Everybody wants the fame and glitz that comes with being
considered an All-American. Everybody's All-American
— that is a title that demands attention. While it seems
that everyone who's anyone has an All-American of some
sorts, from fast food chains having All-American burgers
to even foreign auto dealers’ ads claiming "It's the All
American vehicle;" nothing rings truer to a sports fan
than hearing that their favorite player is an
All-American. Being labeled an All-American football
player means something.
It
doesn't necessarily mean you are going to be the next Joe
Montana or the next Dick Butkus. It does however mean that
you have excelled in college football, and have made a
name for yourself as one of the best college players of
your day. Thousands and thousands of young men play at
the college level every year, from high profile Division 1
programs to most tiny and obscure Division III schools.
What it boils down to is that an All-American is a great
college athlete, regardless of whether or not it stops
there.
The
2001 Heisman Trophy winner is a great example — Eric
Crouch, a terrific college quarterback for the University
of Nebraska, holds numerous Nebraska Cornhusker records
and NCAA records as well as. He was an electrifying
quarterback at the college level, but his talent though
did not translate to the NFL in the minds of NFL scouts.
He wasn't drafted until the 3rd round by the St. Louis
Rams and they wanted him to play defensive back, not
quarterback. That same year however, David Carr gets
drafted first by the Houston Texans. His talent was
evaluated and considered to be NFL-caliber. He didn't win
the Heisman, yet was drafted first overall, well ahead of
Crouch. The examples could go on and on, but what it
boils down to is that All-American is a collegiate award,
not necessarily a professional prognostication.
There
are so many talented college football players it's really
very difficult to narrow it down to the starters on both
sides of the ball and special teams. We at
Drafboardinsider.com have finally compiled our preseason
list of candidates for our 2004 All-American team. This
is a preseason list mind you, and of course, we’ll have
our final All-American roster solidified by the end of the
2004 season. We've done our homework, pooling our
collective insights together to come up with our chosen
athletes.
It's
hard enough deciding on just 25 football players who make
the cut as All-Americans, let alone deciphering who has
the talent to compete at the next level. To ease any
confusion and save people from going into respiratory
arrest because a particular All-American we’ve chosen
might not appear to be the next NFL superstar, we've
decided to provide a side-by-side list in order to
contrast our All-American candidates with the players our
scouting director has ranked as the top athletes and
having the best shot at being drafted first at their
position.
Congratulations to the following preseason favorites at
their respective positions for being selected to our first
annual preseason consensus All-American team at Draftboardinsider.com:
2004 Preseason DraftBoardInsider.com All-America Team
