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Are the Outlaws to go Legal?
Draft day drama doesn't often get associated with the Wichita Outlaws, but yesterdays 1st round of the IFL draft saw unprecedented confusion as the Outlaws thought they had drafted strong safety Cory Yates at 1.30 only to end up with free safety Horace Strong!
The day had started with Wichita holding the 1.14 pick in the eagerly awaited draft, but with ukpatfan away on an ill timed family vacation, the team traded down with the Lansing Ogres and aquired a handful of picks including the 1.30 spot.
It was anticipated that Wichita were looking to draft a safety to replace recently retired SS Henry Dockray and initial thoughts were that Michigan 's Ethan Riley might be the target at 1.14.
However, as Riley was snapped up by the Mules at 1.9 and the Outlaws traded down, it became clear that other targets were on the radar.
Highly rated Fresno State SS Levon Elliott was grabbed by the Demons at 1.19 and it was clear that Wichita would take one of the top two safeties remaining on the board.
The choice would come down to SS Cory Yates or FS Horace Strong.
This is were the draft briefly seemed to morph into a scene from Back to the Future as the Outlaws submitted their draft card bearing the name Cory Yates only for the Commissioner to announce Horace Strong as the Outlaws 1.30 pick.
Confusion reigned, but with ukpatfan uncontactable in the UK, the Outlaws draft reps in New York could only scratch their heads and wonder why it felt like they were in an episode of the X-Files.
Just who was running the Outlaws War Room?
Only as the draft moved on into the mid 2nd round did ukpatfan realise what had transpired:
"I woke up in my UK residence as the butler brought me my usual full English breakfast with muffins and I spat my tea all over the Times when I took the call from the Outlaws headquarters.
WTF! How the hell do you confuse Strong for Yates!!
I know they were similarly rated players at the same position but come on....
I immediately made some calls and it became clear there had been a mix up by the Commissioner. We're all human I guess.
The Lawrence GM explained the snafu to me.
It seems that the Commissioner fired a warning shot at the prime time posturing by the Dakota GM.
Dakota were buzzed a 5 minute warning to "Make a pick - you dick" and as soon as they had their card in, Wichita's card also went in with Yate's name on it.
However, the warning shot had been just that...a warning....and the draft was moved back to allow Dakota to make their considered choice.
As a reult, Yates names was not on the board as Wichita were compelled to submit their card for a 2nd time and second choice Strong became an Outlaw.
Not an ideal situation to be frank.
We are lucky in that Strong and Yates were of pretty much equal talent and that there were two safeties on the board rather than one, but it could have had unwelcome consequences for the franchise.
We will welcome Horace to the team and we're glad to have him but we feel the franchise has been unneccesarily embarrassed and I am fuming.
I'm not looking for a re-run or to take legal action or anything so drastic - the draft has moved on now and we accept that, but I do feel that Wichita are viewed as the sleepy little insignificant team in the middle of no-where.
Well, tell your readers this....slights like this are a great motivator and will actually spur this franchise on to greater things.
We're determined to gain some respect in this league and Horace Strong will be a visible and daily reminder of where we've come from and where we're headed to!"
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