What are we doing?

Tom Brady stretching in light rain makes the headlines of ESPN’s football page and people are reading it. This is ridiculous. I know he is Tom Brady but he’s stretching in light rain. Who cares? Imagine how funny this must seem to Tom Brady. He sees himself like we all see ourselves, we are just people. What would we think if we went outside during a light mist and 10 minutes later we were making national news with photos of us in stretching positions all over the internet? It’s crazy.

I didn’t even bother reading the article. I would guess it would cover Tom throwing some passes and discussing his injury for the 200th time. Then I would guess they would discuss his recent marriage.

That’s the life and why am I so jealous?

What else is funny is the fact that they mention light rain? I love it.

I believe it. I watch this guy game in and game out and he could’ve played in the NFL. He’s a beast athletically and we don’t truly know how fast he really is yet. I’d love to get him timed and I’d love to see him go through combine activities. Then I’d love to see a 6*0 db try to cover him near the goal line.

I got into this because I’d been reading some recent articles on the topic and people openly debating if James could make it. He’d make it. Lesser athletes have made it and he is an elite talent that doesn’t come along every day. Lebron played high school football and dominated as a receiver. If you’ve ever seen him get the basketball in the open court you realize how fast he is and how quick he can burst by people. In basketball we get to see his finesse as well and how amazingly he moves that body for his size. Not only could he play pro football but he could star in pro football.

I said last week that I believed football players to be the best athletes in the world overall and I honestly believe that, but I don’t believe there is a better athlete playing professional sports today than Lebron James so I would never put the NFL past him.

Maybe he’ll pull a Michael Jordan and give it a try or maybe he won’t. We would all love to see him try and it would only improve his marketability. I’m not saying it is going to happen but I’d love to see him try if nothing else to cure my curiosity about it and obviously I’m not the only one.

I’ve thrown this around with a few of my friends the last couple days and I’ll explain a little bit of my mindset.

Let me clarify something first…I’m not a soccer fan. Not at all. I believe soccer to be the easiest sport to play of the main 5. (Baseball, Basketball, Football, Hockey, Soccer) Having said that, I’m friends with many people who are big soccer fans and who believe it to be the greatest game in the world. They site that athletically there is no match and the fact that it is the most popular sport in the world. I see both points to a degree but I’m an american. In America, the best athletes don’t play soccer, not even close. What do they play?

The best athletes can’t play baseball either. Let me clarify this by saying that baseball is a game of many skills that are incredible to be good at. I believe hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in any sport. I’ve hit off players throwing in the low 90’s and when they throw something that isn’t a fastball it literally can freeze your brain so when i see players hitting .300 or better it is an amazing talent. But the best athletes are people who are fast, strong, good jumpers, good endurance and good at multiple things. Baseball players have guys who are clearly out of shape but great hitters. A great hitter is someone who could be gifted as a hitter but still not a great overall athlete.

I don’t know enough about hockey or care enough about hockey to even get into it. I will only say that to be a pro, on any level, is an amazing achievement of athleticism and mental toughness.

That leaves me with basketball and football. Both are extremely gifted. In football you are talking about people who might weigh 300 pounds who still can run like some running backs. In basketball you have players who are 7*0 who can still run and jump with anyone in the world.

If I look for the best athlete in basketball you have to look at Lebron James. He’s 6*8 260 pounds and can fly. He’s fast, strong, can jump and do anything well on the court. He’s an amazing athlete whom I believe could’ve been a pro football player had he gone that direction. Let me even say that if Lebron James grew up playing soccer he would be one of the best players this country has ever seen. I’m not talking worldwide, only the states. You can also take someone like Dwight Howard. He is a specimen to watch. He is incredibly coordinated for his size and can grab the top of the backboard when he wants to. That takes overall athletic ability.

When I look at football players you have to look at skilled players like TO. I hate the guy but he is an amazing athlete. TO could’ve played pro in a couple sports as well if you ask me. He can do it all (except catch sometimes). But who has the best athletes?

drum roll……IN MY OPINION…Pro football players are the most athletic. Players to have that much size, speed and strength is amazing. Basketball players are a close 2nd but when it comes down to it I have yet to see a more athletic group of athletes than football players. The best athlete I ever saw was Bo Jackson. He was a 2 sport pro athlete who excelled at baseball and football and he made football look easy. He could do anything he wanted to do athletically.

I’ve touched on Vick a few times over the past few months and as he was released from prison this morning I figured I’d touch on a different area of discussion…Is Vick still a qb? My answer is a resounding YES.

