Running From City To City

So much excitement in the world of sports, just over the weekend. I wish I had another person to write for me, but thus far, it's just me (if you want to guest blog, let me know!) So that means not enough time to cover everything. My selection:

1. Exciting first weekend in the NFL. My brief observations: Brett Favre looks good in his new suit, eh? Did he really call them "New Yorkians"? As I told Novak Djokovic, I'm available for American culture lessons...Way to go Aaron Rodgers, even doing the "Lambeau Leap" like that other guy. Keep winning, they'll forget all about him...More and more the NFL seems like it stands for "Not For Long" with all of these significant injuries on day one, including Brady, Vince Young, Nate Burleson, at least 15 others. What gives?...What happened to the Colts?...The Philadelphia Eagles, and more specifically, Donovan McNabb, look very good...St. Louis looks...the same. And with the Lions performance, that makes two of them...Kudos, though, to Atlanta Falcons QB Matt Ryan. Keep winning, they'll forget all about him...Happy to see Jay Cutler (with his Denver Broncos) doing well in his first regular season game since learning he has diabetes. Very much looking forward to seeing how the rest of this season shakes out, and I don't even have a fantasy team. Go figure.

2. U.S. Open wins by Roger Federer and Serena Williams. I love seeing people (around) my age still getting it done. Serena's final was much more interesting than Fed's, but the best matches were definitely played in their quarterfinal and semifinal rounds, respectively. Each got a "milli"* and a half for their efforts and regained their respective perch at the top of the rankings - Fed, of course, not having left that long ago. This is a huge deal for Serena though, hence the high racquet throw at the end of the match. Her win effectively silences all of the critics who said her and her sister weren't dedicated to the game. They don't need to do what everyone else does. They're really just that good. And so is that Oreo commercial featuring the Williams sisters vs. the Manning brothers (see video in right corner). I love the concept but must admit I'd prefer it was for something healthy like, PowerBar, rather than Double Stuf Oreos. Ah, well.

3. I am really curious to know what in the world Monta Ellis did to his ankle that would cause him to lie to the Golden State Warriors about its cause. He claimed he hurt it playing basketball, but then it was discovered that he tore his deltoid ligament and had multiple scrapes and scratches, "not typical of a basketball injury." I got scratched in basketball once and still have the scar on my arm to prove it, but yeah, he really should have made sure his story would check out better than this before he decided to lie. I don't know him, but I'll guess it's something silly that violates his contract like wheelies on an ATV or motorcycle, parachuting, extreme jump roping, bear-wrestling, etc. I'm kinda hoping it's one of the latter two and not any of the first three. The truth comes to the light eventually...

4. Marion Jones left prison. Sad. (Some of these news stories are a little harsh, don't you think? I don't see other admitted dopers getting treated this harshly.)

5. I saw an ad the other morning for a new show on National Geographic called Dogtown: Saving the Michael Vick Dogs. Normally, I would think this was a great idea...if it weren't the season premiere of the Dogtown series and if it didn't include his name in the title. It seems a bit exploitative, premiering not coincidentally within a day of the Atlanta Falcon's own season. Not that I expect much out of Hollywood these days, but I thought National Geographic was different. I guess I was wrong. Why can't we let sleeping dogs lie?





*If anyone caught the MTV VMA's last night (DVR is again my new best friend!), 'Lil Wayne has officially taken over James Brown spot as the hardest working man in showbiz. The Kid Rock set confirmed it. I think his pants are the same length as the sleeves of my coat, though - he's not even sagging, he actually has them cut to only come up to his hip. What next?

Not The Game It Was Billed To Be

Tonight's Monday Night Football game between the Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans Saints was supposed to feature two of the biggest stars in the game: Michael Vick and Reggie Bush.

Only it didn't quite turn out as planned.

Bush is injured and is out for the rest of the regular season and perhaps the playoffs, too, if the Saints make it that far. With a win over the Falcons Monday night, they put themselves in a better position to do just that.

