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

Goodell to Vick: "I WANT REMORSE!"

Goodell to Vick


Michael Vick. Every time I think of him, I always think of the song "Threw it all away" by Bob Dylan. Instead of having a woman in his life that made him think he had the world just right, it's Vick having fans making his jersey the most purchased. It was having numerous endorsements. It was being the best player to have gone to Virginia Tech. It was being the Madden 2004 cover athlete. It was being in his late twenties and having millions of dollars and being the face of the Falcons franchise. Now, it's all gone.

Now, Vick finds himself spending time in a federal prison on a 23 month prison term for dogfighting. He finds himself having to hire lawyers, who are not necessarily cheap, to go to bankruptcy court to fight for Vick, saying he will earn millions again. He finds himself looking to having to go to a home confinement program once he is out of prison. He finds himself, most likely separated from greatness, from fans, from being the new type of quarterback.

His life is starting to sound like "Les Miserable". As soon as he leaves prison, Roger Goodell, The Sheriff of the NFL, wants to talk to Vick and his lawyers, to see how he has adjusted since being in a federal prison. Goodell as he said at a panel discussion at Washington & Lee University said, "I will want to meet with other professionals to understand: does he understand the mistakes he made and is he genuine and have remorse for those actions and is he prepared to handle himself differently going forward. That will ultimately be my decision."

This is what troubles me. Michael Dwayne Vick will no longer say that he was a Pro Bowl quarterback, it will say he was a former quarterback with a criminal record for running a dog fighting business at his home. You go to wikipedia and there is more on his dog fighting charges than his playing career or any of his other achievements in life.

I don't want to come across as someone who condones dog fighting or believe that he needed punishment. Vick did deserve justice from the legal system and he got it. My main concern is Goodell wants to have a sit down like some P.C. preschool teacher after giving Mikey a time out and wants to ask him why he went to prison and to apologize and give back the stuffed dog to brother Marcus. Like Jean Valjean, Vick spent a large amount of time in prison (given for his profession). His earnings are going to be lower than prior to his incarceration. Why does Goodell need to have a talk with Vick? It's not like he is going to get involved in dog fighting again, because if he is caught he will be locked up for years.

Even when Vick comes back, who will want him? The Falcons have said that they have "closed the book" on Vick and that Matt Ryan is their quarterback. Will Vick even be a starter? Being away from the game for two years, many teams will question if he has lost anything. Granted I could see Vick being a better signal caller than the Bills quarterback system, but would the team even consider Vick at all?

Roger Goodell is not satisfied. He wants to be absolutely positive that Michael Vick has learned his lesson. Pac-Man Jones obviously learned his lesson and all he did was go to strip clubs whenever a loaded gun was present. Shawne Merriman learned his lesson and he did was used steroids. Though Michael Vick must go through hell again to please Goodell because losing not only respect, losing his money and losing his freedom for two years was not enough. While the image of the NFL should not be too worried about a closed case such as Vick's they should really worry about their on the field issues instead.

What Michael Vick did was wrong, but let's move on.

ROC SPORTS NET 2009