BillsPhan

Here's an interesting excerpt from your article: "Mularkey coached the Bills in 2004-05, going 14-18 over two seasons. He succeeded Williams, who went 17-31 over three seasons in Buffalo from 2001-03. Fewell was elevated from defensive coordinator to interim coach for the Bills in 2009 after Dick Jauron was fired. He went 3-4 to finish the season." That's a 34-53 combined head coaching record these 3 guys led the Bills to. Based on that, why would any of them be considered for a head coaching position today, when there are so many assistant NFL coaches who have never been given their first chance to succeed at that level yet? The only one of the three I would consider if I was the Titan's owner and / or GM would be Fewell. It was almost miraculous that he got 3 wins out of those last 7 games he mopped up for Jauron for, and I think he does deserve his first chance to be a real head coach. But forget the other two. There are only 32 of these jobs in the world, and Williams and Mularkey got their chances. You will never find the next Mike Tomlin or Mike Smith if you keep recycling coordinators back into head coaches after they were head coaches before. Of course, if good ol' boy Chan leads the Bills to a SB Championship, I will be more then happy to retract that humble opinion!

First of all, I would be shocked if just "one" person became the new owner of the Buffalo Bills. I chose "other" in your poll, because I am convinced that Jim Kelly and his ownership group will end up purchasing the team from the Wilson family after Ralph dies, and end up keeping the team here in the Western New York / greater Buffalo area. That said, every person named in your poll, some people named in your poll, or none of the people named in your poll may end up being within the Kelly "group", and it's anyone's guess as to which member may end up representing the group as "majority owner."

#1 is the only way to "fix" the game - end it completely. It was better before, when the two SB teams' participants went to Hawaii to revel in their win or begin to heal from their loss, enjoying the atmosphere of the Pro Bowl a week after the big game. Leaving those players out of it completely these past two seasons by playing the Pro Bowl before the SB, makes the entire game a sham and a joke and a waste of time. I have one other suggestion. Wait 3 weeks, so the SB players have time to come down from, or begin to get back up from, the draining opposites of emotions of that game, and make it a well organized flag football game. This way, the players could try as hard as they can, without the huge risk of injuries. The defense can really play some defense, in other words. By waiting three weeks, the fans have time to "end the real football season" emotionally too. Then, just before March Madness begins while both hockey and basketball are still in the dog days of their endless seasons, they can have this flag-football show in Hawaii complete with some of the other skills tests you mentioned above. Just my humble opinion. Great idea there, you been talkn' to Buddy??

Bills - 0 wins out of 4 Super Bowls Packers - 3 wins out of 4 Super Bowls Steelers - 6 wins out of 7 Super Bowls GO PACK! Being a life long die hard Buffalo Bills fan, I have no interest what-so-ever of watching Pittsburgh secure their 7th Lombardi Trophy before my beloved Bills win their 1st!

Great pictures! For an old timer like me, who became a Bills fan watching games in that very stadium from 1968-1972, it really brought back great memories looking at your father-in-laws slide. My 5 years attending games in the real "Rock Pile" have to be why I have always loved Rich / Ralph Wilson Stadium so much. It really made me laugh in 2007, the last season I went to most of the games, to hear a lot of fans from Buffalo and out of town mock RWS like it was a rock pile itself. The face lift in 1998 was great and I think the Bills got more for their $160 Million then the other teams that re-modeled their existing stadiums. Sure the Bears, Packers and Chiefs stadiums may have been re-built more extravagantly but they also spent more then TWICE the amount of money to do it. Walking into Rich Stadium that night when it opened up against the Redskins in the preseason of 1973, after 5 years of going to War Memorial Stadium, was a surreal experience. At that time, only Kansas City had a stadium anything like Rich. And Rich was even bigger then Arrowhead. The Cowboys had Texas Stadium with the hole on top and of course Houston played in the Astro Dome, but little Buffalo played in the newest biggest outdoor stadium in the NFL, and at 14 years old, I thought that was the coolest thing ever! So you can mock RWS all you want. To me it will always be "the coolest thing ever."

