Keeping It Real

Got to direct some attention to an article on ESPN.com by Howard Bryant on the Michael Vick saga and what it has revealed about modern American society. I've been on plenty of websites/blogs and offered up my opinion on the whole thing, which basically is that if he is guilty of doing these things he should be punished but he doesn't deserve to be classified as less than a human being. The way blacks and whites responded to this controversy tells us a lot more about what kind of people live in this country than any poll or talk show could. Look deeper past the actual case itself and stimulate your mind.

That's Ok, I'll see you soon

Sorry to anyone who visits this site with anything approaching regularity for not posting in more than a week, but please congratulate me on the birth of my second child Johnathan Robert Bernard Prince Sept. 15. It's been a long week, parents of newborns understand. More posts coming.

The Ballad of Derrick Thomas

Don't get the title of this post twisted. The post isn't actually about a song, nor does it in anyway attempt to showcase my extremely mediocre singing "talent". I've always had the impression that a ballad was the type of song that musicians write to cast attention on someone who could be charachterized as a kind of folk hero. Someone who did something really good and noble once but has been kind of forgotten about and never really received the kind of credit he/she deserved. You know the kind of people that Bob Dylan and Joan Baez used to sing about (baby boomers correct me if I'm wrong, I was born in the '70's). Plus I just thought it was a cool title.

Well in my vigilance of happenings in the sports world I have always been intrigued by the legacy of Derrick Thomas. Remember him? The 9-time Pro Bowl linebacker who played his entire career for the Kansas City Chiefs? The guy who once had seven sacks in one game? The guy who announcers, writers, commentators, fans generally referred to as "a future HOF'er"? The NFL player who died tragically in 2000 from a car accident on the way to the NFC championship game.

Since his death it's always puzzled me how few people seem to remember, or they tend to discount, what a great and feared player D. Thomas was. He was a stud at Alabama on their great late '80's teams and was the fourth pick of the '89 draft. He was selected to the Pro Bowl in his rookie season, he was Defensive Rookie of the Year. He is one of only 22 players to have over 100 sacks in his career.

So how is this guy not in the NFL Hall of Fame? Is it because he played for a small market Kansas City Chief team that always seemed to fall below expectations? I mean really isn't this a serious oversight like the fact that there aren't many lineman in the HOF. This should be debated every year like Goose Gossage's entry into the Baseball HOF is/was (not sure if he's in now or not). And this guy wasn't some douchebag who constantly courted trouble with the law off the field but a pillar of the community in K.C. who did a lot of charitable work.

By the way I'm not a Chiefs fan but I considered Thomas as one of those atheletes that have to be watched whenever possible because you never knew what spectacular play he might make next. If he doesn't get in next year, I for one will continue to view this as a huge travesty. K.C. fans let your voices and the memories of this fallen great be heard!!

Caught grinning

Looks like that NBA hall of famer/Chesire cat impersonator Isiah Thomas might be in a little bit of trouble. The sources of the trouble are Thomas' alleged actions which are being publically aired during the hearing regarding the lawsuit bought against Thomas by Anucha Browne Sanders, a former Knicks executive and college basketball star at Northwestern. The suit, which by now is old news that I'm sure you've heard about, basically accuses Thomas of sexual harrassment and creating a hostile working environment by constantly referring to Brown as either "bitch" or "ho". TrueHoop by way of ESPN has the latest developments.

Today Isiah's buddy Stephon Marbury (all up in the news lately?!) took the stand to offer his interpretation of the facts and ended up sticking his reasonably priced athletic shoes in his mouth again:

Nervous Knicks star Stephon Marbury took the stand today in the explosive $10 million sex-harassment suit that's rocking the Garden and admitted he lured one of the female accuser's subordinates into his car.
Marbury did not say explicitly they had sex as they sat parked outside a Manhattan strip joint, as fired Knick exec Anucha Browne Sanders has claimed.
"We got together right across the street," Marbury testified in Manhattan Federal court.

"Anucha, if it was anyone else I would have walked away," the intern said, according to Browne Sanders. "I felt like I had to."
Wiping away tears, Browne Sanders added, "She basically did whatever he asked her to do. She considered it to be consensual because she agreed to get in the car."

Marbury said he did not know that the intern, who was at the strip club celebrating her birthday with friends, was drunk during their encounter in April 2005. He was prevented from getting into the salacious details by the judge.

Ummm, yeah doesn't look like Starbury helped out his boss too much with that one. But this case could potentially get a lot bigger. From the details that are coming out it's starting to look like the Knicks daily operations are run by two big ole' pimps.

A bit late

But best wishes to the family of Buffalo Bills tight end Kevin Everett. The last update had a prognosis that was much better than what was originally speculated. Here's to a speedy recovery and return to normalcy of everyday life. The fact that he may never play pro ball again to me seems rather insignificant right now.

A good ending to a sacred day

Of course it was only a good day because my team, the Green Bay Packers, won. My condolences to the fans of the Bears, Jaguars, Broncos, Dolphins, Raiders, Giants, Chiefs, and every other team that lost today. I know it's still a good day, but it could have been a lot better if so and so could run his way out of a paper bag. If my Packers hadn't have won it would have still been a sacred day for me, but not as good. I'm the kind of fan who hates it so much when my team loses that it ruins my appreciation for any other NFL action on display on any given Sunday. I'm salty for the rest of the day wondering why my team can't run the ball like that or how did New England get lucky with some young guy out of nowhere and we hired this dumbfuck. But the Pack pulled it out, Farve even came with some old-school Brett plays circa '97, so I was able to fully enjoy this one of the most sacred of days. It's just something about opening day of the NFL. There's no comparison, not even MLB's opening day (opening day in the NBA please bearly a blip late in the football season. The NBA is always that nice annual surprise that you remember about after the Super Bowl when you happily seek a sports fix.)

But there is something sacred about this day that just feels different. Who decided that professional football games would be played on Sunday? It just seems like there's something about that that is very appropriate. It's days like today when I most identify with the football writers and whatnot who always insist that the game of football is an analogy of life: how we all struggle individually, yet together as a team we work towards a common goal, the nobility how men constantly test and exceed their limits, and the triumph of acheiving what everybody told you was impossible. Nothing could ruin this day for the true fan Vick, and steroids, and drunk driving linebackers be damned. The only thing that matters is we got some fired up guys flying around the field on tv again and a socially acceptable excuse to drink excessivley in public places. Good times.

More Proof . . .

That Ted Thompson is more likely a follower of Forrest Gump than Ron Wolf, courtesy of profootballweekly.com:

We couldn’t help but do a little dot-connecting when we heard the rumor that the Dolphins might be putting WR Chris Chambers on the trade mart and quickly surmised that Green Bay would seem to be a nice fit for the Wisconsin graduate. Not only do the Packers have a clear need for more help at wide receiver, the team also has plenty of dough to make such a deal happen. But when we asked our No. 1 Packers source what he thought of our conjecture, he brushed us off quickly with a two-word response: Ted Thompson. There’s no way, our source said, Thompson would go that route, with his preference for sticking with homegrown talent.

Homegrown talent??!!!! Chambers was a star at Wisconsin!! How much more homegrown can you get than that??!!! They already passed him up in the draft for Robert Ferguson and Teddy's willing to make the same mistake twice, even with the receiving corps thinness on display by Driver's injury. There's not much more than I can say that this wonderful blog hasn't already. I found it while looking for a humorous picture of Thompson and I've already linked to it under my CLICK THIS! list. It's a must read for fans who are in valid fear of the Pack's relevancy returning to the levels descended to during the Forrest Gregg/Lindy Infante years.