Tight end Brian Mandeville was all set up to be this year's "beating the odds" story at the NFL draft. He played for a lousy I-AA school, missed a third of his senior season with knee injuries, and even survived a brain tumor while in college. Still, amazingly, he got an invite to the NFL combine. He hired an agent and started working out to prepare for his one shot to impress the NFL scouts. Then he showed up in Indianapolis for his "routine" physical ... and doctors at the combine discovered that he has a heart valve condition that should keep him from ever playing football again.

Yeah, that sucks. The condition is not life-threatening, but he will never get drafted by an NFL team now. At least he didn't get his hopes up or anything....

Doctors advise TE prospect Mandeville to retire (heart ailment) [SI]
Brian Mandeville on minds [Boston Herald]
The Sad Story Of Tight End Brian Mandeville [Shutdown Corner]
Combining hope, angst [Boston Globe]

What started on Saturday as a mysterious disappearance then morphed into the more troublesome "character issues," which has, according to some experts, knocked the 6'4", 332-lb.* Smith from a possible top-five pick to the bottom of the first round. CNBC's Darren Rovell does some fuzzy math and estimates that Smith's overall financial loss due to his behavior is somewhere in the $23.8 million ballpark. Even though Smith is currently in damage-control mode, it appears unless he drops 30 pounds, jumps out of a pool, and suddenly gains the eloquent humility of Myron Rolle, the dude legitimately pissed on a boatload of cash and credibility.

"I'm dropping him down on my list," NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock told ProFootballTalk.com. "You don't show up in shape for the biggest job interview of your life. You don't lift. You don't run. You don't show up. It's the worst thing you can do. How can you not show up in shape for this?"

Right now, Smith may be projected to drop to 28th, which is the current draft position for the Philadelphia Eagles, who are planning to refurbish their offensive line this year. But the Eagles are fully-stocked with flaky, underwhelming offensive linemen at this point, so it would be surprising if they actually bit on this guy.

Andre Smith Is The Biggest Loser [CNBC]

Outsports editor Jim Buzinski's heart is all aflutter thanks to the generous helpings of 22-year-old man-meat "in Under Armour running, jumping, throwing and bench-pressing all as NFL scouts evaluate them for the upcoming draft like so many head of cattle." And much to his surprise, the combine drills get an added dash of sweat-soaked color thanks to the homo-erotic commentating of Rich Eisen and Mike Maycock:

I loved this exchange between Rich Eisen and Mike Mayock, gushing over the body of tight end prospect Dan Gronkowski (photo), a 6-6, 255-pound prospect from the University of Maryland (who benched 225 pounds for 26 reps). As Gronkowski ran his 40-yard dash, it went like this:

Eisen: "He's huge, he's a monster!"
Mayock: "He's all carved up. … I told the ladies on the staff that they might want to get a look at Tight End, Dash 8." Eight was Gronkowski's combine number.

As they went to commercial, they was a shot of Gronkowski running in slow motion, causing Eisen to say: "The flowing locks of Gronkowski."

Congratulations go to Dan Gronkowski: Impressing the scouts during this crucial time in a young player's life is commendable, but to also inject the NFL's Homosexual Fan Nation with a dose of Jeremy Bloom-level agog is almost equally important.

NFL's Fleshfest Is A Feast For The Eyes [Outsports]

• Runningbacks are fast! Darren McFadden just offered up a big "fuck you" to all the people whispering about his falling stock and lack of strength in the form of a 4.27 40. He can jog on his second attempt and still beat everybody. Of course other guys have represented themselves pretty well. Jonathan Stewart and Rashard Mendenhall both posted solid times in their first go around. Of course every rule has an exception, and Mike Hart is that exception.

• Big guys are strong! Jake Long's hands are fucking huge. He managed to wrap them around five rubber molds of John Holmes' phallus. Nobody else has every gripped more than three. He also put up more bench reps than any other lineman and ran an excellent 40, but how often are offensive tackles really going to need upper body strength?

• Runningbacks are fast! pt. 2! Mendenhall just ran a 4.37. Scouts still like the whole size/speed combo, right?

• Quarterbacks are quarterbacky! Delaware Joe Flacco is getting all sorts of love around the facility for his big arm, his size, and his surprising speed. Peter King was impressed with his charisma and his essence of whimsy. Meanwhile, Colt Brennan has been mistaken for a ball boy on several non-consecutive occasions.

Or, in Mamula's case, Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks, who were the picks the Buccaneers ended up getting after the Eagles traded up to get The Workout Warrior. (Jesus...)

But wait! Yasinskas makes a hard left turn in his dump-on-Mamula story by pointing out to grouchy Eagles fans that Mamula wasn't that much of a bust. But wait! Is Yasinskas just aping Eagles beat writer Reuben Frank's own Mamula story from last year to make this point? But wait...more Mamula! Fox Sports' rat packy Peter Schrager unveils his his own Mamula story which even delves further into Mamulalocity at the NFL combine.

As we get closer to the combine, is the mainstream sports media in jeopardy of falling into, dare I say... a Mamula Overload? We shall see.

And these guys didn't even have to head to a Lonestar Steakhouse in Voorhees to get their stories.

Combine star Mamula was burdened by high expectations [ESPN]

Watching this, it's hard to imagine that scouts draw any kind of conclusions from what happens here. I hope their ultimate decisions are made by a combination of about 95% game tape, 5% combine numbers. The whole thing is fairly boring, with the monotony interrupted from time to time by moments of weirdness. One of the offensive linemen, while everyone else was wearing loose black shorts, insisted on going through an agility drill in light gray boxer briefs. Unsightly. I think you'd have to be a reeeeally big NFL fan to watch and enjoy this.

One guy did manage to steal a little bit of the show. The coach who was in charge of runnng the bench press made a habit of standing over them and screaming while they benched. He called a bald guy "Uncle Fester," called a ponytailed guy "Pocahontas," called an Italian guy "paisan," and said to another guy, "I see the mullett. I see it. Yeah, that's gonna come back."

Combine to get most extensive coverage ever [NFL Network]