It would certainly be "refreshing" for me to see Nix draft the best QB on his board and #3. I've been calling for the Bills GM to take a QB with their first overall pick of the draft every single year (accept 2003-2004), since......1997! Why not 2003-2004 you may ask? Because I was actually impressed that Donahoe had made that big trade for Drew Bledsoe in 2002, who I felt still had at least 5 good years left in him. In a very strange twist of Bills drafting "lore", Donahoe traded back into the 1st round and made J.P. Lost-man a first round pick in 2004, and I like everyone else thought he was nuts to do that when Bledsoe was already here and playing pretty good at that time. But take away those 3 Bledsoe seasons, and beginnning right away again in 2005, even though the Bills had no 1st round pick, I still hoped they chose a QB with their first pick in the 2nd round. Sorry, but the Buffalo Bills have only been truly great during the years they had great quarterbacking. Jack Kemp was great in the mid 60's, Joe Ferguson was great at times but at least good most of the time. And Jim Kelly is a Hall of Famer. You have to have the franchise type QB to win championships - at least 90% of the time, anyway. Sure you get your Doug Williams, Mark Rypien, Jeff Hostetler, Trent Dilfer and Brad Johnson SB winning QB's from time to time, when those teams have amazing defenses and offensive lines. Again, more Buffalo sports luck that although the Bills had Jim Kelly playing in the K-Gun offense those 4 consecutive SB's, he went up against Rypien and Hostetler's great teams, and then the last two he simply lost to an even greater team in the Cowboys, who had their own Hall of Fame type franchise QB in Aikman. So I am still waiting these 14 years after Kelly has retired, for the next franchise QB to be drafted or at least traded for. Could this April end the wait??

I was at that game. Win or lose, it was the best damn football game I ever watched the Bills play in on the road. (And I traveled to my share of Bills road games back in the day.) The Bills played lights out (on offense, anyway), the Browns and Bernie Kosar kept matching Jimbo score for score, the atmosphere was awesome, even the Browns fans we sat around were great all around fans and there was not an idiot from Cleveland to be found. That second half was like being on a roller coaster, and neither us or the Browns fans had more then 2 mintues to sit down and take in the lead before the lead changed hands again. It was just a great playoff game to attend, and it was amazing to watch that offense march up and down the field and come within that freakin' dropped pass by Harmon of upsetting Cleveland after that infuriating "Bickering Bills" 1989 season! I did not think of it at the time because Thurman Thomas was only in his second year and Harmon obviously played a role on that '89 offense. But looking back on it all these years later, that should have been Thurman wide open in the end zone catching that pass. Just good old fashioned Buffalo sports luck, it was too soon in his career for Marv and Ted Marchibroda to realize that Thurman Thomas would have caught that pass 100 times out of 100 attempts!!!

So much for the bloggers at Scout.com knowing what they were talking about. Makes me wonder why their moronic smart ass opinions mocking Gailey's practices out for being too soft and spending too much time on special teams were even posted. Marvin Lewis's North squads practices, according to "more then one scout", were more physical and "scoutable"? Really? Well if the North practiced so much tougher, how could the South have out rushed them 127 to 0. (Yes - the North netted 0, (ZERO) yards rushing.) And how could the South have held the ball for over 35 minutes to the North's 25 minutes? And how could the South have outgained the North 317 - 238? Chan Gailey was subjected to cheap shots by the media and competing scouts around the NFL. He certainly wasn't perfect during the Bills' 4-12-0 season, but he accepted this opportunity to bring his coaches to Mobile and work with these kids for two weeks, and in the end his team won easily. I say, Good job representing the Buffalo Bills Chan, and let's hope those extra days getting to know his South team pays off in the draft this year!