Vick, as you all know by now, did not play this year and will not play for at least the next two seasons after being sentenced to 23 months in prison and 3 years probation for pleading guilty to federal charges related to dogfighting.

Several of the players and fans made tributes to Vick, wearing his number. One Falcons player, Rodney White, donned a hand-written "Free Mike Vick" shirt under his jersey. Interestingly, most of the fans, and all of the players supporting Vick appeared to be African-American.

Vick received his sentence of almost 2 years in prison because the federal court judge said that he had lied. Lying to the government - and then getting caught - is an offense worse than death when it comes to the feds. Guaranteed to get you on the higher end of the sentencing guidelines.

Here, the prosecutors asked for a 12-18 months sentence, and the federal guidelines said the judge should sentence Vick to 18 months to two years. The judge pretty much threw the book at him, with 23 months. The feds don't really do that whole "early release" thing but he could about a month reduction, added to the month he has already served, and the earliest he could expect to get out would be the summer of 2009.

He's also looking at state court charges, but hopefully he can serve that concurrently with his federal sentence so that he would still get the same summer 2009 release date.

Well, I won't repeat everything I said before about the Vick situation (click here for my previous posts on the matter), but it is sad to see him become another statistic. Sports pundits on ESPN are saying he'll never play another game for the Falcons, but that's not what Falcons owner Arthur Blank said during Monday night's telecast. He, like NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, said that he would weigh the situation when it came time to do so. Prior to the game, he said that Vick was out of the picture. For now, Vick's contract will likely be tolled until he is able to return to the team. Blank's in this business to make money as much as he is anything else. I'm sure having Michael Vick, hopefully a new Michael Vick who's trying to keep his head above water, will be a money-making venture for which most teams that need a boost would pay a lot of money. Basically, if the Falcons are still struggling, I

Leave it to a federal judge to mess up my prediction that he would be back next year. Tolling that time for his prison sentence, Vick will be back as soon as he is free to do so. He will be sent to a "Club Fed" somewhere presumably not too far away from home, where he'll be able to stay in pretty good shape, but more importantly, he'll be able to put some distance between himself and this situation. Club Fed is nothing like being free, but it's the best he could get while still being held behind bars.

The one thing that the judge who sentenced him (not coincidentally, a George W. Bush appointee) said that I agree with is that he let a lot of kids down who looked up to him. But beyond that, he also has a chance to be a role model for those who have hit their lowest points to turn it all around. Now that he has almost two years to think about things, I sincerely hope that his story ends as one of redemption and not one of lost potential.

I'm pulling for you, Mike Vick, and in time, so will your previous fans.

BREAKING NEWS: Vick Gets 23 Month-Sentence for Dogfighting

I just saw this on CNN. I knew when I saw the time his co-defendants got that it wasn't looking good. This seems a bit much given the sentencing guidelines.

More details to follow . . .

Hit Me, DA ,One More Time

Today, a grand jury sitting in Surry County, Virginia indicted (i.e., found enough evidence to support a formal charge) Michael Vick with one count of "beating or killing or causing dogs to fight other dogs" and one count of "engaging in or promoting dogfighting." While each is punishable for a maximum of five years, these are Class 6 felonies in Virginia, so the jury, or the court, may choose imprisonment for one to five years OR jail for up to 12 months and a fine of up to $2,500, either or both. Poindexter the DA (sounds like a rapper) in Surry County, had threatened at least 10 charges, but it seems the grand jury found only 2 charges supported by the evidence, declining to indict him on 8 other counts. One of his co-defendants was not so lucky, getting hit with four .

This ESPN article says that Vick's attorneys are challenging these charges on the grounds of double jeopardy. Unless I missed something, I thought there was no "double jeopardy" across jurisdictions. That would mean you can be charged with the same crime in two different state courts, or in federal and state court. It seems other lawyers have weighed in on this (click here and here for confirmed attorneys) and have all come to the same conclusion. These sites are placing the blame on Vick's attorneys for not working out a deal with the state beforehand once he pled guilty to the federal charges.

