Hooooo boy it might not almost be football, but it's only one week til game week! And that's a thing! I'm excited, it's about to be Lots-of-posts City USA population one up in this piece. That might be the dumbest sentence I ever wrote, so, let's keep it movin!
No. 12, Cermak Bland, RS Freshman, WR
Who he be: Cermak is a walk-on with arguably the best name on the Wildcats. The "Cermak" - SIR MACK - comes from his great-great-grandfather, Anton Cermak, the mayor of Chicago for whom some stuff in Chi-town is named after, sadly best known for being the guy who died in an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Franklin Delano Roosevelt. (Or, it might have been an assassination attempt on Cermak with mob backing, but the truth died with an Italian assassin in the 1930's.) The Bland comes from Cermak's passion for the mildest of things, like Northwestern football. Bland is either a running back or wide receiver, and played scout team QB for Northwestern in the run-up to the Army game.
Ain't no love: Bobby "Blue" Bland was anything but. In the 21st century, Bland is best known for providing the Kanye West sample to Jay-Z's "Heart Of The City", but you should listen to the original:
As for the Hov song, the sample isn't Kanye's most artful - he pretty much just swipes the horn section, chorus, and other elements from the song with little alteration - but ma lawd, is it VICIOUS:
It also isn't Jay-Z's most artful rhyming. But it's swagger supreme: a guy undisputedly the best and most popular rapper in the game at the time the song was released, well aware of it, and acting like it, like he was ten miles past the competition. A hands-down hip-hop classic.
Looking forward: NU doesn't play any option teams this year, so :( for Cermak.