Nobody was asking if he has anything to hide, but more then one of them asked him why he was bothering to play in the game being such a highly rate player. They also asked him why he was risking injury. Basically they made him defend himself by accepting a chance to practice an entire week under NFL coaches and play an all star game against very good competition. In my humble opinion, I think his repeating "I don't have anything to hide" was his way of saying "I'm honored to play in this game, so get out of my face." And think about this game for a minute. (Which is asking way too much of the morons surrounding him with their microphones wondering why he was there!) Von Miller could be a top 5 draft pick. Both the Bills and Bengals have first round picks in the top 5. Even if he didn't know which of the two NFL teams' coaching staff would represent the South, it was a win-win for him. One of them was going to spend almost 2 full weeks of extra quality time getting to know him, and coaching him in the all star game. Gee, it sure seems like a worth while couple weeks of playing football to me for all the seniors!

Scout.com is obviously written by hacks that try to be stand-up comedians. Let's watch the game before we believe this crap. If the North kicks the South's asses then I'll believe that Gailey ran lousy practices. This is what we get with all of this 24/7 blogging and texting. A bunch of amateur "writers" always thinking they can have the funniest lines and best "scoops" when there is absolutely nothing to "scoop" that minute. Sometimes I long for the days when Bryant Gumbell used to report on the AFC and Brent Mussberger used to report on the NFC, and that was about it!!!

So the Steelers are the only team in the NFL that get 10 scouts to look at every prospect? If it were that easy, wouldn't every team use 10 scouts to look at every prospect? In fact, doesn't every team other then the cheap Bengals employ at least 10 scouts already? In this case, I really do agree with Wilson. Donahoe always tried to make the "big splash" in the first round. Modrak may have tried to convince him to choose better players, but with Donahoe's ego, nobody could ever tell. Then it was Marv Levy making the calls. How do we know that Modrak wasn't pushing hard for Ngata when Levy just fell in love with Whitner?? We don't know that. Then when Brandon ran the draft with Modrak, who knows if Modrak didn't splash Orakpo all over Brandon's board, but Russ wanted to make that "steal of the draft" name for himself by taking the one year wonder Maybin??? Everyone thinks Wilson is the biggest liar in the world. I agree that he may be lousy at hiring his football department, but Modrak really doesn't make the final call on draft picks, now does he??? Nix was in charge of the luxury pick of Spiller last year. Even lifetime football guy 70 year old Buddy Nix's ego got the best of him and he took the "splashy" guy 8 teams had passed over so maybe he could have gotten credit for the "steal of the draft." It must have something to do with Buffalo. These GM's always feel the need to make the "steal of the draft" picks over the obvious smart choices based on the Bills' 15 year need for a franchise QB and 15 year need for the best offensive linemen available in the draft. And for the past 10 years, we can add the obvious need for talented D-Linemen and linebackers. Now that Wilson and Nix have officially defended Modrak, it is time for Nix to start picking draft picks that make freakin' common sense!! But I don't think Wilson was lying to protect his need to keep Modrak on board, rather I think he reallys was laying the blame where it belonged, on the guys who made the final calls on the draft picks.

The defense was not the only problem for the Bills in those 4 straight SB's. Despite the fact they did not match up well against those 4 classic NFC huge offensive lines, I was equally amazed at how lousy their offenses played when it counted the most too. Against the Giants, it simply made no sense to me that they did not give Thurman the ball all night against that ridiculous defense that featured 1 down lineman and 5 standing linebackers. Against the Redskins nothing worked on offense all night, no matter what they tried. Against the Cowboys (1) the offense turned the ball over what - 9 or 10 times? Against the Cowboys (2) the offense played great in the first half, and then started the second half with yet another huge turnover and then sucked the rest of the second half. Sure I guess a 4-3 defense with a monster in the middle and Jeff Wright using his quickness at the other tackle might have stopped the run better in the long run. But that 3-4 defense Cory used during the SB years combined with the K-Gun offense certainly was good enough for the regular seasons, the playoffs and the AFC Championship games. For some reason neither that defense or the K-Gun offense was able to play well enough in any of the 4 SB's. And oh by the way, Bruce Smith was able to get around 180 sacks while averaging around 100 tackles a season from his 3-4 DE position over his 15 years with the Bills. I'm not sure how anyone could characterize a Hall of Fame career like that as an "incredible waste of talent". I'm sure even Bruce would love to know just how much better of a player he was supposed to be playing from the classic 4-3.

