Smoking The Reefer...

Michael Vick, how can you go from having the world to facing criminal charges? To me it doesn't make much sense but who am I to judge? A little less then a month ago all star quarterback Michael Vick was accused of staging dog fighting events at a property he owned in Smithsfield, Virginia. This may seem like a shocker because the first thing that runs through your mind would be "why is a millionaire quarterback going to go and do something so stupid?". According to http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/sports/usvick71707ind.html Vick payed roughly 34,000 dollars for this property were he trained, bred, and fought dogs for entertainment and for money purposes. If I were him I would have spent that money on a nice new car instead of a place to fight dogs but that's just me. After being charged Vick was suspended by the NFL until further notice (although it doesn't look like he will be back anytime soon). Now get this, Vick made a little bit of money here and there but I'm sure for him it was more for entertainment purposes but I bet if you ask him now he would agree that this entertainment was not worth losing $22 million of his signing bonus from the 10-year, $130 million contract he signed in 2004, this according to http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/08/24/michael.vick/index.html?eref=rss_topstories. So after all this, after the dog fighting charges, being suspended from the NFL and potentially never playing again, and most importantly losing so much money he decides to go and test positive for marijuana. According to http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3037175 Vick is confined to his home from 10am to 6pm daily and must take random drug testing to make sure he is not using illegal substances...OOPS!! Vick must also were a ankle bracelet so the police force knows were he is at all times, so basically he is on house arrest. Since he failed the drug test the judge can now take that into consideration in Vick's trial which is set for December 10Th. What it all comes down to is that Vick had blown it all, once a great quarterback and now a criminal.

Should Carr Step Down?

Michigan is a terrible team this year, plain and simple, nobody can argue that fact, but are they a bad team because of the players or because of the coach? Michigan is off to a 1-2 start, their one win coming after the way they handled Notre Dame this past Saturday. Unfortunately for Michigan, Notre Dame is not a great team either, they are worse then Michigan but that's another story. Michigan started the season 0-2 which according to http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070910/SPORTS08/709100347/1131/SPORTS0201 was the first time Michigan opened the season with two straight home loses since 1959. I personally am a die hard Ohio State Buckeye's fan but I am also a die hard college football fan and I will give credit where credit is due. In his prime coach Carr was a good coach, his teams were always in a national championship race and he got the nations top recruits as well as any other coach, I just think that age is setting in for him, sometimes you just have to know when to say enough is enough. He had 26 returning seniors to the team according to the roster on http://www.mgoblue.com/roster.cfm?section_id=258&top=2&level=3. Two of these seniors go by the names of Chad Henne and Mike Hart. For those of you who don't know these two athletes were the number nine and number five in the pre season Heisman trophy race as seen on http://www.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/stories/012307aai.html. Another interesting thing about these two is that both of them could have skipped their senior year and went pro but no, they came back to win a national championship and beat Ohio State. How do they expect to do that if they can't even beat a one AA team? This is a perfect example of why Carr should step down because he is really just hurting the program. Michigan is not the type of team to fire a coach midway through season and I agree with them on that one, he has been with the program for so many years at least let him go out with some class. What it comes down to is Michigan's problem is not their players, it's their coach. At the end of this season regardless of the record the athletic director for Michigan needs to give Carr the option to retire and if he refuses then give him the boot, after that they can hire a younger coach and try to rebuild the team and get Michigan back to a championship caliber team, maybe they can even beat Ohio State someday...although they shouldn't count their chickens before they hatch.

Cheating In Sports

The Patriots without a doubt have some of the greatest players in the NFL, I don't think anyone could argue that but now the question is are they cheaters? To me I think it's a matter of opinion. Some will say they have been cheating for years and didn't deserve any of their Superbowl rings and some will argue it doesn't really matter because they are a great team regardless. Anyone who watches football knows that the Patriots would have won the game against the Jets hands down without a doubt. They were the better team and it doesn't take a sports analyst to know that. Now when it comes to the punishment against the team that's a whole different argument. According to http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=nfl&id=3018762 the fines against the team was that Coach Belichick was charged 500K and the team would be fined 250K. Also if the team makes the playoffs they will lose a first round draft pick. To me i don't think that money is the issue. Even though this was the biggest fine in NFL history it is only a small amount of money out of Coach Belichicks expected 4.2 millions dollar salary in 2007, this according to http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3019472. I don't even think that the team losing their first round draft pick really matters either due to the fact the team is practically full of superstars. The real issue for Belichick is his reputation. All of the Superbowl's he has won and will win in the future are now always going to be questioned and his legacy as a coach is now tarnished forever. All the Patriots can do at this point is go out for the rest of the season and do what they need to do to try and win a Superbowl and only hope that this whole thing is forgotten about.

Overpaid?

Athletes make a lot of money, nobody can deny that, but are they really overpaid? To me athletes earn every dime they make because they are able to sell themselves. They put in their time everyday to make themselves better for the fans entertainment. If people are going to spend loads of money on jerseys and tickets to the game then that's their own fault. The athletes are not stealing their money (well most of them are not) so why do they get blamed for making to much of it. Anyone who says they make to much money would take that paycheck in a heartbeat. Many people don't look at the entire picture either, they just think that the athletes have it made, they don't understand what it's like to be on the road all the time. They don't know that they hardly ever see their family or that every time an athlete goes out for something as simple as getting dinner with their wife the amount of people that ask for their autograph. Now don't get me wrong, all those problems are somewhat eased when they get that paycheck but money isn't everything. I guess what I'm trying to say is don't say an athlete doesn't do anything to earn those millions of dollars. Just remember that they had to put in a lot of time in their younger years to get to the point they are at right now.

Writing Experience

I feel that writing is a way to express your opinions or to help state facts. Though not all writing is always exciting it is still important in its own way. It is a great way to express one feelings and a good way to try and persuade someone to have the same feelings on a topic you do. Writing to me can be boring at times but I only feel that way if I am forced to write on a topic that I do not take interest in. My favorite types of writing would be anything fictional that I get to make up off the top of my head and be as creative as I want to be. The other type would be sports related writing. I can read or write anything about sports because I have such a great interest in them.