John Turner

All reports say that Michael Vick intends to plead guilty to the charges against him in federal court. I knew he was guilty…everyone with half a brain knew he was guilty. A number of people chastised me for saying he was guilty, telling me “everyone is innocent until proven guilty”. Guess what? They’re wrong. In America, you are indeed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. But there’s a problem with that: we’re not in a court of law. This is the court of public opinion, and in America, the public has a right to say (and believe) whatever it wants, whenever it wants. In the court of public opinion, you’re guilty if we think you’re guilty.

Estimates are that he’ll do one year in prison. That’s WAY too short for crimes of this nature. He needs to be gone for 2-3 years, minimum. I’d like to see him gone for the max, but even I know that there are too many high-power, connected people who have a lot to gain by having Vick back on the field ASAP for him to get the max. I’m further hoping that the NFL suspends him 2-3 seasons and does not allow him to serve his suspension concurrently with his prison time. Again, wishful thinking, I know.

I hope and hope and hope some sports journalist with guts will interview people like Clinton Portis and Deion Sanders, people who defended Vick and laughed at the idea that dogfighting and killing dogs in cold blood was wrong. I hope those journalists ask those idiots some tough, hard questions now, and I hope those idiots get some small glimmer of a clue on how to behave like mature adults.

Which reminds me…I was looking forward to watching a new HBO show about the Kansas City Chiefs in training camp. The show is called “Hard Knocks”. I thought it would be cool to see “behind the scenes” at training camp. I could barely make it through one episode though, because I realized that NFL athletes are children. Or at least the NFL athletes playing for the Kansas City Chiefs are children, regardless of their physical capabilities. Watching (allegedly) grown men making millions of dollars per year to play a game throw tantrums because they couldn’t get their rooms on the first floor made me turn the show off in disgust. Apparently, pro athletes prefer having their training camp rooms on the first floor because then they don’t have to deal with climbing a couple flights of stairs. Of course, it isn’t like they’re getting paid millions of dollars for having elite physical abilities or anything…..

Besides, we all know the best show about the NFL was ESPN’s “Playmakers”. Excellent show…you have to wonder if it got pulled so quickly because it made some rich guys in the front office a little too nervous.