The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

Liberals often like to pride themselves on being open-minded, accepting of change, differences, and diversity. They tend to believe in equality across all ages, genders, races, creeds, and orientations. They tend to favor life-imprisonment-without-parole over the death penalty, of felons being able to vote, of people being able to turn their lives around via rehab, and being rightly rewarded with a second chance due to this. So why is it many liberals showcase inconsistency when it comes to providing individuals with second chances in life, most notably, former NFL quarterback and convicted dogfighter, Michael Vick? Before I continue, it should be noted I'm a lover of dogs, animals in general, but especially dogs. My current Siberian Husky, Lexi, is my fourth dog, adds a great amount of joy to my life, and it pains me to think of her or any other animal/pet being abused in any manner. In saying that, Michael Vick was charged, convicted, and sentenced for his role in a dogfighting...

Not long ago, former Pro Bowl quarterback and human-highlight reel Michael Vick came under scrutiny for advising former Super Bowl and current free agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick to get a haircut, saying image is important. While I disagreed with the former #1 pick's assertion that Kaepernick's protests last season played no factor in him not being signed today, I could understand his unfortunately real assertion that most NFL owners are white and there's often a double-standard in the league as far as black and white players are concerned, particularly when it comes to image. Well, now it's former Super Bowl and future Hall-of-Fame linebacker Ray Lewis's turn, and in my opinion, his advice to Kaepernick is far more troubling than Vick's. Just the other day, Lewis said this: "The football field is our sanctuary. If you do nothing else, young man, get back on the football field and let your play speak for itself. And what you do off the field, don...

Former #1 draft pick and human highlight reel, Michael Vick, recently came under some scrutiny due to advice he provided former Super Bowl quarterback Colin Kaepernick. During an interview with Jason Whitlock on Fox Sports's Speak for Yourself , Vick said: "The first thing we've got to get Colin to do is cut his hair. Listen, I'm not up here trying to be politically correct. Even if he put cornrows in there, I don't think he should represent himself in that way, in terms of just the hairstyle. Just go clean-cut, you know, why not? You're already dealing with a lot, a lot of controversy surrounding this issue, and the most important thing he needs to do is just try to be presentable." The former Pro Bowl quarterback added: "The gesture he made last year he took the stand to do what he did, listen, we all appreciated it, we respected it, and it was a good thing. I really think the stand that he took has nothing to do with him not having a job pl...

While he's appeared to show some hesitation in the past few days regarding his decision, Michael Vick has officially retired from the NFL. While the quarterback's affiliation with dogfighting will forever mar his image to a good number of people, I thought I'd try to temporarily remove that from the equation and look back at Michael Vick the player. Being born in 1981 and watching football since the late-80s, I'd have to say, to this point, the three most exciting players I've had the pleasure of watching are, in descending order, Bo Jackson, Barry Sanders, and Michael Vick. In 1999, Michael Vick burst onto the scene as a redshirt freshman quarterback for the Virginia Tech Hokies, leading them to an unblemished regular season, and their first (and only to this point) national title game appearance. While Vick's team might have fallen short in their 46-29 defeat at the hands of a far superior Florida State team, Vick led his Hokies back from a 28-7 deficit to...

On Saturday afternoon, the Atlanta Falcons played their final regular season game at the Georgia Dome. Among those who were invited to attend was former Falcons starting quarterback Michael Vick. While Vick received a standing ovation at the game, not everyone was pleased with his invitation or attendance, as a petition generated by Change.org received over 30,000 signatures to try and prevent the former star quarterback from attending the Falcons final regular season home game. On the petition, it said: "By inviting Michael Vick to participate in a ceremony on Sunday, the Falcons are honoring a convicted dogfighter who profited from cruelty to animals for years. Please sign this petition and let the Falcons know that NFL fans do not support Vick and do not condone his actions." Now, as far as I see it, anyone with a beating heart would likely have difficulty condoning Michael Vick's previous actions with relation to dogfighting. As a four-time dog owner myself, in...

