With the 51st pick in the MLS Draft, the Chicago Fire selected University of California forward, Davis Paul. According to the SB Nation MLS Mock Draft, the Fire might have gotten a steal here. Burgundy Wave writer Chris 'Uz' White selected Davis Paul with the 36th overall pick when his Colorado Rapids were on the clock. WVHooligan's Drew Epperley liked the pick as well with both White and Epperley noting it was a move towards the future and the fact that the MLS schedule will feature more games this year (34 vs. 30 last year) and thus more rotating lineups. However, Colorado is coming off a MLS Cup Championship with top strikers Conor Casey and Omar Cummings in place. On the other hand, the Chicago Fire are paper thin at forward and a strong pre-season could land Davis Paul a sub or even a starter role with the first team. A top signing of a forward or two could still be in the works but right now the only ones standing in the way are Nery Castillo, fellow University of California grad Calen Carr, and recent draftee Jason Herrick (more on him later).
Who is this Davis Paul guy though? I gotta be honest, my first impression was not all that great. More on that after the break.
I found a profile piece on Davis Paul from The Daily Californian that did not create a good first impression.
No one knows where Davis Paul is.
It's a week before the CIF soccer tournament, and he's late for practice-really late.
The coach keeps asking if anybody has seen him. No one has.
Thirty minutes later, he finally shows up. Coach breathes a sigh of relief. Not so fast. Paul's arm is in a sling. He's limping. As it turns out, Davis has a concussion, a torn rotator cuff, and his face looks like he was on the bad end of a beat down.
"What the (expletive) happened to you?" Coach asks.
Paul doesn't lie.
"Snowboarding," he says.
Combined with the picture in his university profile, I thought the Chicago Fire had just drafted your stereotypical California surfer type who loves life but doesn't love to work. His last quote in the article did everything to cement that thought.
"I want to say soccer, but I wouldn't mind snowboarding every day for the rest of my life," Paul says. "I love the fall because of soccer and everything.
"But I'm over running, that's for sure."
He shows up late to practice after getting injured? He would rather snowboard and he doesn't like to run? All someone had to do was point out the Collins John/Davis Paul first name/last name thing going on and I was thinking, great we lost CJ2 but now we have CJ Part 2.
I started warming to the prospect of him being on the team starting today. For starters, he is now following Hot Time In Old Town on Twitter at @davis_paul. Here at HTIOT, we are not above being shameless and liking us on Facebook and/or following us on Twitter will definitely give you some points. More seriously, the Fire posted a video that Davis created using his UofC soccer teammates as the cast.
March through October is a long season filled with boring routine. Without some distraction, the practices, games, and training sessions get pretty boring or even worse - pretty tense. If Paul can provide some light distraction to the players that are 'still right here', I'm all for it. You rarely read about teams that win where teammates don't get along. It seems that it is always better for guys to be laid back rather than uptight all the time. That video was not just a one time thing either, check out his Vimeo page. That's good stuff. As I type, Paul is also asking people on Twitter about the weather in Chicago and talking about how he is going to need a coat. As I proof this, I see Jalil Anibaba and Davis Paul are already talking on Twitter. I like this. You will be seeing me write more about this term later, but Chicago Fire 2.0 is starting to take shape. I'm starting to like what I see but don't think we'll be laying off that 'over running' thing. On the side of the coin, train hard and give your all on the field and you'll have no bigger defenders than the cf97 fans of Tradition.Honor.Passion. and Stand and Deliver. Welcome to the Chicago Fire Davis, once you get down the Chicago spirit and most importantly purchase a strong winter coat, I think your stay might just be long and successful.