Does Favre understand that everyone in the NFL gets the off season off and that when the SuperBowl is over that not everyone retires? In what has become a soap opera of a story, Brett Favre has official un-retired again, and signed with the Minnesota Vikings. This comes only a few weeks after he officially stated he was going to stay retired “this time”, and less than 17 months since he first officially retired from the Packers. Thank god he doesn’t run a company, because if he made business decisions the same way he makes football decisions, he’d be in need of an AIG sized bailout! If you’d like to read more about the situation, click the link below for ESPN’s story:
August 19, 2009
August 13, 2009
Double Standard Perhaps or Faulty Legal System???
Disclaimer: Before you read this, know that I do not support anything that Michael Vick did. I think it was disgusting and he deserved to be punished.
A little background. In 2006, Michael Vick was charged and later convicted of sponsoring dog fighting. His punishment: 2 years in prison, loss of his playing contract which lead him to bankruptcy, and close to half a season suspended once released from prison.
In March of 2009, Donte Stallworth of the Cleveland Browns KILLS A PERSON while driving drunk. His punishment: 24 days in jail, and will have to sit out an entire football season.
I am not trying to minimize the killing of innocent animals, I’m trying to show outrage, that a football player can drive drunk, kill an innocent person, and only have to spend 24 days in jail?!? Does our society care more about pit bulls than a construction worker trying to make a living? Or does it show how fickle the American public is, and how they can latch onto a topic that is or is not the most significant news story and not let go of it (with help from the press)?
In 2006, since the press didn’t have anyone to go after (bashing George Bush was getting old) when Vick was caught it was the biggest news story for months. Nightly news shows started with the story for months, people protested in the streets, burned Vick’s jersey, and Vick’s life as he knew it was destroyed. Though Stallworth has made the headlines, I don’t see the nightly news headlines plastering his case every night, I don’t see people outside his house protesting, or burning his jersey, or calling for his permanent ban from football. Since the economy is in such bad place, and everyone is in love with our new President the story has been mostly played in the sports portion of the news casts, or mostly on ESPN. It frustrates me to no end that such a double standard can be held in the eyes of the press and the public at large. A man’s life was ended, a member of a family lost, and people don’t seem to care that the person spent only 24 days in prison.
I know a lot of people hold anger to Vick, so let’s look at another example. Plaxico Burress, shot himself in the leg with a gun he was carrying illegally. Yes what he did was stupid, and illegal, and he should be punished. The press fed off this like no one’s business, and now Burress faces between 3.5 years and 15 years in prison for his mistake. He shoots himself in the leg, injures no one else, and faces at least 3.5 years in jail. Stallworth KILLED SOMEONE WHILE DRUNK, and faced 24 days….I cannot be the only one that finds our legal system which would allow such discrepancies in punishment to be completely upside down.
OK, my rant is over….
VT’s R.B. Darren Evans Out For The Season
For those VT football fans out there, yesterday’s news wasn’t good. Darren Evans, the surprise running back from last year’s season tore his ACL in practice. It seems that he might have made a small tear in it last week, and in practice this week it tore off. They are planning for surgery sometime in the next week, but he won’t be ready for this season. That leaves us with three options at running back: Josh Oglesby, Ryan Williams, and David Wilson. Josh seems to have moved to first string with Williams showing up to camp out of shape. VT relies on their running game, so it is not something we can be weak in. David Wilson was one of the highest rank high school running backs recruited this year, but they are going to try and redshirt him this year. I think it all will depend on how the other two pan out. For more details on Evans injury and how the team will get by, click the link below:
August 7, 2009
Snoop Dogg Visits Raven’s Training Camp
Who doesn’t love Snoop Dogg? Once you watch the following video, you are also going to be asking, who doesn’t love that awesome hat he has on. It appears that Snoop Dogg and Ray Lewis are buddies, and Snoop spent yesterday sitting in the stands watching practice. I tried to post the video here, but for some reason I couldn’t get it to work, so click the link below if you’d like to watch it. Don’t forget about the hat!
July 6, 2009
Another Shocking Death – Steve McNair Killed Over the Weekend
When I read the headline, I was completely shocked. Steve McNair, former NFL (and Raven’s) QB, was shot and killed Saturday morning in what appears to be a murder suicide. The police aren’t calling it that yet, but the scene and the back story certainly make it appear that way. McNair had been shot four times, and what appears to be his “girlfriend” (he is still married), was shot once. The gun was laying near the woman, and the police are not looking for other suspects at this time. I am sure that more details will emerge, but that still won’t help the family and children he left behind. It seems like the summer of ‘09 has not been kind, and I really hope that there are no more surprise deaths in the near future. I think we’ve had our fill for the year.