But back in Surry County, Virginia, Poindexter says that he can't wait to get rid of these cases. So he can keep trying Jethro for DUI's on tractors? Yeah, not buying it.

What I'm also not buying is the skepticism or should I say flat out denial that race has anything to do with this case, because I'm about to show you that it does.

Earlier today, CNN.com posted an article discussing Vick's indictment:

The grand jury is composed of six people, two black males, two black females and two white females.

That was all the article had to say about race. No mention was made of why this mattered or was worth mentioning. Now, here is a link to that same CNN article. As of the latest update, you will notice that this sentence appears nowhere in the update, nor is there any mention in the article whatsoever of race. But it was in there, and you can do a Google News search for the sentence if you don't believe me. You should hurry because that may disappear, too.

Even ESPN tried to couch the race issue in terms of questions posed to Poindexter:

In a written statement, Poindexter and Sheriff Harold Brown attempted to diffuse in advance any suggestion that race influenced the grand jury. Brown, Poindexter and the four defendants are black, as are four of the six grand jurors.

"These are serious charges, and we can assure you that this grand jury was not driven by racial prejudice, their affection or lack of affection for professional athletes, or the influence of animal rights activists and the attendant publicity," the statement said.

I read this very interesting article by Howard Bryant on how race is intertwined with the Vick case. He talks about how we accept difference in other facets of life, but we can't agree as a whole to accept that one's race makes a difference. He even includes quotes from letters that he has received over the course of the proceedings, which are interesting all by themselves because he takes heat from both sides, white and black. Please take the time to check it out for yourself, but here's an excerpt from the last two paragraphs:

When it happens again, when the next story hits us like a flash flood and we're asking, dumbfounded, how race again became so prominent, remember that Vick has already provided the answer: It always was. Go back to W.E.B. Du Bois and read the first paragraph: "The problem of the 20th Century is the problem of the color line, no longer in opportunities, perhaps, but certainly in thought."

Take the umbrella words -- equality, reality, justice -- and throw them in the trash. Umbrellas are useless, because here, it always rains sideways. One day, maybe we'll believe in truths that aren't our own. Start from a new place. Maybe then we'll have a fighting chance next time.

Of course, one glance at the comments following the article, and you can see that all of this went in one ear (or eye) and out the other. Speaking of comments, check out Montez's comments to my Vick post yesterday. I mean, seriously, is he lying?

Maybe you were like me and said the pledge of allegiance every day at school. If you did, I bet you, also like me, never really questioned what "with liberty and justice for all" meant. Maybe we should have, because evidently some people actually think that's true!

Virginia Taking Its Turn on the Punching Bag

It appears that Virginia's Surry County Commonwealth's prosecutor has decided today is the day to catapult his name into the national spotlight by seeking an indictment against . . . you guessed it, Michael Vick:

"Most of the matters that I'm presenting have already been admitted in sworn statements authored by the defendants in the federal proceedings," [Surry County Commonwealth's Attorney Gerald G.] Poindexter said.

He couldn't detail the exact indictments he will pursue, but said the local investigation and the federal investigation largely focused on different crimes.

"The killing of dogs is one of those statutory prohibitions. Dogfighting is a crime, the mistreatment of animals is a crime, so you could take your pick, or take them all," Poindexter said before cutting the conversation short. "I don't have anything else to say about it. I'm through with it. Hopefully it's coming to an end."

When he says hopefully it's coming to an end, I am certain that he means the indictment process and not the circus that will be his rural county courthouse, which I'm also certain has seen its fair share of crimes involving animals . . . HA.

Let's just wait and see what the charges are. While I'm sure Poindexter (what a name) is salivating over the idea of putting a Vick conviction on his resume, I am interested to see how willing he is to put Vick's career on permanent hold. Especially since he was already angry at the Feds for moving in on this case before he was able to charge Vick under state law. When he appeared to be taking his sweet time, the Feds decided to go ahead with the federal charges, and here we are.