After veteran quarterback Michael Vick was signed by the Pittsburgh Steelers a couple weeks ago, I've been slightly surprised to read so many articles protesting the signing. While I've always been and always will be a dog lover, I also believe in second chances, and since Vick reentered the league in 2009 with the Philadelphia Eagles, he's appeared to turn his life around, be a stand-up teammate, and more importantly, a stand-up citizen. He's worked with animal rights organizations to speak out against dogfighting, highlighting his previous involvement in it, and attempted to inspire others to not make the same mistakes he did. While this was mandatory at first, it has since become voluntary. I, and many others, were/are sickened by dogfighting organizations like the one Michael Vick had been previously involved with, but who better to speak out against such cruel and inhumane activities than a big name who had himself been involved with them, like Michael Vick? Who...

After getting picked off three times in the first quarter against Buffalo last week, New York Jets starting quarterback Geno Smith got benched in favor of veteran Michael Vick. In his 3+ quarters of work, Vick, whom hadn't started a game in about a year, looked electric at times, yet quite rusty at others. He wound up leading the Jets to 23 points in his three quarters of work, yet also lost two fumbles and was intercepted once. In his defense, he hadn't gotten any reps with the first-team for quite some time, and the lack of reps showed on a number of plays where Vick either ran the wrong direction, bumped into a tailback on a hand-off, etc. Also, when a quarterback gets put in a game already down 14-0, the odds increase of him feeling pressure to succeed early and often, which can lead to some rather careless plays. Unsurprisingly, not long after the game ended, head coach Rex Ryan named Vick the starter for this coming week's game against the Kansas City Chiefs. Leading ...

In light of Nick Foles leading the Philadelphia Eagles to a pair of 4th quarter touchdowns in their 36-21 win over the New York Giants on Sunday, it was inevitable that the ever so fickle sports media would jump on that like a rabbit on pretty much anything. While Vick was spectacular in the team's first two games, he's been rather average in the team's past three. However, at 2-3 and tied atop the NFC East, I still think he gives the team the best chance of making the playoffs this year. Foles is a very capable back-up, but until he develops better intermediate- to long-range passing skills, I have a hard time seeing him as a full-time starter in the league. Also, Chip Kelly's offense revolves around speed. Vick gives him much more flexibility with the offensive play-calling due to this. The threat of Vick's running opens things up for LeSean McCoy in the backfield - much more so than when Foles is behind center. The problem with Philadelphia's offense th...

I hate being so hard on ESPN writers, but over the past few months, I've been noticing wretched articles with increasing frequency. The latest one comes courtesy of Phil Sheridan, and is entitled, "Kelly gets first taste of Vick turnovers." The article came in light of the Philadelphia Eagles 26-16 defeat at the hands of the Kansas City Chiefs last night, where Michael Vick was picked off twice in the first half - his first two interceptions of the season (compared to 5 touchdowns). Sheridan started his article with this: "Now Chip Kelly knows. Since January, when he was hired to replace Andy Reid as head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, Kelly has dismissed his video record of quarterback Michael Vick's habit of throwing footballs to the other team. Kelly didn't know Vick's reads on the 24 interceptions he threw in his previous 23 games. He didn't know whether a receiver ran the wrong route or an offensive lineman missed an assignment. So h...

Following the Philadelphia Eagles' 31-24 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars last night in the team's third preseason game, many Philly sports-writers were quick to label starting quarterback Michael Vick as "shaky," all the while praising the play of backup quarterback Nick Foles. While Foles was very efficient in the second half of last night's game and has been for most of the preseason, I'm still slightly perplexed on the myriad of such articles which were published by Philadelphia writers either last night or this morning. Vick wasn't as sharp in last night's game as he had been in the team's first two preseason games. He completed 15 of 23 pass attempts (65.2%) for 184 yards (8.0 ypa and 12.3 ypc), with 1 touchdown pass and 1 interception. In his defense, the interception was on a pass Vick was trying to throw away while getting hit. However, he held onto the ball too long and would have avoided the pick if he had tossed the ball out-of-...

