"In the past few weeks, I have learned a lifetime of lessons ... The first step in meeting these goals is for me to stop making the poor choices that have put me in this position."

Wait, does this mean no more birthday parties. Along those lines, to a lesser extent, Mario Williams has "apologized" for that whole car racing incident that we told you about earlier this week. Though we, frankly, don't believe his explanation.

Williams says he was not racing or driving much faster than the posted speed limit on Interstate 40. In the video, another driver, who also taped the incident, asked Williams if he raced the Lamborghini, and Williams stated clearly that he does not. "It was a stupid thing to do, and I apologize to the fans, the organization and my teammates for not being smart," Williams told the Chronicle on Thursday night. "I shouldn't have put myself in that situation, and I have definitely learned my lesson."

If Williams was going the speed limit in that video, then the rotation of the earth has dramatically slowed.

Pac Man Jones Writes Open Letter To Fans [NFL.com]
Williams Apologizes For Racing Video [Houston Chronicle]
Mario Williams: Fast, Not That Furious [Deadspin]

It sure looks and sounds like Mario Williams, and not too many people have that burnt orange ride made so famous this past weekend at the NC State Red & White game. Stick with the video, about half way through the camera switches to "chase view", you'll see the Lambo dart off the screen speeding past traffic. I'm sure the Texans would really love to see this video. The car-cam footage could be spliced from some other race, who knows, but if this video is all the way legit...oh boy, there could be some trouble. Should be interesting to see whether or not this gets picked up by the NFL conduct policy obsessed mainstream outlets.

We figure the video is probably gone from the Internets for good, and it probably wasn't a good idea to post it in the first place. But we suppose if Vince Young can have the cover of Madden 08, Mario Williams can shoot for Gran Turismo.

Mario Williams Racing His Ride Down I-40? [850: The Buzz]
Video Of Mario Williams Racing His Lamborghini [The Fanhouse]

(UPDATE: The Big Lead now has the video.)

The draft has officially begun... the Texans are on the clock with 15 minutes, and we'll see how much of it they use to select Mario Lopez... er, Williams. Hopefully, as soon as this really gay catwalk intro is done. I think that was designed specifically for Matt Leinart.

And here's MDS on the opening of the draft festivities:

Greetings from Deadspin NFL Draft Central, where we've got ESPN on one TV and NFL Network on the other. Can Mike Mayock overtake Mel Kiper Jr. as the alpha male of the draft? We'll find out over the next several hours.

Yes, you heard right: The Texans really are passing on Reggie Bush. This shows, once again, why mock drafts are fun, but they're horriblyinaccurate and wrong more than 90 percent of the time. Art Bietz examined 36 mock drafts in 2003: and found that only one of them got more than five picks right. The official Web site of Mel Kiper claims, "Mel's in-depth knowledge of the nation's most talented collegiate football players has enabled him to accurately predict as much as 80 percent of first-round draft selections."

But that's nonsense; no one predicts 80 percent of first-round draft selections.

So we'll have some fun this afternoon, but we won't claim we know what the hell is going on. During the NFL draft, no one does.

1. Houston Texans: Mario Williams, DE, North Carolina State Williams' nickname is Super Mario. Last year, the first defensive player taken was cornerback Pacman Jones. This is a very good sign for the draft prospects of University of Miami junior linebacker Frogger Johnson. We're going to hear countless comparisons of Williams to Sam Bowie, the player the Portland Trail Blazers chose in the 1984 draft right before the Chicago Bulls took Michael Jordan. But even if Bush does become a great player, Williams will be more like Akeem Olajuwon (whom the Houston Rockets took first overall in 1984) than Sam Bowie. Sure, if Houston had it to do all over again, they'd rather have Jordan, but they're plenty happy with their decision to take Olajuwon, who led them to two championships. Even if Bush is great, Texans fans won't be disappointed with Williams.

If you needed any more proof that anyone who says they know anything about the NFL Draft is full of horse manure, the Houston Texans have signed a deal with North Carolina State defensive end Mario Williams to make him the No. 1 pick in tomorrow's draft.

In case you were wondering how much of a shock this was ... look around other sites right now. You won't find a SINGLE mock draft linked off the front page. And why would you? Nobody's had time to even account for this yet, and besides ... every draft "expert" is drunk at 10:30 p.m. anyway.

Enjoy the draft and MJD and MDS tomorrow. It'll be fun to watch them process all this. We're going back to bed now. See you Monday.

Texans To Draft Williams [ESPN]