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Chang isn’t about
hype anyway

SO Tim Chang did not get drafted. So that's fine.

Waiting all weekend without the phone ringing doesn't take anything away from those nights at Aloha Stadium, it doesn't erase all the little kids who looked up to him and believed in him and screamed with him and cried for him. All the old ladies who saw their grandsons in him don't mind.

All those early mornings with his teammates on the grass in the sun still happened. All the touchdowns still count. All those huddles, looking everyone in the eye.

So the DVD said he'd be a top pick and then the phone never rang. So what? Tim Chang was never about all that hype. People connected with him because of who he was, not because of any of the glitter or the tinsel or the flashing lights. It was the guy underneath they saw. Same thing here.

He never fit in that box of overheated superlatives. So he was a good college player. For him, that was more than enough.

He was special as a person. So I guess he still is.

Maybe real life starts now, and you get the feeling he probably wouldn't mind. Maybe he pulls off a free-agent miracle, and that would be pretty cool, too.

So go play, Timmy. No worries now, no pressure, no hype. Just show up and go out there and throw the football. Nothing to lose.

Free at last.

Just play football, play until they tap you on the shoulder and you can't play any more.

Then take a look around, let the memories soak over you. And steal a practice jersey.

» OK. Chad Owens has been drafted, and now everything is right with the world. Everybody's feeling pretty good.

Did you see the picture by our new guy, Jamm Aquino, in yesterday's paper? Great picture. It captured the feeling of the moment. It showed us the ending of a great story.

» The NFL is not the Next Level. Not if you're UH.

What they're doing over at Boise State, that is the Next Level.

That may be an uncomfortable idea to have to deal with. I like to think of myself as a college football purist, and just typing that sentence kind of freaks me out.

Boise State?

Yes. Averaging 11 wins a season under Dan Hawkins, top-15 three years in a row, perennial conference champion Boise State.

And how many draft choices did they have this year? None. How many draft choices last year? None. How many BSU players have been taken in the NFL Draft in Hawkins' four years there? Well, I would have to look that up and get back to you.

(Editor's note: It's three, none higher than the fifth round.)

I don't know how you compete against that, but that's exactly what UH has to do.

» The Fresno Bee's excellent columnist John Branch, on the demise of the closest bowl game and how that affects the local team: "If Fresno State finishes an upcoming season and the only bowl that would have shown interest in the Bulldogs would have been the defunct Silicon Valley Classic, well, maybe that Fresno State team didn't really deserve a bowl bid."

» OK, more from the department of trying to get someone else to do the work for me, Branch, later in the column, on the prospect that Fresno State should respond to the situation by creating a new game based in Fresno: "No real college football program has its own bowl, played mostly to give the home team a postseason option.

"That's podunk."

» I can feel the e-mails swarming my way already. That's "Branch." B-R-A ...

» If you're looking for a sportswriter to be happy with, there's humorist and occasional ESPN TV guy Norman Chad, on his thoughts during the draft: "Sophocles. Da Vinci. Churchill. Timmy Chang. You heard me."

» You think it isn't an epidemic? Now my cat is on steroids.

"These can become addictive," the veterinarian said.

That's all I need. Marion Jones' ex-husband hanging around the house. Delivering "Little Friskies."

» Don't worry. I know how to handle it. We're telling the cat it's flaxseed oil.

» It's about time UH asked for proposals for the rights to televise Hawaii sports. I plan to make a pitch, with myself as play-by-play voice. I'm currently taking applications for color commentator.

Our call letters will be K-DEN.