More than likely, there won't be a trial because of the admissions made in federal court, but there will be enough hearings with this Poindexter guy to feed the late night comedians for at least a week.

The saga continues . . .

Vick Revisited

I think I had a bit of a change of heart today about the Mike Vick situation. After I thought about the fact that CNN ran several hours of live coverage of Paris Hilton being taken from her home for DUI charges, I was reminded of the ridiculousness of the media's and our own fascination with the misdeeds of celebrities, no matter who or what color they are. I won't even get into the whole Don Imus debacle. I think seeing people with money and fame suffer makes the miserable among us feel a little bit better about our own lives. We like a good rags to riches story, but we can't get enough of a fall from grace. Kind of sad isn't it?

Mike Vick, I really hope you can turn this around. To all the dogfighters, I think it's safe to say the federal government has their good eye* on you so you might want to find a new hobby.

*Thank you J to the E.


**UPDATE** DMX did not get the memo. Tell his people to start reading this blog!

Rover Has Feelings, Too: The Michael Vick Saga

Ok, I'm going to jump in the ring with my two cents on this whole Michael Vick affair. If you haven't heard by now . . . you live under a rock, and frankly, I'm not sure how you found my blog but haven't head about Michael Vick. So, I'm going to assume you know the deal.

It seems everyone has an opinion, and that PETA is leading the charge to slay this man in the court of public opinion before (and if) he ever sees the inside of a courtroom (except when he was arraigned). Now I won't go as far as this comment did on a recent ESPN article:

toniokareem (8/18/2007 at 2:15 PM)
Gsmond...they're dogs....Matter of fact...they were his dogs, he paid for them. He raised them, and they were in his back yard. I could see if he attacked other people's dogs.

Now, as I said, I'm not going to go as far as toniokareem. I think there is something wrong withthis picture. I thought it was wrong when I went on a camping trip in fifth grade and watched some boys play "baseball" with frogs and tree limbs.

But don't we also condone sport shooting and hunting, sport fishing? I don't see PETA trying to tie up fishermen with their own lines like they are doing to Vick. We don't even know if he ever actually participated in any of the abuse.

The bottom line, though, is that the current indictment against him comes with a maximum six-year penalty. If they add racketeering to the mix,as they are suspecting, then he's looking at a twenty-year maximum sentence for that offense alone.

This twenty years may or may not be added on top of the six years for the initial charges, depending on whether he would have to serve the terms consecutively or concurrently. Consecutively means that he'd be serving a maximum of 26 years; concurrently means that the sentence for racketeering would start running at the same time as the initial charges, so that he would be looking at a maximum of 20 years. If that doesn't make any sense, check this out.

But all that is just speculation. I read the entire indictment and it seems to me that they are going to need other people to connect Vick to the worst facts because the feds do not have an open and shut case against him personally.

If he chooses to plea, which he may given what he's up against, he's guaranteed to get less than maximum sentence (hence why it's called a plea "deal" because no one would enter one if they weren't getting something better than they thought they could get at trial).

There are some pretty heinous allegations out there, but I can't hang the man out to dry just yet without knowing the facts. Some things just smell a little funny: he didn't live there, did he really need the money, etc.

Plus, when:

(1) I bet PETA wasn't there when this musher was suspended from Iditarod* competitions for two years for allegedly beating his sled dogs during a race,

and (2) Prisoner Jonathan Lee "kick him while he's down" Riches© (yes, he has copyrighted his name) is suing Vick for $63 billion "backed by gold and silver" and delivered to the prison, claiming that, among other allegations, Vick "sold [his] dogs on Ebay, and used the proceeds to buy missles [sic.] from the Iran government," I start to wonder what this is really all about.

My question is this: If this were Peyton Manning, would this be as big of a deal?




*This mention does not make Iditarod a sport.