My Quick on Vick

Former NFL star Mike Vick was released from federal custody Monday morning at his home in Virginia. Now starts the real comeback trail. Vick has a few different options, some maybe not exactly what he had in mind, but options nonetheless.

Now, he's made it fairly clear that he wants to once again prove himself on the football field. Obviously getting reinstated to the NFL would be choice number one. The only problem is that he's going to have to go through Mr. Roger Goodell first. This actually could be tricky. Many experts feel that Goodell may try to stick Vick with some sort of conditional reinstatement; where if a team picks him up he can go to camp, but after all the practices, time, and effort spent Goodell would have the ultimate ruling and could still decide not to reinstate Vick before the season begins.

Rather he is given complete reinstatement or this "conditional" option there is a distinct possibility that nobody would want him right now. Notice that I say "right now". In my eyes there is not a team that would fill an imminent and immediate need by adding Vick to their roster. Most teams will shy away from him from the publicity standpoint. Not to mention that nobody really knows where his game is at right now.

That's why I believe Vick should take a little gander at the UFL. He can play through their season, get his mechanics back figure out what he's doing out on the field and by the time their season would be over (November) there would most likely be teams who need him at a skill position or even at QB if he plays well in the UFL. It would be a good chance for him to make decent money while he proves what he can do and I would be willing to bet that someone would be willing to add him for a playoff push.

What about Vick?

You will see me defend Michael Vick until he is a complete free man and playing in the NFL once again. He's over payed his dues, now let the man play.

Now to the main point of my post, Donte Stallworth was given 30 days in jail after pleading guilty to DUI Manslaughter. I'm not saying Stallworth deserves more then that, I mean the man is truly, truly regretful and knows he has made mistakes and is trying to do the right thing and move on. He immediately called authorities and gave himself up. But there's no way Vick's crime is any worse than Stallworth's.

What about Vick? It just goes to show how society works now days. First off, I'm one of the biggest dog lovers there is and grittysquirrels can vouch for me, but killing dogs is nowhere near the killing of a human being.

Obviously Vick deserved some punishment, but I think it was just another case of a professional athlete hanging out with the wrong crowd at the wrong time. But how does Stallworth get off that easy? Maybe he won't get to play in the NFL again, unlike Vick, but come on now. Vick had to serve about two years in jail and is now being highly monitored by federal officials and will be placed on house arrest for two months. Not to mention more punishment is coming for him from NFL commish Roger Goodell.

The same thing goes for Donte Stallworth. Sure, he pleaded guilty, so he got a reduced sentence because of it, but I also feel a little sympathetic for him. It was a spur of the moment thing, a rather unfortunate accident and now I doubt Goodell will let him back in the league either. Which I believe he should be allowed back in after his punishment.

Maybe Stallworth doesn't deserve the same amount of time Vick got, however, neither does Vick...

Let Vick Be

They're finally letting Mike Vick out of prison this week, but he still won't be a free man. After he's let out of prison he will be highly monitored by federal officials and will be placed on house arrest for two months...

Is this not insane? Come on. Give the man a break! He's long over payed his dues. The man has gone through all of this long enough. He's been in jail what? Two years? This was also Vick's first arrest as an NFL player.

There are an average of 43 arrests per year among NFL players, and about 21 of those are violent crimes, crimes against other human beings. A lot of these guys serve a few games suspension and/or community service and are back on the field a few weeks later.

Mike Vick, a guy who has been scrutinized and slammed by the media and animal right groups (PETA) repeatedly, deserves forgiveness. In my opinion, dog fighting is not that serious of a crime. (Yeah I said it.) There are far worse crimes in this country that you can commit.

OJ Simpson walked away a free man after one of the worst court hearings ever. Ray Lewis was charged with murder nine years ago. Look at him now. Pac Man Jones was given unlimited chances after all of the garbage he pulled. I honestly feel Vick would've been better off hurting another human being over a dog. That's just how society is now days. And look at Vick now, two years of jail and all the crap he had to go with and now he will be highly monitored after he steps out of jail, when is enough enough?

He has paid his due to society and lost the richest contract in NFL history. It's not even about dog fighting anymore, it's how much we can screw Mike Vick and how broke we can make him. It's sickening how people are these days. There are a lot worse things he could have done, but people are ripping him a part and will no longer look at him the same because of it.

Yeah, he did deserve some punishment obviously, a fine, a few game suspension and a month of jail time would have been ideal. Him being kicked out of the league was unnecessary and stupid. I hope he is back playing in the league, the sport that made his early career. Mike Vick deserves to be back in the NFL!

Problem Solving Skills

Right now most bloggers are chiming in on various atrocities in sports right now. In NBA you have betting refs and fixed games. The NFL has dogfighting and MLB has Balco and Bonds' Chase. I'm gunna make it easy for the respective commissioners and (try and) solve their problems as best as I can.

David Stern and the NBA
I start with you because you have it the worst. I felt bad for you watching the press conference the other day. You're in a tough position that (obviously nobody wants to be in), but you can save your sport. The NBA is on the downslide (in my opinion) and this fiasco could be the dagger unless if something is done. You can't undo what has been done but there must be the maximum penalty to make an example of Tim Donaghy. This whole thing shows how vulnerable not only the NBA is but all sports really are to something like this. Also, from here on out in the future I think that the NBA needs to befriend the casinos. The Casinos are not the enemy here...Donaghy is. Think about it. Casinos don't like fixed games. Casinos HATE fixed games because casinos like to win money rather than lose money. It's pretty simple. So, befriend the casinos and have each other's backs. They would be able to see if a line jumps maybe 3 nights in a row in the NBA and they could notify the league and then maybe they could notice that all were refed by the same guy! Here's another though: Maybe institute instant replay? This is all just a start for this whole ordeal though.

Roger Goodell and the NFL
You don't have it half as bad as Stern does. The whole dogfighting this is really ugly, but you can make the best of the situation. You came off a little weak to me by not ruling Vick out from camp sooner but better now than never I guess. I think that you need to continue to push for him to take a leave of absence for this season and go from there. You have to show you're serious about this by keeping the same iron fist that you used to rule on Pacman and Chris Henry. Keep it consistent and don't be afraid to do what you have to do once this all shakes out. Especially if that means Vick not seeing the field ever again.

Bud Selig and MLB

Bud your answer is the simplest here of all 3. Be there for 756! It's that simple! If you didn't want to be there to watch some roided out star break Aaron's record then you should have done something about the situation in the 90's when you ignored it. You knew it was happening and chose to let it go. Now you have to lie in the bed that you made. This is going to look bad no matter what, so just show up at the games and be there, because it's your fault that players went unchecked and untested at the birth and height of the steroid era.

That was easy....kind of. What are you solutions to today's problems in sports?