Gotta love the non-denial denial update from Landry:
“Supposedly I spit on the center if there’s any truth to that I would have been flagged or the guy would have some sort of reaction!!!”
You have to love these inter-division rivalries. Haha, boy did Jackson shut them up in short order.
My favorite part of the scuffle was when Kevin Kolb jumped in. Kevin what are you doing!
Kolb’s a pretty tough guy apparently. A real leader on the field. If Vick stays in Philly (likely), some team is going to be really happy to get Kevin Kolb as their QB.
Genji
3284
How pissed off would you be if you were McNabb and the Redskins dropped you in favor of Kolb this offseason? Back to back seasons getting replaced by the same guy. I don’t think Philly would let Kolb go to an NFC East team like they did McNabb, but it’s at least slightly possible with so few decent QB free agents available.
Lorini
3285
But no one in the NFC East needs a QB. Jones is not replacing Romo with Kolb next year, and the Giants certainly aren’t getting rid of Eli. The Skins have signed this contract extension with McNabb, so one would think they are not looking for a QB either.
Genji
3286
Walter posted some information earlier on the actual logistics of McNabb’s new deal. The Redskins apparently aren’t on the hook for anything after this year, so they could walk away if they wanted to. They are probably unlikely to do so, but if McNabb continues to play poorly the rest of the season I’d imagine they would at least look at who is out there.
Lorini
3287
LA Times column on Michael Vick.
On Monday night, no, Mel [a dog Vick badly abused] was not hanging out by the televised football game. He was hanging on his owner’s bed as they watched something on HBO.
“How can you support football when you know one of their stars did this to a dog?” Hunter said. “If more people saw Mel at the same time as they saw Michael Vick, he wouldn’t be so lauded.”
I will say this, I won’t let anyone take NFL football from me because I love the game. I also love my dogs and love dogs and pets in general. Can Vick be forgiven? At least he has said he is sorry. He has worked with the Humane Society to try to get kids not to fight dogs. Is that enough?
I’m not sure what these people want Vick to do however. Should he kill himself? Seriously, is what he’s done so horrible that no matter what he does, he can never expect forgiveness? When he came out of jail, I remember thinking that for me to forgive him, he would have to do exactly what he is doing. Staying away from dogs. Working with the Humane Society. Getting in shape. Working with his coaches and taking instruction. No arguing or arrogance. But it’s still not really enough. The article doesn’t say, but he should be paying the upkeep for all of those dogs. He should be making major donations to local shelters to help get dogs adopted to healthy loving families. He should put the welfare of dogs in general before nearly anything except family. Is he doing that? I don’t know.
It’s a difficult position because I love football and I love seeing a QB who is doing so well!!! So I watch him conflicted.
How about you guys? How do you feel while watching Vick?
ckessel
3288
Some things simply can’t be forgiven. Or perhaps just not forgotten anyway. Maybe 20 years from now after a lifetime of proving himself off the field. It’s sort of like trust, no matter how many “I’m sorry” statements you hear, that doesn’t create trust.
I can watch him and appreciate his talent, but I can’t really root for him. I need to at least have the illusion that someone I’m rooting for is someone I could respect.
I can love animals and at the same time eat them. Life is complex.
I hate what he did, but he’s served his time, and seems to have learned and come out the other side a better person. Lord knows I’ve needed forgiveness for plenty of shit in my day, ain’t nothing wrong with a little grace.
dwolfe
3291
Honestly, I would have thought dog-lovers in general, and you specifically, would not want the man to have anything to do with the dogs he abused; would you seriously have taken his money if you had adopted one of the dogs they found? Seriously? Educating people not to make the same mistakes he made, and making the most of the second chance he was given, was enough.
The charitable donation angle is interesting, but I thought he was bankrupt coming out of jail, and hasn’t gotten a mega-contract. He’s exactly looking out for his family by (hopefully) setting aside his money for their future right now. If he got a mega-bucks contract, wouldn’t him donating publicly just remind people of something he probably wants to put behind him?
Speaking only for myself, I don’t think Vick’s crime is unforgiveable. He has followed the steps to rehabilitating his career and image and served the time he was sentenced. And for that, he should be commended and allowed to make his return.
The real problem I have with Vick is that I believe his crime is a symptom of a pathological mind. How a person can derive pleasure from setting dogs on each other to fight to the death is beyond me. Even if you don’t give a damn about dogs, that’s a sick thing to do. What was going on in his head? I think this question is worth asking, and I hope that Vick is seeking some kind of help for whatever brought him to that point.
He did some time and I certainly don’t think he should be banned for life from playing, but he’s still tainted in my eyes and I don’t know how he can recover from that. He regrets it because he got caught. It’s certainly possible that his remorse extends beyond the fact that he was punished and pilloried for it, but as a member of the public it’s impossible for me to know for sure and my common sense says no.
So yeah, Vick does good things with the football, and if he keeps his head down, okay, career continues. But I’ll still probably think he’s a level 9 douchebag. I do agree with Pogue that it would be interesting to see what was going on in his head. There are probably more issues at work there, and if I understood them then I’d have more empathy.
Lorini
3294
He’s making $5.7 million this year, not exactly chicken feed. I could certainly see people who have his dogs turning down the money but he still needs to offer it.
I hope he never shys away from what he did. If a major public donation is what he can do, then he should do it. He needs to face this now and continue to face it.
And yeah, I’d much rather see him do what he is doing, than him going back to being the same arrogant Vick that got into trouble in the first place. I know in Atlanta, he still has many many fans and they are rooting for him to redeem himself.
One thing we do have to remember, that (as T.O. mentioned) dog fighting is/was very common in the south. People who do this don’t think of themselves as pathological. Maybe they are anyway, but it’s accepted in many parts of the south. It’s impossible for me to understand that, but that’s the way it is.
I’ll be honest, I’ll be rooting for him Sunday to beat the Giants. I want to see that redemption and for him to make something of himself other than a dog killer. It’s amazing that he’s gone this long without throwing an interception, it will be interesting to know how many more games he can do this. It helps to have sure handed receivers though.
If Vick continues to perform and the CBA gets completed, expect the Eagles to squat on him with the Franchise tag.
While the Skins aren’t on the hook for McNabb in 2011 (or beyond -his deal is very, very, year to year and conducive to trades/release) - I’d look for them to try and upgrade the rest of the team around him (interior linemen, RB and WR) before pursuing a big name QB acquisition. I’d expect them to draft a QB next year as well.
sinfony
3298
It saddens me deeply that people will still cry about what Michael Vick did, but nobody has any problem rooting for Ben Roethlisberger.
Lorini
3299
I would agree with that too, and what I don’t like at all about the Roethlisberger situation is that he never apologized. Not ever. Just because the woman did not want to be subject to a nasty sexual assault criminal trial, doesn’t mean he didn’t assault her. But yet, he wasn’t required to seek real counseling, or maybe volunteer in a women’s shelter for abused women and children. You could hear him repeating his rehearsed lines. I’m fairly sure he will be involved in another sexual assault case before his career is over because he has given no indication that he’s learned much from the first two.
Well, he probably wouldn’t be wanted as a volunteer, but otherwise, yeah.