Frankly, I am sick of that philosophy, and I'm glad I gave up my season tickets, that first my Dad owned, and then I had purchased on my own, continuously, from 1968 to 1996! I would respect Wilson more if he wrote something along the lines of; "Do to the rising costs of doing business in the NFL, and the size of our market, we must raise our operation to higher levels. To reach our one and only goal of winning a SB Championship and remaining a SB contender after that for the foreseeable future, we are forced to raise our ticket prices up to the average prices in the NFL. In addition, we are also raising our luxury and premium seat pricing to be closer to the average pricing around the NFL, although they are still way below that figure. In exchange for that, we have cancelled our agreement with the Rogers Group and no longer will play our home games anywhere other then Orchard Park until the day we build a new stadium within Erie County.....and oh by the way, I have changed my mind and am now in the process of selling the Bills to a LOCAL GROUP ONLY, and one of my stipulations is that upon taking over, they must sign a new lease 30 year lease with Erie County." Love, Ralph Hey, we can always dream, right??

To answer your main question, I would always draft the franchise CB over the franchise WR, so it would be Peterson for me. But I am hoping that Buddy takes the "biggest risk" according to most fans posting on this board, and drafts the best QB he has rated with the number 3 overall pick.

Great point, and equally great article from Bob Dicesare. But here's the thing about this "franchise philosophy" and/or grand "plan". About 95% of the time, a great QB is needed for that franchise, no matter how grand their plan is, to actually win a championship. After Bradshaw and the guys retired in the early 80's, the Steelers were average to lousy throughout the entire decade of the 80's. In fact, Bill Cowher finally got them a Division Championship in 1992, 13 years after their last SB win. And even then, it took Cowher 3 more seasons to get his team into the SB, of which they lost to the Cowboys in 1995. Finally, a full 11 years after that, Cowher got his long awaited SB victory in 2005, just before he retired. And oh by the way, he did it with his 1st round draft pick of 2004, Ben Roethlesberger. So yeah the Steelers have a Championship "plan" and mystique. However, they went 26 long years between SB wins and not surprisingly, they did not win their 5th SB in that 26th season after their 4th until they had another number 1 pick behind center. The Colts are even more obvious. Bill Polian, the grand architect GM, walked in and had Peyton Manning fall into his lap as his very first draft choice in 1998 when the Colts hired him. The Colts then built their team around Manning, and they won their first SB in 2006. The last time that franchise had won a SB was way back in 1971. So the Colts, who had some nice success with 1st round draft pick Bert Jones in the mid to late 70's, also went into quite a long funk before drafting Manning in 1998. (Not to mention abandoning Baltimore between SB's too!), going a whopping 35 years between SB wins. We can go on and on. The Pats were so pathetically bad for so many years before they made the luckiest draft pick in NFL history taking Brady in the 6th round of the 2000 draft, I still shake my head at how arrogant that franchise and fans have become. However, they walk the cocky talk - and behavior having won 3 SB's this decade, and of course Brady has been at the forefront of that accomplishment. So in my mind, Buddy doesn't have to create some "franchise philosophy" or grand scheme. At least not until he drafts or trades for his own franchise QB.