Let’s put aside his past for a minute and realize that he’s done his time for a crime he committed. He did indeed bankroll dog fighting where horrible things were done to animals. He was found guilty and sentenced. He is very sorry for his actions and we need to let it all go. What more should we expect of the guy in all honesty?

Michael Vick is a quarterback who can run as fast or faster than any qb ever and can throw a ball a country mile. I’m not saying he could hit a targer 5 feet in front of him with a throw but he certainly has as much athletic ability as anyone I’ve ever seen. He was the qb version of Bo Jackson. Bo Jackson could do things that nobody had done before on a football field. Barring injury and baseball Bo was as talented as anyone I’ve ever seen. He played 2 pro sports at an all star level and Vick has the same type of traits. Michael Vick was able to lead the Falcons to the playoffs and the city was completely behind him. He has to start over now and he’ll go to a new franchise and play for pennies compared to what he made before. I want to see him qb the Bucs or the Panthers and see what he can do there. I’d like to see him on turf again and see if he still has it.

Either way, the guy is a qb and that’s the only position he could/should ever play.

Oh boy…now I have said that I respect Greg Paulus for attempting to come back and play division I football and I do. I don’t respect any program that is willing to let the kid actually try to play. Syracuse is under a new head coach and trying to get their program back on their feet after Greg Robinson put them through a number of losing seasons. Paulus has been told he’ll be able to compete for a starting job and that’s great because they have to say that but I’m taking them seriously. Why?

#1…If Paulus starts the program gets a 1 year guy during a rebuilding campaign. Does that make sense? If you are going to lose then lose with a redshirt freshman who is going to start for the next 3-4 years. Don’t lose if you are going to throw some guy out there who is 1 and done and isn’t proven anyway.

#2…This has to be for publicity for Syracuse and that’s not a bad idea actually. The school at least gets some pub over the deal and it takes it away from all the losses over the past few years. That’s the only logical reason behind it in my mind because for the team it isn’t smart.

Like I said, i know the school has to say that he’ll compete for a job but if he gets the job it’s a whole other story. If Paulus qb’s this team this season they had better get to a bowl and he had better be that good. If not, it will more than likely be the one mark of this new coaching regime.

I finally put 2 and 2 together yesterday and thought I’d write about this today. Players get suspended for drug use all the time, well maybe not all the time, but it happens more than it should. Still I can’t think to too many teams who had more drug problems than the Jacksonville Jaguars. I’m including the Bengals, the basketball TrailBlazers of a few years back and the Cowboys with Michael Irvin. The Jags have some issues with one position in particular and that’s at wide receiver.

In the past 3 years we’ve learned that Jimmie Smith, the should be hall of famer, has had a drug problem for years and years. We’ve learned of Matt Jones and his problem with drugs and most recently Reggie Williams has been busted. All 3 ‘ALLEGEDLY’ with cocaine. Is this a coincidence? What are the chances that 3 players from the same franchise would be busted for the same drug? If i’m a college kid and I’m selected by the Jags as a receiver then I don’t know what I’m in for and I’m not joking. Nobody could see Jones and Williams as being potential drug abusers but both obviously have some issues. If I’m the coach at Jacksonville I talk with each wideout and try to find out what is really going on there. Maybe there is a reason they haven’t had a decent wideout since Jimmy Smith retired.

Let me point out that all 3 men have been backed as being great teammates and even individuals in the community but the drug use from a professional athlete is alarming. Jones lost his job. Williams could very well be gone after underperforming since coming into the league and Smith retired after a successful but drug filled career.

Let me just say that when dealers see that Jacksonville has a need wideout they get down to practice in a hurry.

I was happy to read that this morning Jason Taylor has decided to head back to Miami and probably finish out his career. This is a player who was a 3rd round pick from Akron and he wasn’t expected to be as good as he is. He got to Miami and took off right away and became one of the best pass rushers in the league and brought a relentless energy to his team.

Taylor left last season and played with Redskins and got hurt early on and had a very quiet year. Many people speculated where he would end up this season and he enters the twilight of his career. I’m always a fan of when players return home and that is what Miami is to Taylor. He was made there and deserves to go out that way. I only hope that he goes out the way he came in and provides unexpected energy and a presence that nobody expected. Good for him and the Dolphins.

This story caught my eye because I love the EA Sports college football games. I love them more than John Madden’s games. Let me set my story here: I wake up each morning and I go downstairs in my home to our workout room. I have a playstation connected to my tv with a number of extension cables hooked to the controller. I plug in my NCAA football game and play for an hour while I ride my bike. It is the only thing I can do to not be bored while pedaling and it takes my mind off exercising. For those of you that struggle with in home exercising because of boredom I can’t recommend my strategy enough. I’ve been doing it now for 7 years and I love it. I have a point I promise.

