The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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C olumn topics sometimes surface in the strangest ways. This, for example, is the result of watch- ing "That Thing You Do," a Tom Hanks movie about the fleeting success of a 1950s rock band, while writing the weekly Michigan in the Pros piece that recaps the weekends of former Wolverines in the NFL for our website, The- Wolverine.com. "A hit record is like a stew," manager Phil Horace says in the movie. "All the ingre- dients have to come together just right. Oth- erwise, it's just soup." Those ingredients have to be pretty good, too — who wants to eat stew (or even soup) with below average meat, after all? The movie ended at 10:30. Several minutes later, the Sunday night up- dates were finished. What used to take all night in the late 1990s, when there were upwards of 40 former Wolverines to track, took less than an hour. And while there are a few standouts, the disparity between now and 18 years ago is striking. In 2003, the oldest column remain- ing on file on the office computer, there were still 33 Michigan men in the pros. Tom Brady was just coming into his own as New England's starting quarterback. There were four impactful tight ends alone, with a fifth in Bennie Joppru who would have been had he not been hurt. Offensive linemen, linebackers, defensive backs, wide receivers — every posi- tion was covered. Twelve years later, Brady is the headliner of the bunch with Charles Woodson perhaps No. 2. One is a 15-year NFL veteran, and the other is vying to become one of two men ever to play defensive back in the league over the age of 40. Of the 24 Wolverines now on NFL rosters, only five started for their teams in week one. Three were on the practice squad, and only one from the last five years — Tennessee tackle Taylor Lewan, who started in a 42-14 win at Tampa Bay — made a significant impact for his team. For comparison's sake, 25 players who INSIDE MICHIGAN CHRIS BALAS A Great Team Is Like A Stew … Te n n e s s e e T i t a n s o f f e n s i v e tackle Taylor Lewan is the only former Wolverine from the past five years to make a significant impact for his NFL team. PHOTO COURTESY TENNESSEE TITANS