Thoughts on Mike Vick (from someone who dislikes like PETA)

 Football, Pro-Football, The Bigger Picture  1 Response »
Sep 142009
 
mike-vick-injured

Now that Mike Vick may take a larger role in Philadelphia after Donovan McNabb fractured his ribs, it’s worth re-examining the outrage against Vick and backlash against the anti-Mike Vick outrage.

I’m ok with Vick getting another chance in the NFL. But his incarceration does not mean he necessarily deserved a second chance to play in the NFL. The only thing that 2 years in jail earned for Mike Vick is the opportunity to live a life in which he doesn’t commit more crimes. That’s all that “paying one’s debt to society” means. He didn’t earn the right to resume the life of a popular millionaire superstar. He earned the right to become a law-abiding citizen again. Nothing more, nothing less.

Some folks pose an equivalency argument that questions why Vick was treated so harshly by the law or the NFL when murderers, adulters, domestic abusers and others seem to get off so much more easily. Donte Stallworth pled out to 30 days for killing a person while driving drunk. Plaxico Burress is getting 2 years for shooting himself in the thigh. Steve McNair and countless others stepped out on their wives. Warren Moon was reported for domestic battery. Countless players use illegal drugs, performance-enhancing and other.

The relatively light ‘punishment’ incurred by other players shouldn’t mean that Vick’s punishment was too much. Stallworth should have gotten a harsher sentence. Moon should have been dealt with harshly for battery. Vick got hit pretty hard and he deserved that punishment. Others should get an even harder hit. Continue reading »

Is Andre Smith the Next Muñoz or Mandarich?

 College Football, Football, Pro-Football  No Responses »
Apr 232009
 

I daresay I’m one of the few football fans out there who has little interest in the upcoming NFL draft. I may track who the Steelers take with their first couple picks but I don’t tune in to ESPN all day or get immersed in the minutiae of late round picks or talking about a potential draftee’s upside or the dreaded “value pick”. Give me a damn break.

Mel Kiper has to be one of the greatest snake oil salesmen in modern history. He whiffs on picks, mis-analyses players and generally mucks up the works. I remember a number of years ago, he claimed that the Steelers would regret for years afterwards not picking Chad Pennington, a player at the time whose greatest upside was that he was a “poor man’s Joe Montana”. As if.

I suppose that the draft is a time of hope for those who root for inferior teams. But I support a team and organization whose drafting prowess is so well-established that there’s really no point in my questioning their draft decisions. This year, the Steelers will be looking to shore up OL, DL and DB. They could also use some depth at WR and LB. Yes, I pretty much named every position except QB. No wait, the Steelers might need to draft a late-round QB for #3/#4 QB depth reasons.

Tony Mandarich, 1989

Tony Mandarch was a colossal flame-out.  Rod Woodson was a highly rated first round pick. James Harrison and Willie Parker went undrafted. Donovan McNabb was booed on draft day. Tom Brady was a 6th round pick. Joe Montana was a 3rd round pick. Tim Worley was drafted ahead of Emmitt Smith. Gabe Rivera was drafted by the Steelers instead of Dan Marino. I do get interested in where Pitt kids or my favorite college football fantasy players may get drafted but it’s still worth noting that Curtis Martin slipped into the 3rd round and had a Hall of Fame career nonetheless.

Wake me up when training camp starts. Otherwise, I think I’ll skip Kiper and his faux intensity.

Twice as Good: Race Achievement in America

 Football, Pro-Football, The Bigger Picture  No Responses »
Oct 142007
 

Donovan McNabb’s recent comments about the extra scrutiny and pressures of being a black quarterback in the NFL touched a chord with me.  I’m glad he had the courage to speak his truths to power.  Too often, black athletes don’t use the podium to speak truth to power.  Michael Jordan’s famous comment that “even Republicans buy basketball shoes” comes to mind.

The reactions of young quarterbacks Vince Young and Jason Campbell were typical of what most sports fans would probably want to hear – that all quarterbacks are under the pressure cooker, that there is no such prejudice anymore, that you deal with it or get out.  However, these reactions belie a certain naiveté about the institutional racism still prevalent in sports and in society in general.  It also speaks to an ignorance of the sacrifices made by pioneers such as “Jefferson Street” Joe Gilliam and Doug Williams.

Why is it that in a game in which 75% of the athletes are black, there are only 3 or 4 black starting quarterbacks?  For years, we’ve known that NFL owners and coaches questioned the ability to blacks to lead, to be coaches or quarterbacks or point guards in major football and basketball.  How will we know that we do not have such prejudice anymore?  Maybe when leaders such as Donovan McNabb no longer espouse such beliefs, we’ll have gotten there.

The greater issue here is the opportunity to achieve success commensurate with one’s abilities and work ethic.  This is what makes institutional and societal racism so difficult to see and to distinguish.  Just because there aren’t public lynching’s anymore does not mean that we have rid ourselves of racism in this country.  Instead, in many walks of life, there now exists a glass ceiling.

When I was little, my father, in his many exhortations to me to do better in scholastics, told me that I would have to be twice as good as any white person in order to do well.  I never even questioned why that had to be the case.  Only twice as good.  I wonder how much better Donovan McNabb has had to be in order to reach the level of success he’s enjoyed.