I love the football games because of the recruiting and the thought of being Arrelious Benn for Illinois or Juice Williams and getting them a national title that they’ll never get in real life. I know that number 9 is Rejus Benn despite not having him come in the game that way. I know that I can be Juice and that my player will roughly look like Juice and have some similar physical abilities.

Sam Keller is suing the EA Sports company because he feels that they violated something by doing this. He feels that they violated an agreement by having player likenesses on the games and allowing players (like myself) to download the names of the players associated with those jersey numbers. Sam Keller, you may not remember, was a lousy QB who played at Nebraska and Arizona St.

Sam says he doesn’t want compensation but why else would you do this? Are you doing this for the other players so that they can get money instead of the NCAA? Players get full college scholarships were lots and lots of money and that’s as far as most will go. You can’t tell me how cool it would be to turn on a video game and see a player that was patterned after you. I can only imagine. If I were the players here I’d be pissed that Sam has placed this partnership in jeopardy. Every college player that is any good knows what their rankings are in these games and they love it, they’d have to. How could you be mad? Then it hit me….

I went back into my archives and played as Sam Keller in the video games. I’d be pissed if I were him because he’s just as bad in the video game as he was in real life. I’d sue too.

I will never forget watching Michael Vick while at Virginia Tech and watching him in the Sugar Bowl against Florida St. He made the defense look like kids out there and I watched in amazement and declared that he was the most athletic offensive football player I had ever seen. I grew up watching Bo Jackson so to say that Vick was more athletic was really saying something. He made plays that you can’t do in Playstation.

When Vick got to the pros the same things happened and he dominated some games with his abilities. He led his team to the playoffs and was a constant threat with the ball. He struggled with the passing game but we all figured that would come with time but when he rolled out and got outside of the pocket everyone would drop whatever they were doing and watch, just like with Michael Jordan in his prime and Pujols now for the Cardinals in baseball. Some players have that about them that whenever possible you stop and watch because you never know if you’ll see something done for the 1st time. I love that about sports.

My point here is that Michael Vick is still young enough and athletic enough to be a starting QB for half the teams in the NFL, but that’s not the question being posed. Should Mike be allowed back into the league? I have a couple points here that I want to make and argue if you want to please:

1. Michael Vick was tried,convicted and sentenced. He was punished for his actions and he served his time. He admitted that he made poor choices.

2. What if this wasn’t Michael Vick but just some random guy who committed these crimes? If an accountant committed these crimes would he or should he be allowed to continue or try to continue his line of work?

Question 2 is loaded of course because of what I believe here. Vick was guilty and admitted his guilt and served 2 years in prison for his actions. He is a football player and he is good at his job. People enjoy watching Vick play despite the hatred of the crimes he committed. People will welcome him back or they should. What else would we like him or ask him to do before he’s allowed to go back to work? Do we want to see more commercials shown about treating animals better? Do we want to see him at ASPCA meetings? He messed up, he served his time and it’s nearly time to get back on with life.

I believe in God and I know we all make mistakes. I believe that we forgive Vick if he changes and learns from his past. If he’s done that then all we can do is welcome him back and wish him the best.

This sounds strange but why not at this point? People have done worse right?

I’m just a blogger writing an opinion but Plax is down to his last strike in the league and we still don’t know what will come of his shooting his own leg in a club last year. He may be facing a league suspension or he may not. He may go to jail or he may not. And now, the Jets may sign him or they may not.

The Jets owner has come out and said that he wouldn’t veto the Gm going after and signing Plaxico. It’s clear the guy can play the game and play it well. He’s a top 5/top 10 talent at the position in the league and would be a great fit in a city that actually embraced him. Plax won a title with the Giants after he caught the game winning catch against the Pats a couple years ago and he has a special place in New York fans’ hearts. He’ll be welcomed with open arms as long as he can perform.

Do you think Sanchez wants him? Of course he wants Plax to be wearing the green and white. Who else is he really going to throw to? He needs a receiver as badly as Jay Cutler needs one in Chicago and I wouldn’t mind if the Bears went after Plax either for the same reason. Mark Sanchez needs a go to receiver who he can throw to in situations with single coverage and he needs to avoid a sack. Throw it up and let the big guy go get it because in the NFL he’s one of the best at catching the jump ball.

I hope he goes to New York because I’d like to watch him play some more in the spotlight because not everyone can do it. If he can get his life straightened out before the inevitable train wreck I’ll be even happier because everyone wants to see the bad guy turn good.