2007 NFL Off-Season Discussion Thread (Including Vick's troubles) (1 Viewer)

[Shane Martin]

Nothing IMHO tops the needles being thrown at Barry Bonds.

 

[Chris]

God, the line "I underthrew him a bone.." damn, that's cold.

Cruel, but creepily funny.


And this is when it gets bad:


http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2941489

Peta, All Sharpton, Russel Simmons, and other groups all ask the Falcons to distance themselves from Vick? Argh. Vick's ability to play the race card is going up in smoke. ProFootballTalk is noting that Goodell may consider a ban on Vick, because while he's just accused, the policy of the NFL is that he is specifically prevented from being in the company of or supporting gambling, and as four witnesses have "flipped" and given testimony to the feds, it appears as though that burden, though not a crime, is pretty well established.

Worse news for Vick, though, would be if the Associated Press is right.. it appears as though his cousin Boddie has flipped on him and become a witness for the Feds. If this is right (he is not named in the indictment) then this could be devestating toward a Vick defense, as it would be a first person direct account through a resident at Vick's property.

 

[tyler payne]

Just for a change of pace a Bengal who is doing something worth while for the community

http://www.bengals.com/news/news.asp?story_id=6130

tyler

 

[Jason Pancake]

Somebody snagged the kickvick.com domain and put up a petition with a cheezy little flash animation. Clever domain name, though.

http://www.kickvick.com

 

[Chris]

Nike just dropped Vick.

 

[tyler payne]

Source?

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

Tyler, here is a USAToday story on the suspension of the latest product which was to bare Michael Vick's name.

 

[Chris]

ESPN, but the link above works. Nike will not recall product, but they will not issue new product. They are according to ESPN, in talks to "opt out" of the Mike Vick business.

 

[Dome Vongvises]

Here's a challenge for you guys: with the possible exception of Ray Lewis, do we know of any professional athletes who have found themselves at the wrong place at the wrong time? It's pretty obvious to me the company a person keeps is something of a reflection of that person. Thugs follow thugs.

And just to take another pot shot at the Vick family, it's seriously bad when one family member is a terrible person (Marcus Vick). But two? Gotta blame the momma for that one.

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

Dome, Pac-Man Jones is always in the wrong place at the wrong time, but I don't think he's who you're asking about because he's usually there doing the wrong thing.



As far as pro athletes getting in trouble for things they probably didn't do, I can't think of one off the top of my head in a criminal case, but I will say that a fair number have been falsely accused of various things over time in an effort to extort money. I'd say that's far more common then a guy just being in the wrong place at the wrong time during the commission of a crime. Which does go to illustrate your point that thugs attract thugs.

 

[Chris]

Oddly, it appears as though the Tennessee Titans are the ones putting some pressure in to have Vick get suspended. They basically contend: hey, pacman wasn't convicted but the accusation was enough to get him suspended; what's good for the goose....

 

[tyler payne]

Ok, sorry I thought that Nike was dumping Vick all together. I knew about the shoe thing, Mike and Mike were talking about it this morning. The thing about The Falcons and Nike, is that they have to be really carefull as to what they do to Vick and the reasons why they take any action. Because Vick has not been convicted of anything, I don't think The Falcons or Nike can out-right fire him.

Depending on state laws, you can suspend employees with pay while being investigated, but until he is convicted they can not fire him. But because of the conduct policy that the NFLPA brokered, I beleive that the Commish can suspend him without pay.

Anyone think that Atlanta will go after Culpepper?

tyler

 

[tyler payne]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2942747

Looks like Atlanta is not interested in Culpepper. But Gruden is always looking for QB's.



tyler

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Tampa was one of the last teams I would suspect to be interested in Culpepper. How many QB's does Gruden need on his roster? I guess he's not as enamored with Garcia as was reported (imagine that).

 

[Chris]

NFL teams can drop anybody for any reason. Tank Johnson wasn't convicted of the reasons he was dropped from Chicago. Several NFL players have been canned for all sorts of reasons. They don't need a conviction, though they would prefer to avoid the cap hit.

 

[tyler payne]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2943276

Looks like the falcons are offering Vick some paid time off.

Teams don't need a conviction, but depending on the state you live in, the law may require a conviction. With Tank, I believe that the the Bears released him because they were "embarrassed of his legal problems". The Bears never said it was because of the Arizona incident. The Bears were able to let him go because of his past convictions, plus the fact that he was going to miss the first 8 games of the season.

Contracts are not guaranteed in the NFL, but players can file a grievance if they feel a team cut them for off field reasons, and not on field performance.

 

[Chris]

Gruden figures he needs at least 1/4 of all of his signed players to be QB. That way, he can convert them into kickers or linemen or whatever.. I have no idea. As a Bucs fan for years, I'm kind of emberrassed at what has happened to our franchise. Yeah, we got Gruden, and a SB, which I'm happy about, but we also ended up emptying the bank, bad draft choices, weird contracts and a defense that is moving in the wrong direction. If Gruden can't turn it around this year, he's got problems.

 

[tyler payne]

The problem with the QB's in Tampa is with so many of them it's gonna be hard for any of them to seperate themselves as the front runner. That problem is going to be escalated if Culpepper signs with them. I guess it's a nice situation for Gruden, in that he has a lot of options at the position, but I think players are not going to see any of the QB's as the leader of the offense, which I think you need.

 

[Brandon_T]

Chris, if you only knew what I would give up to have that problem now after winning a superbowl...

 

[Shane Martin]

I was thinking that Atlanta fans shouldn't be worried if Vick sits for a while. They did sign Joey Harrington in the offseason