Weeden, 28, hopes NFL team don’t pass over old passer
INDIANAPOLIS — Brandon Weeden knows better than to search for a hint on which team might pick him in the NFL draft.
The Oklahoma State quarterback — at 28, the oldest player at the scouting combine — has experienced this draft stuff before.
Weeden was the New York Yankees’ first pick (71st overall ) in the 2002 Major League Baseball amateur draft.
“It just takes one team,” Weeden said. “I was drafted by the Yankees, and they were the only team that didn’t come to the house (for a predraft visit).”
Baseball didn’t work out. Weeden toiled for five years in the minor league systems of the Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers and Kansas City Royals before restarting his football career.
As a starter the last two seasons, he posted back-to-back 4,000-yard campaigns with 71 touchdowns and 26 interceptions combined. He’s projected as a middle-round pick.
But he also knows that his age fuels questions. Weeden is older than roughly half of the NFL’S starting quarterbacks, including NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers.
“I can’t do an interview without being asked about my age,” Weeden said. “There could be a lot worse things I could get asked about. That’s really the only knock on me, my age. So I take it and run with it. I can change a lot of things. But I can’t change my birth certificate.”
He knows there are prece- dents. Weeden reeled off names of quarterbacks who began their NFL careers while in their late 20s, including Roger Staubach, Kurt Warner and Chris Weinke.
“I think my body’s extremely fresh,” Weeden says. “No inju- ries. I’m healthy. I think I’ve got a lot left in my tank. Those guys played until their late 30s. A 10-year career in the NFL is a great career. I think I’ve got every bit of that. Barring injury, I can play for a long time.”
Peyton playing:
Center Jeff Saturday says longtime Indianapolis Colts teammate Peyton Manning will recover from his neck injury and play in 2012.
“He’s my guy, so I communicate with him regularly,” said Saturday, who has played with Manning since 1999. “He’ll be playing football, I can assure you that. I hope it’s here, but he’ll be playing somewhere.”
Saturday is among the Colts’ prominent free agents, along with wide receiver Reggie Wayne and defensive end Robert Mathis, but he offered advice to the team’s new front office.
“If I’m the Colts and I have interest in Peyton, I’m calling him up to get him to come throw for me,” he said. “I’m not going to wait for him to decide to walk in and throw.”
Owens returns to field:
Terrell Owens caught three touchdown passes Saturday in his return to pro football, helping the Allen Wranglers to a 50-30 victory vs. the Wichita Wild in an Indoor Football League game in Allen, Texas.
Owens, who says he hopes to return to the NFL after missing the 2011 season as he recovered from a torn anterior cruciate ligament in a knee, has an ownership stake in the Wranglers and is scheduled to play only home games. The 38-year-old would leave the Wranglers if an NFL team signs him.
“I thought I did all right,” Owens said. “I think we should have had more points on the board.”