May 29, 2009
Big Day O’s Fans – Wieters (a.k.a. “The Switch Hitting Jesus”) Is Making His MLB Debut Tonight
If the rain holds out, us O’s fans are in for a treat tonight. In a small sign that the team is making progress, Matt Wieters the best baseball prospect in the MLB is making his major league debut tonight. The hype machine across the nation is high, and with the O’s in the spotlight, I hope we can show our promise of the future. ESPN has a great article on Wieters (I cannot believe I just gave credit to the Yankee/Red Sox channel). So click the link below for more. The game starts at 7:00pm on MASN.
May 7, 2009
Breaking: Manny Ramirez Tests Positive For PEDs – Suspended For 50 Games
A head scratcher for sure, Manny Ramirez tested positive for an illegal substance and will be suspended by the MLB for 50 games. Manny’s story was that he was prescribed a medication for a “personal health issue” and that the doctor thought it would be OK. OK, I will actually believe that part of the story. I even give him credit for coming out and taking responsibility for it. But why on earth didn’t he talk with the MLB offices is beyond me…I mean if there is a personal health issue that he is dealing with and didn’t want people to find out, I can understand, but there had to be a way for him to check out the medication he was taking. I would imagine that his image will be tarnished forever, and I don’t imagine that he is too happy losing almost 8 million dollars while suspended from the game.
If no appeals are filed, and no changes happen Man-Ram is eligible to play again on July 3rd. What the response to this will be is still unknown. I would imagine as the facts come out, people will decide if he was guilty or not.
April 27, 2009
Build It And They Will Come? Not If A Single Ticket Costs $2,625
In what will come as no surprise except for a few people people in the Yankee’s organization, the Yankees high priced seats near the field have not been selling as they expected. The seats going from the 1st base dugout over to the 3rd base dugout range from 500 dollars a seat all the way to $2,625 a game have yet to be even half full outside of Opening Day. What are the reasons behind it? Economic downturn, or stupidity thinking that someone would pay an ‘average joe’s’ monthly paycheck for one ticket to a baseball game? Though the Yanks are at the extreme, other baseball teams that have tried making the tickets close to the field extremely expensive (the Washington Nationals are another example) and are seeing ticket sales languish for those seats. What makes it even worse is that those are typically the seats seen on tv, which makes it appear that the fan bases of these teams have abandoned them…in the cast of the Nats this might be the truth. I think some teams are going to find out the hard way that there is a limit to what a person will pay for a good time. Yeah the uber-rich will pay for some of these tickets, but not everyone else.
When teams such as the Yanks start losing bags of money due to people not paying outrageour ticket prices, maybe they will begin to rethink spending nearly 500 million on 3 players next time…
April 7, 2009
Orioles Trounce Yanks in Season Opener 10-5
This is one of the few days the O’s will be on top and the Yanks will be on bottom. It doesn’t happen to often, so I am going to relish in this fact until our next game tomorrow night. We did what we needed to do to win, and we got lucky in a few other places. Regardless we pulled off a hard fought win to open our season yesterday.
It was great to see the Yank’s ace falter; he didn’t get out of the 5th inning, and didn’t strike out a single person. Also Tex didn’t receive a warm welcome after the native Maryland kid signed with the enemy. The 180 million dollar addition was 0-4, and everyone made sure he was aware of it.
The O’s ace Guts (Guthrie), was pretty stellar in his debut, up until his last two batters. He walked three, struck out three, and allowed 3 runs in six innings of work. Things almost came unglued when the bullpen took over. They allowed another 2 runs which made it a really close game. That was until our new shortstop hit a 2 banger in the 8th inning to put the game out of reach.
I really hope this is a sign to come, but after 11 years of losing, I think any O’s fan you meet will be skeptical. Our starting pitching after our first two pitchers is suspect, and our bullpen certainly didn’t make anyone feel great. Our hitting will be our strong point, and our fielding defense will be great this year. Let’s hope we can live off that so we can have a respectable season. I’ve included some game recaps below, so read up and enjoy the fact that the Yanks were embarassed on national tv…at least until tomorrow 
April 6, 2009
Only Day That Every Team Is In First Place – Baseball’s Opening Day 2009
It all starts today. Every fan of every team thinks they have a shot at the World Series this year. Sometimes the euphoria can last hours, days, or even weeks. At some point everything falls into place and we get back into the typical pattern in the standings. There is always room for surprises like last year’s Cinderella story of the Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays making it into the World Series. Will your team be this year’s surprise?
If you are a fan of the Baltimore Orioles (like me) I can answer that question for you right now…no. Everyone is saying this won’t be our year, and with the starting 5 we put in the rotation this year, it’s easy to see why. There will be some big moments this year, with a catcher waiting in the wings to take over, or with some young pitching waiting to to dominate, but sadly I think we’ll have to wait until at least next year to look respectable. So O’s fans enjoy Opening Day, relish the sell out crowd (hopefully all cheering for the home team), and dream of 2010, when hopefully the landscape will be a lot different!
