A Brief Conversation With Mike Mamula

This morning I had a brief chat with everybody's favorite (OK, my favorite) ex-Philadelphia Eagles and draft day legend Mike Mamula. Surprisingly, even though his name is brought up during practically every NFL draft analysis, he hasn't received any phone calls this week.

"No, just you, A.J."

He says that he does actually watch the draft "as much as he can," just to see who the Eagles have picked and who "everyone will be complaining about."

I told him that Ohio State's Vernon Gholston has been tagged the next Mike Mamula by some draft pundits.

"Oh, white guy?"

"No," I said, "He's black."

"Yeaaaaaaaaah...," Mamula responded, in a way that suggested he would be asking for a high-five right now if I were standing in front of him.

Mamula did admit that he's pleased that there are more stories about how his label as a "bust" is a little unfair and said that he was very happy with Michael David Smith's piece for the New York Times' Fifth Down blog.

"There was one on Fox, too..."

Regardless, Mamula doesn't dread this time of year as much as one would think and he says, almost mock jokingly, that any team that would pick a "Mike Mamula-type player" would be "great pick."

He doesn't get sick of the fact that his name is brought up thousands of times every April.

"It's nice to be remembered for something. That's all you can ask for, right?"

Right.