Considering where Vick was coming from and the delicate situation surrounding him, I think it's quite possible in this instance that Goodell was genuinely concerned and wanted to see a smooth transition with little initial backlash from fans etc.... which is a good PR move by Goodell IMO. The point is (IMO) that no one was expecting Vick to turn his career around like he did, so it doesn't seem like there would need to be some secret plot to bring him to Philly. It sounded pretty straight forward to me. "Mike, you've been out of the league; you're going to be rusty. Philly would be a great place to initially keep you out of the spot light while easing you back into the game with a few packages created just for you." And that's what Philly did. I don't think Philly was expecting anything remotely close to what they ended up getting in Vick. I'm thinking that Vick possibly wanted to come back into the league with guns blazing (which could've turned out ugly), and Goodell & Co made him realize that might be a bad idea.
Wasn't the cat out of the bag two years ago when he made this decision? All this time I had no idea that the meeting between Goodell and Vick and him suggesting going to Philly was a secret.
Let's say I owned a bunch of car dealerships. I had a sales guy who was pretty good at selling cars at one of my dealerships. Problem is he did some time for domestic abuse. I decide he served his time and want to bring him back. A few of my dealerships are all jockeying to hire him. He goes up to my VP and lays out the offers and VP takes that info and what's best for my dealerships and says he should go to dealer X. Problem?
It's not the Commissioner's job to suggest a team to a player. If he'd said something like "You may want to go to a team with a solid structure", and left it at that, that'd be a different story. But suggesting a team doesn't sound right to me. That's almost akin to an umpire saying "You might wanna throw an off speed pitch here instead of a fastball". At least that's how I see it.
I agree. And the other thing was, Goodell had his finger on the button of Mike Vick's future in the NFL. He could easily have decided (to the chorus of applause) that Mike isn't taking his return to football or rehabilitation seriously and so his lifetime ban from football stays. So of course whichever team Goodell picks as "the best situation" for Vick is going to be the one Vick chooses. And now I'm thinking it's not so much a coincidence that the man that rolled on Vick to federal investigators gets shot in the leg at a public Michael Vick birthday bash, just minutes after getting into a heated, physical confrontation with Michael that ended with Michael's entourage ducking him into a limo that sped away...and nothing ever happened.
Jump to Conclusion game on EXACTLY the words (if any) that came out of the Commish mouth! If a statement of advice was given specific to ONE franchise or another directly from the Commish I stated I would have a problem, its a slippery slope.....but no specific statement has been made outside of a GENERAL quote from Vick and a vague reference to the Commissioner. Geez, do we love to attack on zero facts.
Goodell is the most arrogant, power-obsessed commissioner of the last 50 years of professional sports. So on the same day he suspends a guy who isn't in the NFL yet for something he did in college, it comes out that he personally steered a player to a certain team. What a jerk-off. If David Stern did something like this, people would be going ape-****.
Exactly if I am the owners of the Bengals & Bills I would be calling for his head. To steer a player to a team, when he is supposed to be looking out for ALL the teams in the league, is something worthy of getting sacked over. I would be screaming bloody murder (behind closed doors of course).
I would be really torn. I mean he is a convicted felon, and a douchebag to boot. But boy he would give me more hope than Henne does at this point.
I don't care how cynical you are; the Commissioner of a sports league, representative of ALL 32 teams, steering a player to one certain team is a colossal breach of his office. That's true no matter where you fall on the issue.
Guys, Roger and company did that because they wanted Vick to be under the wing of Donovan McNabb and the Eagles staff. McNabb has been a near perfect role model throughout his long career. No troubles, etc...... they probably hoped it would rub off on him, he would straighten himself out, and then get signed to a different team. I don't think they envisioned Vick replacing McNabb... that was the Eagles' doing.
Goodell couldn't risk Vick ending up in Cincy or the Bills. Could you imagine the bad PR for the NFL if a couple of years down the road Vick was indicted in a Bengal-fighting ring or a Buffalo-fighting ring? Disastrous....
What ever do you mean? Vick had a great night tonight! It was obviously the Steelers incredible defense that made ALL the plays. You can't fault Vick for that. I kid... Vick sure did have one heck of bad night... hell his whole team did, except for Kafka. Hmmm....
lol...I called it. Granted it's only one preseason game and I haven't been proven correct about Vick yet. However, his game last night is pretty much a microcosm of his career. Crappy comp %, turnover's galore (this time INT's instead of fumbles) etc etc.
Yea you did! Congrats! Guy was a top 5 QB for the 2010 season and you dismiss it all with one...preseason game? YOU DA MAN!
Wrong. He was a top 5 QB in one season and a bottom 5 QB in his 6 others. But you keep living in your "Vick-was-good-for-one-season-out-of-seven" world and I'll live in reality. Vick sucks as a QB. He can run fast...that is it.
