Michael Vick Begins His Journey Back To NFL Stardom

Mike Vick was released from prison today after serving 19 months for financing an illegal dog fighting ring. Will Vick ever return to stardom? I doubt it, but he should certainly work on it.

Vick has about $24 to his name at this point and his future in the NFL is uncertain. However, at 29-years-old, some NFL organization will take on the risk that is Michael Vick. But which one?

It’s hard to say at this point which team will actually take the chance, but it’s not hard to determine what characteristics the organization needs to have.

1. More than likely, Mike Vick will never play the quarterback position again. Rather, he’ll serve as a receiver and/or athlete. However, in order to avoid any confusion, Vick’s future organization should have a quarterback set in stone (i.e. Manning, Brady, Rivers, Roethlisberger). If Vick went to a place like, say Minnesota, he may cause some ruckus about playing the QB spot (and against Rosenfels and Tavaris Jackson, he’d have a good argument). But then Minny would have an “ex-con” at the game’s most popular position.
2. Vick’s next team has to have a hard coach. The term ‘hard’ can go one of two ways, either a guy like Coughlin or a guy like Dungy (I know Dungy is out of the game). Coughlin is the hard coach because he’s loud, harsh, and not afraid to get in your face (somewhat like the stereotypical high school coach). Dungy, on the other hand, is the hard coach that you just don’t want to disappoint. Both coaches are on different ends of the spectrum but Vick would need a coach like that from either end in order to succeed.
3. A huge part of Vick’s future will be what city he’ll call his new home. Obviously a place like New York or Denver (apparently an athlete’s hot spot) would not be an ideal location for Vick. His agent should look into a place like Buffalo (where there is absolutely nothing to do) or Green Bay (where there is absolutely nothing to do, except eat cheese). If Vick ends up in a city that is full of distractions, it just increases the risk.

My personal opinion about the Michael Vick situation is that he has paid his debt to society and he deserves that second chance. Although I’ve never met the guy, I tend to think that he’s a good person. In no way do I believe that Michael Vick is a convict, felon, murderer, or anything of the sort. What he did was wrong, sure, but some athletes have done A LOT worse. I’m not trying to say that animals aren’t important or that PETA is crazy (maybe they are a little crazy), but I am saying that he wasn’t doing this to human beings. And besides, Vick was charged with financing the fighting ring. However, much of the media dove into the “life” of dog fighting and saw how the dogs were treated (electric shock, drowning, etc.). Once people saw the disgusting videos, they automatically placed Michael Vick drowning a dog…not true.

No matter which side of the fence you stand, second chance or not, Vick will play in the NFL again. Unfortunately for Vick, he was made an example by the NFL and law enforcement. He paid his dues and a message was sent. “Athletes can get it too.”

Oh, and good luck to the team that hires Vick. They should go ahead and hire a security force to fight PETA during every practice, game, and team function. Those PETA people are relentless.

Washington Wizards Are Screwed In 2009 Draft Lottery

The Wizards usually don’t get the better end of the deal, and Tuesday night was no different.

The Wizards had something like a 17.8% chance of earning the #1 overall pick in the draft lottery selection process. So do the Wizards get lucky and receive that #1 pick? Of course not. They fall all the way to fifth. And I say “all the way” because the law of probability says that the Wiz should have received the #2 pick, at least. But instead, the Wizards miss out on the Blake Griffin sweepstakes and the 2009 Draft for Washington Wizards fans just got that much worse.

Most Mock Drafts have the Wizards selecting James Harden from Arizona State. That’s all fine and well, but as a fan myself, I need some time to sleep off the horrendous pick we just received before I start thinking about what to do with it.

Perhaps this is a curse that will haunt the Washington franchise for the rest of its existence? Does anyone remember the last time the Washington Wizards had the #1 overall pick?

That’s right, it was 2001. Probably not one of the greatest drafts to ever come across the table, but the Wiz had the top pick nonetheless. It was the first #1 selection the franchise had ever had. Michael Jordan was in the front office at that time and he had some decision making to do. The first-round was rich with talent, but not necessarily security. Names like Tyson Chandler, Pau Gasol, Jason Richardson, Shane Battier, Joe Johnson, Richard Jefferson, Gerald Wallace, and Tony Parker floated around. Who would Jordan select? After (what I assume) about 10 minutes of solid thinking and looking at draftees vitals, Michael Jordan decided to make a young man named Kwame Brown the first-ever #1 pick to be drafted out of high school. And if you know anything about basketball or you watched a single Wizards game in ’01, you know what kind of player Kwame turned out to be. You would also know what kind of players the other mentioned draftees are.

I am convinced that that one June evening in the summer of 2001 has permanently crippled the Washington Wizards franchise for years and years to come. Tough luck I suppose. That’s just the way the balls fall…

“LeBron James has surpassed Kobe Bryant…”

Finally! Someone with some credibility comes out of the woodwork and tells it like it is. Yes, it is true, LeBron James is the best player in the world and he has the opportunity to become the greatest player ever.

No more of that damn Kobe talk. Kobe’s this, Kobe’s that. Kobe is the next Jordan. Stop! Kobe Bryant is a great player and the best pure scorer in the game today. However, LeBron James is better than Kobe, hands down.

Jerry West was recently reported as saying that LeBron has in fact surpassed Kobe, and West was the guy who drafted the 18-year-old Bryant. Oh, and as far as Jerry West having credibility, the dude is the silohuette for the NBA…

Let’s not get it confused anymore, LeBron is above Kobe. And, when LeBron grabs his first title this June, all those Kobe fans should quiet down just a bit.

When it’s all said and done, LeBron James will have been the best player to ever play in the NBA and he’ll probably have made the most money than anyone to ever play in the NBA (yea, Jordan too). You heard it here.

Manny Ramirez Tests Positive For Banned Substance…Fertility Drug

If you woke up this morning and you don’t happen to live in a bunker in South Dakota, you probably have heard about Manny Ramirez testing positive for a banned substance.

Drug tests found artificial testosterone in Ramirez’s system along with traces of a female fertility drug, called hCG. Ramirez and his agent have stated that a doctor prescribed Manny Ramirez some sort of medication that contained the banned substance. Really? Why the hell would a doctor prescribe Manny a fertility drug? Reverse ED perhaps?

This news comes as both surprising and typical. It surprises me because Manny seems like such a laid back, go-with-the-flow, kind of guy. He seems to really love playing baseball and he has this ‘aw, shucks’ attitude that you really don’t associate with steroids. Not to mention, Ramirez has passed 15 drug tests in the past several years, so it’s surprising that none of the previous tests found anything wrong.

Why is it typical? Well, all home run hitters these days are frickin’ juiced, in case you haven’t noticed. Manny is in his upper thirties and he’s still tearing the the seams off of balls. He may not have a head the size of Barry’s, but that’s not necessarily the only indication in a juice user. And it should also be noted that steroids were NOT found in Manny’s system. The odd levels of testosterone was more than likely caused by the fertility drug, hCG. And according to reports, hCG is commonly used to bring a male’s testosterone back to normal levels after taking steroids.

I actually really liked Manny because I liked his attitude and I thought he was a clean player. This just goes to show that no one can be trusted anymore. The morons that have decided to take these banned substances (Clemens, Bonds, Ramirez, Rodriguez, McGwire, etc.) have tainted the game for years and years to come. Thanks to these guys, we the fans can no longer look at even Derek Jeter anymore without just a little bit of concern.