I read and respected your entire informational post, especially your research on those players. Don't get me wrong, I'm not dissing your excellent opinion here. But your first sentence of the entire observation I've left in place above just amazes me. We are fans of a team that has not had a true franchise QB in his prime since Jim Kelly retired.....14 years ago next month! I won't waste your time or mine to list the QB's the Bills' deep thinkers have had a chance to draft but passed over since then. Rest assured there have been many Pro Bowler on that list. With Fitzy as the incoming starter and basically NOBODY as his back up, here most of us are on this board still ignoring the chance to draft a franchise QB. Not only Newton, but Gabbert, Locker, Mallett and even a couple others all have a decent to good chance to become this year's Flacco, Ryan, Bradford or even the ever improving Tim Tebow. My take will not change. As long as Buddy drafts the type of quality players you and others list with that number 3 or trading it down, the Bills will be fine. I'm not going to argue how much the Bills need defensive players and a few more offensive linemen. HOWEVER, my humble opinion remains that Buddy should draft the very best QB on his board with that number 3 pick, because I simply don't believe the Bills will ever win a SB without a special QB. It's funny really. Last year at this time when I was calling for Buddy to draft the best QB on his board with his number 9 pick, almost everybody said I was nuts and the Bills would get their franchise QB "next year" with so many good ones that will be available. "Next year" has arrived, and now that Andrew Luck has opted to stay in school, almost everybody is chanting the same crap as they did last year, that no other QB is "worth the reach" at #3. If Buddy would have taken my advice and drafted Tebow at #9, he would be heading into this season as the Bills' starting franchise QB, with his amazing character and amazing drive and desire to continue to make himself into the best QB in the NFL. Instead, he's all that for Denver, who did use their 1st round pick to draft him, and here all of you are again deciding that Cam Newton, who is bigger, stronger and more naturally talented then Tebow, is not "worth the risk." Again, simply amazing. Since Trent Dilfer and Brad Johnson rode along for the ride as the starters for the Ravens and Bucs SB winning teams earlier this decade because both of those teams had the best defenses in the NFL those years along with great running games, please take a look at the other SB winners' starting QB's: 2001: Tom Brady (Luckiest 6th round draft choice, or any rounds' draft choice for that matter, in the history of the NFL.) 2003: Tom Brady 2004: Tom Brady 2005: Ben Roethlisberger (1st round draft choice) 2006: Peyton Manning (#1 pick of his draft) 2007: Eli Manning (#1 pick of his draft) 2008: Ben Roethlisberger 2009: Drew Brees (High 2nd round draft choice) 2010: ? (Either Ben Roethlisberger or Aaron Rogers-Aaron was a 1st round draft choice) So throw out Brady, and do we detect a pattern there?

It's been 17 years since the Bills lost their 4th straight SB to the Cowboys. Even when they lost that 4th one, I still never would have believed it would be this long and counting since Buffalo got back to the big game. For me, a lot has happened these past 17 years. My wife and I have had our two kids, I've given up my season tickets and I am not the crazy die hard fan I was back then now that I've hit my 50's. That said, I never miss watching a game or listening to it if the home games don't sell out, and I still am a passionate Bills fan. I went to the 3rd SB game in Minneapolis, so I don't think I will attend the game if / when the Bills get back (although I just might). Obviously, I won't be as "crazy" emotional watching the game, but if the Bills win that first SB during my lifetime (and I'm not too old to know the game is happening), I am sure I will let loose and go nuts. I will be downtown Buffalo during the parade (as I will if / when the Sabres win that elusive first Cup), and celebrate for myself, and all my friends / family members who have passed on before it happens. (Like my Mom, God bless her, who helped park cars in a private lot our relatives owned for 20 years - nobody loved the Bills more then her!!)

I think that's an excellent question and point to bring up, Mr. Negative. (love that name, but the way.) You are obviously 100% right. Merriman has been injury-riddled these past three seasons. But I will give Buddy the benefit of the doubt on this one. Mostly because the guy is still only around 25 or 26 years old. Nix was involved in the Chargers' drafting him so they have a history together. Now Shawne has one more entire off season to finally (hopefully) heal up, and try to get back to where he was before the steroid allegations and injuries screwed his career up in San Diego. If he gets close to his old level, the Bills will have basically stolen a Pro Bowl pass rushing machine, and when was the last time they pulled off a move like that? If he never plays a down for the Bills and ends up getting cut before next season starts (if next season ever starts of course), the money they spent bringing him in and then re-signing him for will be wasted yes.....but the total amount will end up being half of what they paid T.O. for his one wasted season in Buffalo two years ago. All in all I think it's a creative risk with a reward that would far exceed the money invested if the risk fails.

