Former Broncos Jennings, Delmas on Pro Bowl ballot

By Eric Woodyard
Western Herald

Although the current football team at Western Michigan University (4-6) may not be doing as well as fans had envisioned at this point in the season, the university has two professionals who are picking up the slack.

WMU graduates Greg Jennings, Green Bay Packers receiver, and Louis Delmas, Detroit Lions safety, are putting up impressive numbers in the NFL. With their amount of success in the professional setting this season, WMU’s athletics department has launched an aggressive campaign in an attempt to get more voters for their selection into this year’s Pro Bowl game in South Florida on Jan. 31, 2010.

“With Greg, he had the numbers to get in the Pro Bowl last year and he’s been a consistent receiver for Green Bay since he got (there), “ said Mat Kanan, WMU Athletic Media Relations Director.

“And I think he’s quickly becoming equal to, if not surpassing, Donald Driver as the primary target and he’s everything good about football. He gets up after he gets knocked down and he’s smiling, he scores a touchdown and he’s smiling, he misses a catch and he’s smiling. He’s a good receiver, a good person and a good football player and I think he deserves it.”

Jennings is currently in his fourth season for the Packers and was drafted with the 52nd pick in the 2006 NFL Draft. He was born and raised in Kalamazoo, Mich. and graduated from WMU in 2005 after breaking just about every receiving record at the university.

Since taking his talents to the NFL, Jennings has been a threat. In the 2008 season, he compiled 1,292 yards on 80 receptions with nine touchdowns. Through seven games of this season, he has 62.4 yards per game on 29 receptions with a 15.1 average per catch.

“For Louis, yes he’s a rookie, but he’s started now every game as a rookie and he’s made impact plays whether the Lions have won or lost and I think it would be a great opportunity to send a young guy to the Pro Bowl because he has kind of lifted that team from a personality standpoint too,” Kanan said.

In the 2009 NFL Draft, Delmas was also a second round pick as he was selected with the 33rd pick overall and has had a pretty successful rookie season thus far. Earlier this year, he became the first Detroit Lions player to win the defensive rookie of the month and even registered an interception in last Sunday’s game against the Seattle Seahawks.

Through seven games this season, Delmas has a total of 35 solo tackles, assisting on seven, and a sack. Delmas competed with the Brown and Gold from 2005-2008 and is a native of Florida, which would make the selection even more special.

“It’s an advertisement every time they do something good on the field and they say, ‘Greg Jennings, a second round pick out of Western Michigan’ — that’s free advertisement,” Kanan said.

“They are great ambassadors for the university, for our program and for our athletic department.”

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Posted by HeraldAdmin on Nov 12 2009. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

Cody Kimball
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