Same old Ivy draft pick

In this weekend's NFL Draft, one Ivy League player, Brown's Zak DeOssie, was taken in the fourth round, at 116 overall, by the New York Giants. (To see his NFL Network profile by Quakers basketball broadcasting legend Scott Graham, and complete with two nasty hits on Princeton QB Jeff Terrell, go to giants.com and click on the multimedia on the right side of the page.) And while there is usually one Ivy player who gets picked, a few as high as third- or fourth-rounders, the DeOssie pick has a lot of historical links.

Zak's father, Steve, was also a fourth-round pick by the Patriots at 110th pick overall, just six spots before where his son would go. Also, Zak was selected by New York, the team with which Steve won the 1990 Super Bowl.

Also, he will (provided he gets signed) play with former Penn runningback Jim Finn. DeOssie mainly keeps in contact with the former Bears in the NFL, wideouts Sean Morey (Arizona) and Chas Gessner (Tampa Bay), but said last week that he would be thrilled to play with Finn. "That would be hilarious," DeOssie said. "All the Ivy League guys know all the others in the League."

With the fourth-round selection, the Giants have now taken two Ivy Leaguers in the last six years -- a different Quakers star, center Jeff Hatch in 2002.

I guess the New York Giants go together with Penn football just as well as, well, New Yorkers going to Penn.