*Why would "the shoe be on the other foot" for me? I love animals, and would never in my life finance a dog fighting operation. That question makes zero sense. *I of course have made many mistakes in my life, but you are right, I don't understand your "other foot" question, that's for sure. *I've heard Britney sing, and no I don't think she's a great singer, but sure she deserves to make millions, because other people have bought her records for almost 20 years now, and they think she deserves millions. *I'll say one thing about the Kardashian girls, they are certainly 3 gorgeous young women. I don't watch their reality shows very often, but again, enough people do for them to deserve their millions. *The creator of the Pet Rock deserved to make his money, since people purchased those things. *I do sit back and enjoy "the ride" in most cases of my life. *I agree that most people on this board do not have the skills Mike Vick has to play QB in the NFL. *I don't think priorities and pay scales are out of whack, if the public is willing to pay the price for the entertainment. *Why should I hate "the game", in this case the NFL, when it was "the player", in this case Vick, who ran the dog fighting ring in the first place? Hey, I don't even hate Mike Vick. He is taking advantage of the opportunities the NFL gave him to play again, and he is doing an amazing job of it. I simply don't think any companies should be hiring him again as their sponsors, based on his past mistakes. Tiger Woods didn't even break any modern laws much less commit any felonies last year. (I suppose adultery was considered "breaking the law" years ago, but certainly not any more.) Yet just look at the companies that abandoned him as their sponsors! I swear the public judged Tiger more harshly then Vick!! I don't hate Mike Vick, I just don't understand why so many people are falling over themselves to "love" him again, that's all.

I will carry on, and thanks to all for the lively debate.

Sorry, I have a life, a good one, and I am "over it." I have given Vick credit where credit is due, and you can read that if you wanted to take the time to read my entire post. I'm taking a moral stand and judging Vick. Sure, that's called having an opinion. You saying to me "Get over it and get a life" is judging me that I have no life. Why do you get to judge me while I can't judge Vick? The NFL judged Vick, the convicted felon, and decided to let him back into the NFL. But they certainly "judged" him first before making that decision. Plus, let me ask you a question....ever owned a dog? What if you were one of the pit bull lovers in the country that did not train him to fight, but trained him to be a good loving dog. Then one night, after letting him out on his lead, you find he was taken. Kidnapped by the scum bags Vick financed, to fight other pit bulls and get rewarded for winning by being forced to fight again and again, or get punished for losing by being tortured and killed. Real nice, huh? How would you feel then? I somehow bet you wouldn't be so liberal and forgiving and preach to me to just "get over it" because of course I've broken the law myself. But since you asked, I have never been convicted of a felony, so yes, that does make me a better person then Vick was. That certainly doesn't mean that Vick hasn't grown up and become a better person now, perhaps better then the person I am now. Who knows? He's had chances, that's for sure. But I still don't think he deserves high paying endorsements and the huge contract he may be fortunate enough to sign in the near future. But that's just my humble opinion.

The last ticket I got was for stupidly going 48 in a 30. I mailed the fine in. I don't think I've ever gone 90 in my life, although I do seem to do fine by keeping it under 75 on the thruway when 65 is posted. Believe me, at 73 or 74 MPH, hundreds of cars speed past me like I'm going 50. Maybe some of them would "kick and scream in court", but not me. Now that we've cleared that up, maybe you can explain what the hell it has to do with my opinion of Mike Vick, the convicted felon? Like I said, I'll get flamed for dragging this tired subject up yet again, but I just wanted to get it off my chest one more time. It's your opinion that mentioning Obama ruins the intent of my thread. The fact is, the CEO of the company that hired Vick mentioned the fact that Obama "reached out" to Vick, whatever the hell that was supposed to mean, so it was very relevant to the sarcasm of my post! Listen Mr or Ms Moderator, I have put some posts up that I felt were well thought out, with no vulgarity or huge slams on anyone, that you have removed. Of course I was expecting you to remove this one! You don't seem to like my brand of humor or something about my topics, but that's OK, I'll keep posting new topics when I feel I have something of substance to add to your forum, and of course you can always remove them at your whim, too.

