NFL - Are You Ready For Some Football?! - The Offseason

[Zopperoni]

Marshall: Not Guilty

The jury has declared Broncos receiver Brandon Marshall not guilty of misdemeanor battery charge. For the first time since essentially became a Bronco with the fourth pick of the 2006 draft, his lengthy list of legal troubles are behind him.

Next up for Marshall: Recovering from hip surgery. He has been out the past two weeks with a leg injury. But first things first. A guilty verdict on battery most certainly potentially would have put Marshall in front of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell for further discipline. Not now. Once Marshall is able, and once Marshall is willing _ (another question, perhaps?) _ he will be free to become the Broncos’ top receiver again.

Providing, of course, he can leap over Jabar Gaffney on the depth chart.

Source: http://blogs.denverpost.com/broncos/...ll-not-guilty/

[Dis]

don't care about Stallworth too much, I find their statements amusing. I'm guessing his lawyer or agent wrote that. If he came up with that himself, then I'd be more sympathetic.

As for Vick, I say give him a second chance. Go Eagles. Yeah he should have known better, and shouldn't have hung out with low lifes who were involved in dog fighting, but I digress. Hopefully he chooses his friends better in the future. And starts acting like a millionaire not a gangster.

[ColdWizard]

He better not act like a millionaire with that whole bankruptcy thing.

[SlowwHand]

Stallworth has been remorseful over this deal. He said all along, he'll accept any punishment given. I haven't heard him whine over his situation, which is good. He'd be just another jackass jock if he did.

[snoopy369]

You have to say, even if he is just saying lines he's being fed, at least he does that well. Plenty of stars don't...

[-Jrabbit]

I saw Stallworth immediately after the incident, interviewed without benefit of attorney, clearly with no prepared statement. He was shaken, clearly horrified at what happened and obviously feeling a lot of guilt and remorse. And yes, he did man up and say he would accept the consequences, whatever they may be.

It was sad but very refreshing to see some honest humanity there.

Michael Vick has paide his societal debt and deserves his chance to play, but I will never be a fan and don't particularly wish him well.

[Grandpa Troll]

I saw Stallworth immediately after the incident, interviewed without benefit of attorney, clearly with no prepared statement. He was shaken, clearly horrified at what happened and obviously feeling a lot of guilt and remorse. And yes, he did man up and say he would accept the consequences, whatever they may be.

It was sad but very refreshing to see some honest humanity there.

Michael Vick has paide his societal debt and deserves his chance to play, but I will never be a fan and don't particularly wish him well.

-Jrabbit, Im with you.

I am commanded as a Christian to forgive.

I do hope Vick is remoreful for the right reasons.

I also, as you state, will never be a fan, but do hope he is a new man inside.

I am an animal lover and have no desire to support an evil doer as this, whowever, if he is indeed remoresful, I applaud and support his path to victory over his shortcomings as a human

Gramps

[Koyaanisqatsi]

So, in his first three drives as a Bronco, Orton has thrown three picks...



Wait, I just drafted Eddie Royal...

[OzzyKP]

That's why I drafted a Denver RB. If their passing game sucks, they'll have no choice but to keep it on the ground.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Was it Knowshon? He just got injured...

[OzzyKP]

oh.

[snoopy369]

What happend to Knowshon?

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Leg injury of some sort. He hurt it once, limped around a bit but stayed in, then got hurt again on one of Orton's picks and left the game. Return is questionable, which doesn't mean a thing since it's a Belichick-tree coach.

[Grandpa Troll]

George Dohrmann:Stop the charade, Eagles: Vick signing isn't about second chances

It was only a matter of time.

Once NFL commissioner Roger Goodell conditionally reinstated Michael Vick, and once the respected Tony Dungy began singing a redemption song for the talented but ex-con quarterback, you knew a team would sign him. That it was the Philadelphia Eagles might be a surprise, but not that Vick is back in the NFL.

His talent was too tantalizing, the potential upside too great. As for those horrible acts he committed against animals, the years he financed a criminal enterprise, that positive drug test just before he went to prison, well, we can only assume that it got lost in Andy Reid's excitement over what Vick can do in the Wildcat offense.

I have made my feelings known about whether Vick should have been allowed to return to the league. I hope his signing by the Eagles brings the cancellation of season tickets and protests galore. I hope companies pull their sponsorship dollars and that Vick is greeted with boos, barks and thousands of Ron Mexico jerseys in every city he visits.

I also hope Vick doesn't slip up again, that he becomes the anti-animal fighting crusader he claims he will be, and millions of kids learn from his mistakes.

But what I hope for most of all is that we can drop the charade that Vick's return to the league is about anything more than a team believing he can help it win games. It is not about giving a felon a second chance, about helping him put his life back together or about acknowledging the debt he paid to society. It is not about some greater good, and that won't change no matter how many times Tony Dungy frames it that way.

Monica Yant, a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, made a good point this morning via Facebook: "If [the Eagles will] pay $1 mil+ to give Michael Vick a 2nd chance, how about leading the charge to help ex-offenders citywide? Philly is home to 200,000 people with criminal records. Those with drug convictions are legally barred from ... jobs at airports, nursing homes or in security, but they can do most other tasks. And yet, few if any companies took the city up on $10,000 tax credits to hire ex-cons."

In other words, a city that routinely doesn't give its ex-cons a second chance, is now giving exactly that to Vick. Why is that? Here is how Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie framed it at the press conference announcing Vick's signing: "My hope as we go forward is Michael will prove his value in society. Whether he becomes a good football player again, it's possible. He's got an opportunity to become a good member of society. That's the goal here."

So Lurie signed him solely to help him become a good member of society? The football aspect of it was secondary?

Please.

After news of Vick's signing broke, I called a good friend who is a devout Eagles fan. I asked him if he would be placing all of his Eagles gear in a bin and setting it ablaze, and if he would protest by not watching their games this season. His response: "I don't like it but I'm not going to abandon my team just because they made a mistake and signed Vick. When my kids do something wrong I don't abandon them."

How convenient. Frame it as if he has some paternal mandate to stand by the Eagles after they've erred, as if the team were some poor little puppy who peed on the rug.

If you don't want to deny yourself the pleasure of rooting for the Eagles, even after they've done something you don't like, I'm fine with that. If the team believes winning is so important that it signs Vick despite all the crimes he has committed, I'm fine with that, too. But just call it what it is: fandom trumping morality, an attempt to win, no matter the cost.

I wholeheartedly agree with this view, seems dead-bang on.

[SlowwHand]

That's pretty much it.