As I called on June 6th, the Philadelphia Eagles just named Michael Vick as their starting quarterback heading into the 2013-2014 season. This is even less of a surprise for me given Vick's play in the pres-season. The veteran Pro Bowl quarterback has completed 13 of 15 pass attempts for 199 yards, and a touchdown (along with one end-of-the-half hail mary interception) in the Eagles' two pre-season games to this point. That's a completion percentage of 86.7% and his yards per pass attempt has been 13.3 - almost twice that of Nick Foles. Foles, to his credit, has been quite efficient in the pre-season. However, he lacks Vick's mobility and hasn't proven himself as an intermediate- to deep-route passer as Vick has. Foles, while efficient, has been been very much the dink and dunk passer and will need to improve on his intermediate and deep routes if he wants to be a full-time starter in this league. Third-stringer Matt Barkley has already shown a good deal of improv...

I read another fairly pointless sports article the other day, courtesy of ESPN.com. This one was written by one Dan Graziano. The article was entitled, "Can Matt Barkley get into Eagles' QB race?" Here's how the article begins: "The Philadelphia Eagles announced that fourth-round pick Matt Barkley has signed his contract, which is not really news, since everybody knows all the draft picks will eventually sign and it's not as though they can sign anywhere else..." That's the perfect way to start an article - "X happened, which isn't really news, since it was inevitable it would happen anyway..." Graziano should have stopped there, but he didn't do that, unfortunately. He continued his "piece" by saying this: "...But it gives us a reason to bring up Barkley and discuss the extent to which he will or could factor into the Eagles' quarterback picture for 2013." Hadn't this already been discussed? ...

I read an article today which likely resulted as being a potential finalist for the least-sexy-facial-expression of the year. It was written by one Eliot Shorr-Parks of NJ.com and entitled, "Should the Eagles release Michael Vick?" My short answer to that is no. If someone had asked me before the Eagles re-signed the veteran quarterback, I probably wouldn't have provided a definite answer. However, after re-signing Vick to a 1-year, $7 million+ contract, how in the world would it make sense to release him? Mr. Shorr-Parks, what's your take on this? "It wasn't exactly a 'play me or else' proclamation, but listening to Michael Vick talk after Eagles practice on Thursday, it wasn't hard to see where this could be going." Oh, so a guy who was signed for another year and up to $10 million if everything goes well should be released because of what Mr. Shorr-Parks sees happening in the future through his crystal ball? That's a good enoug...

While I love statistics about as much as anyone this side of Nate Silver, there are some stats at which I have to roll my eyes, like this next one. The Philadelphia Eagles drafted USC quarterback Matt Barkley in the 4th round of the NFL Draft. Barkley will join the likes of Michael Vick, Nick Foles, and Dennis Dixon at the quarterback position. Thanks to "ESPN Stats and Information," the following stat was just released: "NFL - Vick and Foles Fumble, Barkley Doesn't Only 2 quarterbacks in the NFL had more fumbles than games played in 2012: Michael Vick (11 fum, 10 games) and Nick Foles (8 fum, 7 games). Matt Barkley had 10 fumbles in 47 games at USC -- that's the fewest fumbles by any FBS QB who played 47+ games from 2009-12." First off, both Vick and Foles played behind a battered offensive line all year, which didn't help their cause. Also, while Vick has been pretty notorious for fumbling the football throughout his NFL career, Foles was just a ...

Philadelphia Eagles' starting quarterback Michael Vick has gotten some heat in recent days due to his new book - an autobiography entitled Finally Free . He has at least temporarily cancelled a book-signing tour due to death threats. Now ESPN's LZ Granderson is criticizing the Pro-Bowl quarterback for the title of his book - Finally Free . From reading the article, it appears clear that Granderson has yet to read the book, as he focuses all his attention on the title of the book and not the content inside of it. He says: "So giving the book that title -- even in the context of serving 18 months in federal prison -- was a colossal miscue because it gives the impression that Vick's punishment was an unjustified obstacle that had to be overcome. The title gives the impression that it was something thrust upon him, something he's not responsible for. And based upon the testimony  from the trial, nothing could be further from the truth (and I'm not even a dog pe...

