Monday NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced that Michael Vick will be conditionally reinstated into the league, and that no later than Week 6 of the NFL regular season Vick will be fully reinstated. Vick served 18 months in federal prison for operating a dog fighting ring on his property in Virginia. According to an article in the New York Times, Ingrid Newkirk, the president and co-founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), would not confirm whether or not there would or would not be protest by PETA. "There are so many strong sentiments. It's on the table, but we're not encouraging it." Vick met with the president of the Humane Society of the United States while in prison, and as Sport Illustrated reported, plans to work with the Humane Society of the United States in a program designed to prevent inner city youth from becoming involved with dog fighting.
Teams have been lining up, not to sign Vick, but to announce that they will not sign Vick. It is understandable why teams would be reluctant to sign the quarterback; there are no guarantees that he will be the same player he was and the amount of extra baggage that Vick brings with him does discourage teams from taking that chance. However, it is probably that a team will be able to sign Vick for significantly lower than market value for a player of his caliber. Then the real question is how the fans and the media will react to Vick wearing an NFL uniform again. There is a section of the population that does not want Vick to ever play for the NFL, or for any other league for that matter, for the rest of his life. According to a Gallup poll from 2007, 58% of those surveyed believed that Vick should not be allowed to play professional football.
I understand the visceral reaction to Vick's crimes, and I shared those emotions when I read about the crimes that he committed. How could you not be shocked by how the animals that he owned where treated; the same animals that many of us share our homes with? Also, as an owner of a pit bull I understood the public perception of the dogs, even though they are usually among the most loving and loyal breads, and the events surrounding Vick's crimes did not help the image of pit bulls. With that said, I am no way trying to trivialize his crimes, or to suggest that I do not care about the victims of the crimes. This is not about the crimes that Michael Vick has committed; this is about what happens after someone pays their debt for the crimes they commit.
Steve McNair was drafted by the Houston Oilers in 1995 after the worst season since 1982, and the 2-14 record was the worst that I had experienced as a fan. As a kid who was born in Houston, despite also being a fan of the more successful Houston Rockets and the Houston Astros, the Oilers were always my first love. Being a fan of the Oilers built character, or at least that is how I look at it now. Before that losing season every season that I can remember before that the Oilers finished with a winning record and made the playoffs, but every season the oilers lost in the playoffs. In fact not only did the Oilers lose in the playoffs, they lost in heartbreaking fashion.
In 1991 the Oilers lost to the Denver Broncos in the Divisional Playoff game, and were the victims of a John Elway comeback which has become known as the Drive II. Then in 1993 the Oilers lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in the Divisional Playoff game after winning eleven consecutive games to end the season; losing to Joe Montana who found new life on a new team. The most heartbreaking loss of all of course was the lost to the Buffalo Bills in the 1992 Divisional Playoff game; this game was the greatest comeback in NFL history.
When McNair was drafted in 1995 it gave Oilers fans new hope; but that hope was gone after the 1995 season when owner Bud Adams broke the promise he had made only a year earlier and announced that the team would be moving to Tennessee. The franchised was moved by Adams after the 1996 season, during which the Oilers regularly played for less than 20,000 in the Astrodome. The fans still wanted to support the Oilers; however, they did not want Adams to make a profit after breaking a promise to keep the team in Houston.
(Didn't want to FP this till I was done editing. Come on yall, let's play! All three Texas teams made the playoffs, and I imagine they have some fans lurking around here. Put together your bracket and win nifty prizes from our Cafepress store! - promoted by annatopia)
Ok folks, I can't imagine I'm the only basketball nerd around here. =)
I want to do an NBA playoff basketball bracket competition. Since our user base is fairly robust now, I'm hoping there's enough b-ball fans here in order to make a real competition out of it.
So... I thought we could have a contest with real prizes given out to the winners. =)
Click beneath the fold for the rules, scoring system, and prizes.
