A Tale of Two Quarterbacks

It was the worst of times. That’s just sugar coating this. The NFL is asking two big questions:

Will Brett Favre sign with Minnesota Vikings?

- OR -

Will any NFL Team sign Michael Vick?

While that sounds like a Choose Your Own Adventure page jump, it’s just one never ending discussion piece before the 2009 season. Let’s break it down.

Brett Favre has an issue with letting go of being a professional football player. Retirement is not in his DNA, I guess. So after calling the bluff of Green Bay and them saying, yeah we’re good with Aaron Rodgers, he takes the circus to New York. There he gets a coach fired and a team divided, not too mention getting his team eliminated from the post season. Now he wants to take the Rolling Stones… er…. I mean the Brett Favre Farewell Tour with Jethro Tull to the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

After serving his time in Federal Prison, Michael Vick has to serve his remorse requirement, which is an issue I have already taken up here, to get back into a league where some teams have strictly said no to a rehabbed QB. His passing ability was weak but his dynamic playmaking put asses in the seats and sold a ton of NFL jerseys. Though should a team give him a chance in camp?

For Favre it’s this non-stop will he or won’t he. For those new to football they did this for several seasons on Cheers with first Shelly Long then Kirstie Alley. The final count was no, Sam never married them.

Back in 2003, I remember Steve Yzerman talking about retirement as The Hockey News talked about his dropping point totals. Yzerman, a very strong, leadership based player said, that he didn’t want to stop playing hockey until he released it all from his system. He hung around past the lockout for another season until finally hanging up the ax.

Favre suffered from a strong start to a let down season. He posted a great final season with Green Bay where I would not be surprised if he didn’t want to leave on the note that an interception he threw in the Playoffs ended his career. At this rate though his career will end like many ballplayers, with a traveling road show of un-important games that people will have overshadowed by his inability to let go. Of course Elway did it best by retiring after his second Super Bowl win.

Now he is looking to sign with Minnesota to keep up this sideshow. People will show up, but how many to actually see football rather than a 40 yr old man trying to play with guys old enough to be his kids?

I am starting to feel for Michael Vick. He has paid his time and got the stiffest sentence for any high profile athlete. Post Jack Johnson of course, but there’s no Jim Crow racist in this case. All the animal rights activists, who I doubt watch the sport that refers to its ball as a pigskin, are calling for Vick’s banishment from the league. Being banned from football for an off the field offense of dog fighting is ludicrous. Others have been brought up on murder charges and received not even a suspension. Not to take away from dogs, but humans being killed is not a minor misdemeanor here.

Take into account that Michael Vick, the man and the property is ruined. He has lost everything from his house to his ability to sell jerseys and autographs. This man is in bankruptcy court and all he wants is a chance. Is this not America? We applauded when Doc Gooden, a long time drug user who had a problem, threw a no-hitter. People still claim that Pete Rose is a saint even though he was a known gambler and horrible to his own family (consult Hustle by Michael Sokolove). But yet we can’t let Michael Vick back in the league?

If I were a team, why not sign Michael Vick? Have you seen the starting quarterbacks in the NFL these days? They are awful. Kerry Collins and Kurt Warner had “good” seasons!

It’s a double edge sword here. When do you start shutting down the one guy trying to keep father time from pushing him off the field? At the same time, why are we trying to deny a man, paid all debts to society, a second chance? We let a President cheat on his wife and call him a great man but a guy who start a dog fighting league a horrible man? Let’s remember that to err is to human and to keep Vick out of the NFL is to be someone holding a grudge.


ROC SPORTS NET 2009

Steve McNair shot and killed

While the NFL contemplates the future for players such as Donte Stallworth and Plaxico Burress, both of whom have drawn criticism from many sports writers as the problem with the modern athlete, it's troubling to see a story about Steve McNair. The former Titans quarterback was gunned down in Nashville today, leaving behind a strong work ethic that teammates cherished and an attitude towards winning.

It seems as this sad incident might escalate in it's dourness as he was killed with a woman who was not his wife. While I'm not trying to say it would have been better if he was killed with his wife, I hope it doesn't bring up a more sketchy situation. At the time of this posting the police have not found any solid evidence explaining the whole situation.

This incident brings up the point of how in sports, athletes live two lives. The first life is the glory and the story of their play on the field. It is the winning drives, the highlight reel plays and the appearance of the championship athlete they are. The second life is sometimes filled with a dark secret and intrigue and things most fans never want to see.

Plaxico Burress was one of the Giants most important play makers on their Super Bowl winning team. Off the field, we saw a man who shows up to night clubs with a loaded gun hanging from his sweatpants.

Pete Rose, as one of the most famous cases, was known as the greatest competitor and one of baseballs greatest players. Rose played nearly every position, played like it was his last game and played to win. Rose however, is a very dark and noted by people in the book, Hustle, as a very slimy and untrustworthy man. He insulted his daughter for not being beautiful, he hung out with gamblers and people who sold steroids and worst thing was he bet on sports, including baseball. As many hoped the "rumors" weren't true, they were and people finally got to see the true Peter Edward Rose. Granted while people still think he is worthy of induction into Cooperstown, the baseball fans can feel betrayed by his years of denying what was the truth.

It brings us back to the main point of the story and what police are going to look into on the case of Steve McNair. Why was he killed?

The man was idolized by an entire community and by teammates.

"If you were going to draw a football player, the physical part, the mental part, everything about being a professional, he is your guy," former Ravens and Titans teammate Samari Rolle said. "I can't even wrap my arms around it. It is a sad, sad day. The world lost a great man today."

For a man who still owns the record for most passing yards and total offense for a I-AA school, the man named Air McNair had gained everything since then. He was a four time Pro Bowl player, not to mention coming within a yard of sending the Super Bowl to overtime. He did all of this while playing through tremendous pain from injuries scattered throughout his career.

"On the field, there isn't player that was as tough as him, especially at the quarterback position," the Ravens' Derrick Mason said. "What I have seen him play through on the field, and what he dealt with during the week to get ready for a game, I have never known a better teammate."

You hate to see that happen to anyone, especially for people my age, since we grew up watching guys like McNair play. I remember watching that Super Bowl, just willing Dyson had the extra yard. Then I remember the Titans lost to the eventual champions, the Ravens the next season.

Hopefully, time will tell a stronger ending, one of a man who was killed in a more elegant light, though that seems like a tall order given that no person ever wants to be murdered as their dream death. Baseball tells us of legendary myths such as a child questioning Joe Jackson after the 1919 World Series, "say it ain't so Joe?" In this situation, I hope that the murder with this woman is taken and proven in a better context, but as of now all I can say is... "say it ain't so Steve?"




ROC SPORTS NET 2009