ESPN just reported that quarterback Michael Vick will be restructuring his contract to stay a Philadelphia Eagle for another year. The contract will be good for one year and while new head coach Chip Kelly said there will be competition for the starting quarterback job, it seems to be all but a given that Vick will be the starter. Is this a good or bad move by the Eagles? That's highly debatable. While I feel that Vick is a much more suitable option in Chip Kelly's offense than Nick Foles, I personally think San Francisco 49ers quarterback Alex Smith would have been the best of the three quarterbacks. Smith has decent size and isn't as prone to getting banged up following multiple hits in the backfield than Vick. He's not as quick as Vick, but has better speed than Foles. He's also less turnover prone than either of those two quarterbacks, with a higher completion percentage than either as well. While Smith isn't as dynamic as Vick at times, he's more prov...

The Philadelphia Eagles have made some very unwise moves these past couple years. A lot of it simply has to do with coaching. Before last year, Juan Castillo had never coached defense in his life. He was the Eagles' offensive line coach for 13 seasons prior to last year, when for some strange reason, he was hired as the team's defensive coordinator. The defense struggled mightily during the first half of the season, but showed enough improvement in the second half to warrant Castillo another year on the job. Well, it wasn't a full year on the job. Following a couple losses mid-season where the defense gave up 4th quarter leads, Castillo was fired. The defense was quite mediocre for the most part - ranking in the very middle of the pack in most categories. On the other side of the ball, the offense ranked near last in many important categories, yet Castillo was made to be the first scapegoat of the season and was let go. The Eagles were 3-4 at the time, far from out of the p...

It was nice hearing former quarterbacks and current ESPN analysts Steve Young and Trent Dilfer finally discuss what the main problem is for the Philadelphia Eagles' offense this year. It hasn't been the coaching nor has it been the play of quarterback Michael Vick, although both have factored into the team's struggles. The main problem has been with the offensive line and that was illustrated more than ever last night, as Vick got sacked 7 times in the game and either pressured or knocked down several others. The Eagles now have four offensive lineman playing regularly that weren't there to start the season. This spells major problems. They may not be the most well-known or highest paid players on offense, but, and I've said this for years - the offensive linemen are the five most important players on offense. The offensive line is where everything starts. They're the guys that open holes for the running back to sneak through. Without that blocking, which has be...

I seriously feel bad for elderly Eagles fans whom have heart conditions. On Sunday night, the Philadelphia Eagles improved to 3-1 with yet another late come-from-behind victory - this time over divisional foe, New York, by the final score of 19-17. The Eagles' three wins have come by a combined four points and all three wins were by way of a late drive to place the team ahead of their opponent. They did this in their opening week win in Cleveland, defeating the Browns 17-16. This happened again the following week against Baltimore, beating the Ravens 24-23. As I mentioned, this occurred yet again last night in their 19-17 win over the defending Super Bowl champion Giants. Even the Eagles have only won their three games by a combined four points, after tonight's game between the Dallas Cowboys and Chicago Bears, they will be at the very worst tied with Dallas atop the NFC East and a game up on both New York and Washington - essentially two games ahead of New York due to their...

Following the Philadelphia Eagles' very disappointing 27-6 loss to unbeaten Arizona last week, head coach Andy Reid was asked about his quarterback situation. For the record, Pro Bowler Michael Vick is the starting quarterback for the 2-1 and co-NFC East leading Eagles. The backup is rookie Nick Foles - a 3rd round draft choice out of Arizona by the Eagles this past year, who has never started an NFL game. Reid said he was sticking with Vick for now. Perhaps he could have worded things a bit differently to not generate any news story with his comment, but after discovering what he had just done via the media's obsession with it over the next 24 hours, he clarified his statement by saying Vick is the starting quarterback and that there was no controversy. Yet even after making that statement, there has still been some talk amongst ESPN pundits about this Eagles quarterback controversy. Granted, Vick has not been the most efficient quarterback in the Eagles' first three gam...