Vick: Not Guilty?

The latest development in the Michael Vick dog-fighting case is probably the most intriguing yet. It looks like when Vick enters his guilty plea on Monday, he will not admit to killing any dogs or gambling on the fights. This brings up a whole load of questions in my mind; namely, how will this affect his status in the NFL?

The league can’t hold him responsible for something he won’t be guilty of, can they? While dog fighting is a serious charge, the most brutal part of the allegations was the killing and torturing of the dogs. By steering clear of that fact, Vick may have saved himself a year or so of suspension in the NFL.

Believe me; he’s still as toxic as a New Jersey dump to NFL teams, but at least now he shouldn’t be known as an animal killer. In my books, animal killer is a few steps below dog-fighter on the respectability scale; not say that both types won’t be burning in hell. They have their rape stands all set up for the dogs to get their just desserts.

Everything’s bigger in Texas

You have to feel bad for the Orioles fans that went to the first game of yesterday’s double-header. After going down 3-0 in the first three innings, the Texas Rangers exploded for, well, a few runs. When it was all said and done, the Rangers walked away with a 30-3 win. That’s right, they scored 30 unanswered runs. It is the highest total in nearly 100 years in major league baseball. Their 29 hits are also the highest in the big leagues since 1992 when the Jays got shelled by the Brewers.

The saddest part of this is that after suffering this sickening blow out, the Orioles still had to march back out for game two! Imagine how demoralized the team would’ve been after that loss. Getting destroyed by a margin that would be considered a blow out in both football and basketball should be completely spirit-breaking.

Then, to top everything off, the Rangers went on to win the second game 9-7, capturing the double-dip 39-10. They even scored the first three runs of that game, bringing their total to 33 runs before the Orioles were about to answer. Sadly, no position players came into pitch.

Canada vs. Russia... again

For anyone who realized that this so called "Super Series" is starting next week, congratulations, you're one of few. This little match up that pits the former bitter hockey rivals is a cheap sham of a marketing ploy and it's not working because hardly anyone is paying attention. But the fact that nobody cares might be closer related to the fact that they're proposing playing hockey in August.

The cache of big names isn't here either. Back in the day when these hockey super powers duelled, the best players the countries could get were on the ice. Bobby Clarke even went as far as to slash a Soviet star and his break ankle. The bad blood made the series intensely involving.

Now, it's a bunch of juniors skating around. If anyone tried to pull a Bobby Clarke, he'd be ostracized by the media and entire hockey community. Imagine a player intentionally ruining another kid's career for a silly "Super Series."

This whole thing is pointless. Two countries are trying to recreate something that was a glorious memory for a lot of people. This crap is more like to put tarnish on what the legends did back in the 70s.

Vick pleads

The Michael Vick dog-fighting saga is coming close to an end it seems. Yesterday he agreed to plead guilty to federal dog-fighting conspiracy charges that mean he will serve time in prison. According to the agreement with the district attorney, Vick will serve somewhere in between a year and 18 months in prison.

Needless to say, this is going to severely affect his NFL career and whether or not he'll still have one once he gets out of the clink. The ball is now in Commissioner Roger Goodell's court regarding how long Vick should be suspended. It's no longer an "if" for Vick and seeing how Pacman, Tank and some Bengals were treated for their legal indiscretions, Vick will more than likely serve the steepest suspension yet.

The worst part of his plea agreement is that it actually contradicts what he had told both the league and the Falcons organization when the charges were originally levied. This news will only hurt Vick all the more in the long run.

While he is immensely talented, everything that surrounds Vick is a nightmare. Physically, he could come back and still play in a few years at a very high level, but would any team possibly take him? Will he even be re-instated when the time comes around? It may come down to going to the CFL or Arena league when he's finally allowed back. He will have to earn some credibility back and show that he deserves a second chance in the eyes of the NFL but even more so the public.

Michael Vick's life will be forever ruined and what legacy he had will be forever tarnished.

And here I was, all set to take Vick in my upcoming fantasy football draft. There's no question he'll go first overall in the prison fantasy league though.

More trouble in Atlanta

If it wasn’t bad enough that their starting quarterback and face of their franchise is considering a guilty plea on dog-fighting charges, one of their backups is going to be on the sidelines this season.

It looks like D.J. Shockley –my boy- tore his ACL in the Falcons pre-season victory over Buffalo on Friday night. Shockley was the seventh round pick by the Falcons in the2006 after starring at the University of Georgia.

So, this now leaves Joey Harrington even more firmly in charge of the Falcons offense with Chris Redman as the uncontested backup should –God forbid- Harrington go down with an injury. This season has “wash out” written all over it for Atlanta. If your team got messed up this bad in the pre-season while playing Madden, you would definitely hit the reset button.