 sacks in a career derailed by injuries and ineffectiveness. His best season was in 1999, where he had 8.5 sacks and a pick-6 of Kurt Warner in the final game of the season.

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Sapp, meanwhile, finished his career with 96.5 sacks, a Super Bowl ring, 7 Pro Bowls and won the Defensive Player of the Year the same year that Mamula had his "breakout season". He's also a sure-fire Hall of Famer and regarded as the best defensive tackle of the last two decades. Oops. Lucky for Mamula, modern day fans now have Vernon Gholston to put the "workout warrior" stigma on. Gholston, like Mamula, put on a show at the 2008 Combine, notching 37 reps in the bench press and running a 4.58 40 as well. The Jets took Gholston with the 6th overall pick hoping to have grabbed the Gang Green version of Lawrence Taylor. Instead, they got a physical freak who couldn't get to the quarterback if he had a GPS and couldn't bring him down with a lasso. In three seasons, Gholston ratcheted up 38 tackles and 0...count 'em...ZERO....sacks. A couple days ago, the Jets decided to cut ties with its big-time bust after just three years.

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So, let's give a round of applause for the NFL Draft's cautionary whale.....Mike Mamula, everybody!