The SoapBoxers

The big news in the sports world today is Michael’s Vick’s new six year, one hundred million dollar deal with the Philadelphia Eagles.  The Eagles nabbed Vick off the NFL trash heap as a reclamation project after his legal troubles involving dogfighting.  Last season, Vick set career highs with 21 touchdowns and 3018 passing yards, while tossing only 6 interceptions.  The Eagles were sold on Vick enough to trade away former savior Kevin Kolb.

Obviously, Vick’s greatest asset is his ability to scramble.  Vick has surpassed 500 rushing yards in a season on 5 occasions, and has even topped 1000 yards once.  His career rushing average of 7.1 yards per carry is very impressive.  His ability to run also buys him time to find an open receiver.

Unfortunately, those legs are going to get old.  In the last year of that deal, you’re going to be watching a 36 year old Michael Vick who last lost a step or three.  The rushing yards will drop and the number of sacks will climb a bit.  He’ll have to win games with his arms instead of his legs.  Can he do that?  Let’s look at the numbers throughout his career.

* denotes partial year

Let’s look at those TD:INT ratio.  0.67, 2:1, 1.33:1, 1.17:1, 1.15:1, 1.54:1.  Last year, he had a ratio of  3.5:1.  Those aren’t great ratios, and it’s quite possible that the interceptions could climb if Vick’s declining speed forces him to make more throws that he does today.  In spite of his obvious talent, his career high in total passing+rushing yards is the 3694 yards from last season.  Far from being a 4000 yard passer, Vick isn’t even a 4000 yard player.

Worth having on your team?  Certainly.  Worth $16M this year?  Perhaps.  Worth $16M in 2016?  Probably not.  Of course, NFL deals are non-guaranteed, so the Eagles could also cut Vick to shed payroll.

Around the NFL

Peyton Manning has been clear for limited practice.  There’s still a good chance he won’t be available for the season opener on September 11.  The Colts coaxed veteran QB Kerry Collins out of retirement to take the reins if Manning in unable to go.  The existing backups for the Colts did not inspire much confidence.

The Raiders drafted Terrelle Pryor in the third round of the supplemental draft (which means they will forfeit their third round pick in the 2011 draft.  Pryor will not be eligible to play until the sixth week of the season. Is the “born to be bad” Raiders organization the best fit for a guy who ran afoul of NCAA regs? Probably not.

Crittenton Arrested on Murder Charges

Former NBA player Javaris Crittenton was arrested Monday.  Authorities allege that he fatally shot Jullian Jones on August 19.  They also believe that Jones, a mother of four, was not the intended victim, but that Crittenton was trying to get revenge for an earlier robbery.

Crittenton was a one-and-one player at Georgia Tech.  He was drafted 19th overall in the 2007 drafted.  Since then, he has played for three NBA teams (he also signed with a fourth team, the Bobcats, but did not play for them), China’s Zhejiang Guangsha Lions, and most recently the Dakota Wizards of the NBA’s developmental league.  In February of 2010, he was in the midst of a locker room incident involving guns.

All this, and Crittenton is still just 23 years old.

So three things caught my attention this week that I feel are worth sharing. They range from comical to serious, so enjoy!

The Pursuit of Knowledge

So it often works out that when I am eating lunch, my television is tuned to Trivial Pursuit: America Plays hosted by Christopher Knight. I have always enjoyed Trivial Pursuit, so I find watching it on television to still be entertaining but also educational. I have seen before on other shows such as Jeopardy questions asked of Americans about basic Canadian facts only to see them completely mess up the answer. Well today’s question was “What province is Halifax the capital of?” Well only one of the participants had the bravery to provide an answer. His answer was “Ontarrrio”. Notice that his answer wasn’t Ontario (pronounced On-tear-e-o) but On-tar-e-o. Of course this is incorrect. I was actually surprised he chose this province, as the capital of Ontario is Canada’s biggest and most famous city, Toronto. I know it’s funny, but at the same time I do admit that I do not know all of the State capitals, so perhaps I should shut my mouth. I did end up feeling smarter than the contestants of the show though, as I knew the state capital of Ohio was Columbus while both of them did not (first guess Cleveland, second guess Cincinnati). Oh and by the way, Halifax is the capital of Nova Scotia.

