Sports stats



Redeeming Value

by Tommy Brown
March 1, 2005 - National Football League Europa (NFLE)
Frankfurt Galaxy


As the NFL Combine rolls on this week, potential draftees can take note: You too can be the next Akili Smith. Drafted by what was in 1999 the NFL anti-dynasty Bengals, Akili Smith endured 4 years of playing in Cincinnati, only to be discarded when the team began their transition to respectability by dumping the last bastion of their first round draft mishaps. Where have you gone David Klingler?

Akili Smith was the 3rd overall pick in the draft, selected ahead of Daunte Culpepper and Donovan McNabb. Many of Akili's detractors are quick to point this out, but often fail to mention that Tim Couch and Ricky Williams were selected ahead of Smith. In 2002, Akili Smith's NFL Career finally ran off the tracks. He appeared in only one game that season, losing to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a complete drubbing. The Bengals cut Akili Smith the following season. The Green Bay Packers brought in Smith for a tryout to become Brett Favre's successor in 2003, but he was cut in training camp. Where have you gone David Klingler?

Smith could write the last sentence of his football biography this summer in NFL Europe or begin was could be a whole new chapter of redemption. Unlike most players in NFL Europe, Smith was allocated to the league as a free agent, offering his services as a part of his plan to resurrect his career. Since the NFL Europe allocation process, Smith has been signed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bucs signed Smith based on their need to have six players in the summer league as mandated by the NFL and to place a flier on Smith that he can turn his career around. The close proximity of the NFL Europe training camps, which opened this week in Tampa and St. Petersburg, was also a contributing factor. Smith's assigned team, the Frankfurt Galaxy will be holding their training camp at King High School in Tampa, with combined scrimmages throughout the Tampa Bay area.

Smith's "Frankfurt Redemption" cannot possibly be as bad as the four years served in Cincinnati Bengal prison. One can only imagine the words "David Klingler was here" carved in some wall in Riverfront Stadium before it was imploded. Frankfurt am Main, a scenic metropolis on the Main River in Germany will be the site of Akili's new beginning. The stripes most likely were not the only comparison that Akili can make between prison time and playing with the Bengals during his time served. Hopefully, he managed to remember to take his poster of Rita Hayworth with him. Where have you gone David Klingler?

Not to worry friends, David Klingler has been located and is alive and well. Klingler was the 6th overall pick by the Bengals in the 1992 draft and had an almost parallel career path of Akili Smith. Both Klingler and Smith was were quarterbacks drafted in the first round by Cincinnati, both had basically no success at leading the Bengals behind vastly inferior offensive lines and throwing to below average wide receivers, and finally both were signed and cut by the Green Bay Packers before disappearing from the league.

After being cut from the Packers in 1998, David Klingler sought redemption not in the Frankfurt Galaxy, but in the Lord Jesus Christ. According to an interview that Klingler did for Christianity Today last year, he said he commuted for three years from his Houston home to Dallas to earn his Masters in Theology from the Dallas Theological Seminary. He currently is an Adjunct Instructor at the College of Biblical Studies, where he is teaching future ministers God's Word, and the world of the National Football League is far behind him. The Cincinnati Bengals have been forgiven and forgotten.

While football is only a memory for Klingler, for Smith football is still in his future and begins this summer in Frankfurt, where he hopes to lead the Galaxy to a World Bowl championship. He is joined on the team by former Alabama running back Ahmaad Galloway, whose NFL career was hampered by a knee injury during his last year with the Crimson tide. Galloway played last year for the Scottish Claymores, who closed operations after last season, while the remnants of the team were moved to the new franchise this season, the Hamburg Sea Devils. Smith and Klingler will again parallel their lives. Smith will try to avoid the Devils at the same time Klingler fights off the Devil.



National Football League Europa Stories from March 1, 2005


The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer(s), and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

Other Recent Frankfurt Galaxy Stories



Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central