Mr. Irrelevant drops the ball

Alex Coolman

The note in the middle of the box score didn’t look like much: “Finn,”

it said. “1-1.”

But for Jim Finn, the Indianapolis Colts fullback who was named Mr.

Irrelevant in 1999, that tiny mention represented the fulfillment of

major expectations.

The box score, a report on Sunday’s Colts game against the New York

Jets, recorded Finn’s first NFL carry.

The only problem? Finn fumbled. Two yards away from the end zone, he

dropped the ball like a politician ditching a campaign promise.

Finn’s actions turned out to be thoroughly irrelevant. Indianapolis

won, anyway.

To Paul Salata, the man who created the Mr. Irrelevant contest 25

years ago to celebrate the last player picked in the NFL draft, the

explanation for Finn’s gaffe seemed perfectly obvious.

“We’re attributing that to the fact that his Irrelevant Week trophy

that he took home has a guy fumbling the ball,” Salata said. “He thought,

if that’s the way it’s done, that’s the way I’m going to do it.”

The men who are tapped as Mr. Irrelevant manage to accomplish a wide

variety of things, Salata noted. One has gone on to graduate from West

Point; another has become a senator.

But never before has an Irrelevant honoree made such a prominent goof.

“This is the high point of the 25 years, of course,” Salata said.

“Most of our guys were in unskilled positions, like tackles and guards

and linebackers and stuff. They haven’t stepped forward and had the game

on the line based on their actions like this was.”

The jury is still out, however, on what, if any, action the Irrelevant

Week organizers will take to recognize Finn’s accomplishment.

“We’re calling a meeting of the board of directors to see how far we

ought to take this,” Salata said. “Maybe we’ll take the Daily Pilot

article and laminate it onto a sewer pipe or something and run it

upstream.”

In all seriousness, though, Salata stressed that he wants to keep his

response to Finn’s actions in the same spirit as Irrelevant Week itself:

upbeat, and focused on helping the underdog.

“I thought about sending him a note,” Salata said, “just to say ‘Hey,

it happens to the best of us.’ ”