Michael Vick Soars Again

Many people have heard of Michael Vick, whether they are a fan of the NFL or not. Well Michael is now officially back in the NFL, having signed a two year deal with the Philadelphia Eagles. When it comes to strictly improving your football team, this is a good move. He will have to shake off a fair bit of rust, but can slide comfortably into the backup role behind Donovan McNabb while he gets back into game shape. The only question is how this will affect the team in terms of its image. As a pet owner, I was as disgusted as anyone for what he did. While he did serve his time and pay his debt to society, I still really find myself despising him. I work with people with intellectual disabilities and even they know better than Vick when it came to what he did with those dogs. I personally hope his career is over and that he is heckled thoroughly everywhere he goes. This is one I just can’t get my head past.

Tim Horton’s

I don’t know what there is in the States to match this franchise. Dunkin Donuts perhaps? Tim Horton’s is a symbol of Canada like no other. It is our favourite place to have a coffee and donut. The franchise has actually expanding into a few northern States as well. Every morning drive-thru lines are packed, and lineups go out the doors as people will do anything to “get their Timmies”. Many people have bumper stickers to this effect. This week though, Tim’s got some publicity it didn’t want, as it was apparently a sponsor of a big anti-gay festival in Rhode Island. After news of this got out, they pulled out their support, claiming it was just one specific franchise owner in the area. This was definitely the right move, as many Canadians are open to gay marriage and full gay rights and the backlash up here would have been strong. I give kudos to the franchise for acting quickly to get this mess straightened out. On another note, I don’t see myself visiting Providence anytime soon.  

Sports sometimes mirrors life. This past week we were given a number of opportunities to look at sports situations that turned back the clock. Allowed us once again to look at some of our heroes of sports and remember a time when they were on top of their respective pillars of greatness in their sports.

Lance Armstrong once again riding in the Tour de France. Armstrong had been in the top two or three spots much of the race. Earlier this week he fell back in the standings during one of the mountain stages, which were one of his strengths in past victorious races. Yes, age has caught up with the cancer surviving iron man of cycling. Armstrong himself has indicated he is likely now relegated to helping his teammate win the race. Our hopes were with him, he might still have a great stage in him somewhere, but for now we have to remember what used to be and what could have been.

Michael Vick was released from house arrest and now will take his appeal to Commissioner Roger Goodel to possibly be reinstated in the NFL. Vick’s story is a tragic one on many levels. A young player with a long career in front of him he became entangled in the underworld realm of dog fighting. Vick has paid for his mistakes by doing prison time, giving up millions of dollars in contacts and endorsement deals, and being tainted for the remainder of his career and life with a label he will never be able to shake. With Vick we have to remember what used to be and what might have been.

Tom Watson played a phenomenal Open Championship this week. He was at or neat the top of the leader board for the entire tournament. Everyone expected TW to be on top of the championship standings this week, and it was TW. Just not the one anyone was expecting. Watson was an 8 foot putt away from becoming the oldest person to ever win a golf major tournament and become only the 2nd player to win 6 Open Championships. The golf ball doesn’t know how old the person is who is hitting it….but it wasn’t to be. Tom reminded us of what used to be, and gave all the golf fans a shot of feeling what could have been.

Earlier this year Randy Johnson won his 300th game. Last year Dara Torres wowed us at the Olympic games winning three silver medals. Brett Favre is likely to come back and play yet again, un-retiring for the third time and playing for the Vikings if his shoulder heals well.

We all have our heroes, and every once in awhile, long after their moment in the sun has set whether for good or for worse, we get reminded and even given a glimpse of that hope, excitement and interest that we as sports fans all have.

As we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the United States landing on the moon, we are reminded of the heroes that generation. I am too young to remember the moon landing on that fateful day in 1969. Heck I wasn’t even born for that matter. What an incredible moment that would have been…to see something that had never happened before.

The excitement, the uncertainty, and the ability to root for something better than winning or losing…..

Here is wishing all of you to take a moment to remember what used to be and to dream about things yet to come.