Draft King, Snipers in Worthington, Thriving on the South Side

Top of Mind

Ohio State’s First-Round Factory

Ohio State just had one of the best NFL Drafts any college football program has ever had, which is a polite way of saying the rest of the country should maybe check on its player development departments.

In the first 11 picks of the 2026 NFL Draft, four Buckeyes came off the board. Carnell Tate went No. 4 overall to the Tennessee Titans. Arvell Reese went No. 5 to the New York Giants. Sonny Styles went No. 7 to the Washington Commanders. Caleb Downs went No. 11 to the Dallas Cowboys. Four Ohio State players in the top 11 picks of the same draft. The last school to pull that off was Michigan State in 1967, back when NFL scouts were probably still writing reports with fountain pens and describing players as “stout fellows.”

That is not just good. That is historically annoying if you are anyone else in the Big Ten.

And somehow, the draft turned into a weird little Ohio State reunion inside the NFC East. Reese, Styles, and Downs all landed in the same division, meaning three former Buckeye defensive stars will now spend the next few years trying to make each other miserable on Sundays. It is beautiful, really. College teammates are becoming professional enemies. The American dream, but with better shoulder pads.

Tate’s selection is its own kind of flex. He went fourth overall, tied for the highest-drafted wide receiver in Ohio State history, and he was not even always the biggest name in his own receiver room. That is not a knock on Tate. That is the problem with Ohio State football right now. The depth chart looks less like a college roster and more like a waiting room for first-round picks.

Ohio State finished the draft with 11 total players selected, the most of any school this year. That included four first-rounders, three more second-rounders, and another handful of names spread across the later rounds. Over the 2025 and 2026 drafts, Ohio State had 25 players selected, tying Georgia for the most draft picks over two years. So yes, the “developed here” slogan is doing a little more than just looking nice on a recruiting graphic.

The bigger number, though, is 99.

Ohio State now has 99 all-time first-round NFL Draft picks, more than any other college football program in the country. USC sits second at 87, which is still impressive, but also far enough back that Buckeye fans can say it with the relaxed confidence of someone who knows the scoreboard is not particularly clos

And the 100th could already be walking around campus.

Jeremiah Smith is still at Ohio State and is widely viewed as a future top-five pick if he declares next year. Which means the Buckeyes may not only become the first program to hit 100 first-round picks, but they may do it with another wide receiver. Because apparently, Columbus is now just a luxury factory for NFL pass catchers, linebackers, safeties, and whatever else Ryan Day decides to ship out next.

For Ohio State, this draft was not just a recruiting pitch. It was the recruiting pitch. Four players in the top 11. Eleven were drafted overall. Ninety-nine first-rounders in program history. And the next one is already waiting in the wings.

At this point, the NFL Draft is less of a graduation ceremony for Ohio State and more of an annual alumni networking event with Roger Goodell awkwardly handing out hats.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: How many deer live in Ohio

A. 1.2 million
B. 750,000
C. 550,000
D. 980,000

Worthington’s Deer Cull Ends, For Now…

Worthington has officially wrapped up its first deer culling season, which means the city’s most suburban sentence of the year is now complete: federal sharpshooters removed 100 deer from neighborhoods, parks, and private properties.

The program began in January after Worthington spent years studying its growing deer problem. Residents had been complaining about property damage, deer-vehicle crashes, over-browsed yards, and the general sense that the deer had stopped acting like wildlife and started acting like a loosely organized HOA. The city adopted a no-feeding ordinance in 2022, then created a Deer Task Force in 2023, eventually landing on targeted removal as part of a long-term management plan.

The actual culling was carried out by professional markspeople from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service-Wildlife Services. Over eight nights in January and February, they removed 100 deer, meeting the city’s 2026 goal. Worthington says there were no incidents involving people, pets, or property, and more than 4,200 pounds of venison were donated to the Worthington Resource Pantry.

Still, this was not exactly a quiet little city program that everyone politely nodded through.