Good question John. With Wanny now on board, it makes even more sense to draft DT, DE or LB with that coveted number 3 overall pick. But I am going to stick to my guns, and I have believed this ever since Jim Kelly retired in February of 1997 and these opinion blogs on the internet were just beginning to pop up. To answer your question, ROUND 1, 3RD OVERALL PICK....the best QB Nix has on his board. Last year I ranted that the Bills should have picked Tebow or Clausen with the #9. Well, Clausen may have been a mistake (although no QB should be written off after just their rookie year), but Tebow seems to be making the Broncos look less crazy for drafting him with their first round pick. At least Donahoe tried to draft the best QB on his board in '04 when he grabbed Lost-man. Too bad he didn't pull off a trade up for one of the other 3 GREAT QB's that came out that year before his pick came up. (I wonder if he tried?) Anyway, the biggest argument against my idea to just draft Clausen or Tebow at number 9 was that there were going to be more GREAT QB's to choose from in this year's draft, and the Bills should wait. But after Luck decided to go back to Stanford, all these other GREAT QB's fans on this board were just gushing over a year ago now suddenly all SUCK, right? Now Locker and Gabbert the guys are all flawed, and none of them deserve to be drafted in the first round at all. B.S.! If Tim Tebow, who many on this board seriously did not think would be drafted at all last year, can work his way up to heading into his second year as the starting QB for Denver, then Locker, Mallett, Gabbert and Newton all deserve to be 1st round draft picks! And I think they all will be, or at least will all be gone by the time the Bills get to their second round pick. So to me, it makes perfect sense to suck it up and "reach" with their precious 3rd pick in the draft and secure their QB of the future this April.

Mike Vick wore a vest to protect his ribs this season. (Haven't QB's been wearing these things like...forever?) It seems he has parlayed that into his first major endorsement deal since coming out of prison. Unequal Technologies, make of sports equipment and the vest Vick wore, signed him up to be the new "face" of their company. Said their CEO, "We're real excited about it," Vito said. "Michael is good people. He paid his dues. President Obama reached out to him. He deserves an opportunity. This is what makes America so great. He's moved forward. He's a whole other person." Wow, let's give Vick an honorary degree from Liberty University while we're annointing him an American hero, shall we?? If he was smart, he would take a good percentage of the money he has left from this endorsement deal after his bankruptcy garnishments come out, and donate it directly to the SPCA or his favorite Animal Rights organization. To me, he should continue to spend his money and time on anything related to helping animals for the rest of his life. In addition to that, I would really like to see him do free speaking engagements and free appearances for charitable events that benefit animal shelters and anything animal-rights related. I know he doesn't "have to." I know he's "paid his dues to society." But as a convicted felon, the fact the NFL even allowed him back into the league is an amazingly lucky break for him. As a convicted felon, any McDonalds in America could have easily told him they would not hire him at minimum wage and nobody would blame them. Now, he's worked his ass off and because he still has amazing gifts as an athlete, he has worked his way back to starting QB in the NFL. I might hate him for the type of crimes he was guilty of being associated with, but I repect him for how hard he has worked to get his life turned around. He has made the NFL look right for letting him come back. However, here we are with companies hiring him to huge endorsement deals, and that rubs me the wrong way. This country is so addicted to entertainment sports we continue to reward absolute jerks and idiots with talent to entertain us. Is this company telling us that Vick is the only NFL QB wearing their vest, or is Mike Vick "hot" right now? In any case, Vick should continue on this higher road he has kept himself on since coming out of prison and continue to prove to us he has truly learned how horrible his crimes were to innocent animals, and never stop doing that. Just my humble opinion. Flame away if you must, or "better yet", as with many of my topic starters, I won't be surprised to see this post completely removed by later today. I don't care, I just wanted to vent once again on Mike Vick, Presidents Obama's National Hero.