Before operations began, Worthington resident Kevin Callinan sued the city after learning culling could happen within 200 feet of his property. He said his concern was not necessarily the deer management itself, but safety and the possibility that his children could witness deer being killed near their home. A Franklin County judge granted a temporary order blocking deer removal within 1,000 feet of Callinan’s home, adding a legal wrinkle to a program that already had plenty of emotional antlers sticking out of it.

And Callinan was not alone in feeling uneasy. Some residents supported the plan, arguing the deer population had gotten out of control and was creating hazards for drivers, homeowners, and even the deer themselves. Others were less thrilled about high-powered rifles being used inside city limits, even by trained federal professionals. Which is fair. “Don’t worry, the government sharpshooters are only operating after dark near your backyard” is not exactly the kind of sentence that calms everyone down at the neighborhood meeting.

Worthington officials say the program was based on best practices used in other communities and shaped by years of public input. According to the city, 73% of residents who responded to community surveys supported the use of firearms by trained experts as a deer management tool. That number became a major part of the city’s case for moving forward.

This week, the city released its post-season report, and one detail stood out: private land was “crucial” to the operation’s success. The city says 136 property owners expressed interest in participating. Federal workers determined 30 properties were suitable, 22 owners signed agreements, and sharpshooters ultimately used 10 private properties. Deer were also removed from two public sites: Olentangy Parklands and Walnut Grove Cemetery.

That private-property piece matters because the city says sharpshooters saw fewer deer in open parkland while snow lingered on the ground from a late-January storm. In other words, the deer did what deer do best: avoided the obvious places and made the humans work for it.

Worthington now plans to continue deer management next year. The city says reducing the population will take several years before it reaches a maintenance phase, which is municipal-speak for “this is not going away after one winter.”

So for now, Worthington’s first deer cull is over. The city hit its target. The pantry received thousands of pounds of venison. Some residents feel safer. Others still feel unsettled.

And the deer, at least the remaining ones, have learned the most important lesson in central Ohio wildlife management: avoid cemeteries, private yards, and any committee-approved plan involving the USDA.

South Side Thrive Is Connecting the Dots

Columbus loves the word “revitalization,” which usually means someone found an old building, painted it black, called it mixed-use, and waited for the coffee shop to arrive.

But on the South Side, South Side Thrive Collaborative is doing a quieter kind of work: connecting residents to the resources they actually need.

The nonprofit network focuses on the overlapping issues that shape daily life in the neighborhood, like housing instability, food access, healthcare, transportation, employment, safety, and economic mobility. Because if someone is worried about rent, childcare, getting to work, and a health issue all at once, a glossy “opportunity” flyer is not exactly going to fix things.

South Side Thrive brings together local organizations, businesses, health and human service groups, and residents to help families move forward. Its goals are simple: stable housing, better health, economic mobility, and stronger community connection.

The collaborative began forming in 2016, when groups including Mid-Ohio Food Collective, United Way of Central Ohio, Reeb Avenue Center, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, and Community Development for All People decided the South Side might benefit from organizations actually coordinating with each other. Revolutionary, apparently.

Today, South Side Thrive helps residents find support for food, childcare, healthcare, legal help, workforce training, mental health, transportation, and more. Basically, it is trying to make the maze of social services feel less like a government escape room.

This year, the city leaned further into the work. Mayor Andrew Ginther highlighted a Parsons Avenue effort that brought city crews into the corridor to fill potholes, pick up trash, inspect businesses, address safety issues, and monitor code violations. The city also awarded South Side Thrive a $165,000 grant to help keep safety and cleanliness efforts going after the crews leave.

That part matters. Because cleaning up a corridor for two weeks is nice. Keeping it clean after the cameras leave is the actual test.

The South Side deserves safer streets, better sidewalks, cleaner corridors, healthier food access, stronger businesses, and more job opportunities. It also deserves to remain a place where longtime residents can afford to live and benefit from the improvements happening around them.

No single nonprofit can undo decades of disinvestment. But South Side Thrive is doing something Columbus needs more of: connecting the dots.

Because thriving is not just a slogan. It is whether people can stay housed, stay healthy, get to work, find help, and keep showing up.

B) 750,000
Texas has the most with over 5 million deer!!