Well, here he is again. I think of Roger Clemens when I hear the name Favre now - not the steroids and beer cans from a basement Roger, the "I'm gonna come in after training camp and play for an obscene amount"Roger. I, for one, did not fall for it that Brett was retired. Just think, he's only 39 years old now. We have at least another 4 seasons of this crap- after all there are other teams out there that would love to have him as a QB next year - Washington (Campbell is on his last leg), Seattle (Hasselbeck is on his last back vertebrate), San Francisco (Alex Smith or Shaun Hill, are you kidding me?) or Oakland (Jamarcus Russell or Brett Favre...?) just to name 4 off the top of my head. I guess you can only sit on a big farm in Mississippi throwing footballs to high school kids for January through August before it's time to come back. How much do you want to bet now that John Madden will un-retire, become an ESPN "Insider" like Adam Schefter, and sit on the set of Sunday NFL CountDown and just talk about how Brett Favre looks from last week? I'll be more surprised if it DOESN'T happen than if it does! I can't conceivably think of any reason for him to go back and play? I mean Adrian Peterson, Percy Harvin, Bernard Berrian, Vinsanthe Schiancoe and Chester Taylor - is that the group that will take Favre to the Super Bowl? I don't know. All Favre will be remembered for in 10 years is being a Packer, had he stayed retired now. With this move and more to come the next 3-4 years as I'm predicting, he will be remembered for the old guy who couldn't let go - think Dennis Quaid in Any Given Sunday. I only wish I had the balls to find a job like that where I can go in and just play the game without the grueling Training Camp experience. I guess it would be like walking into a busy restaurant as a bartender at 5:30pm on a Friday and just bartending and taking the money, then leaving at 9pm without splitting the tips with the guy who set up the bar, cut the fruit, chilled the beer and will be cleaning up after I'm gone. Talk about a team player.
Then there's Ron Mexico - yes, you remember him, AKA Michael Vick. ESPN showed a nice highlight timeline for him last week - remember flipping the fans off in Atlanta, his "home town"? Then there was the Water Bottle incident in the airport - the "hidden" compartment that reaked of weed. Not to mention the Ron Mexico genital herpes incident. Oh yeah and this whole dog-fighting ring thing. A lot of talent, a lot of promise, a lot of money, and then everything went away - including Vick for 23 months in Leavenworth - not sure if that was country club prison or federal "pound me in the a$$" prison, but prison regardless. Reputation, gone. Money, gone. Promises of making the Hall of Fame? Then in the latest revelations, after lobbying from the "star" "franchise" Quarterback in Philadelphia, he gets a second chance. It sure will not be an easy task. McNabb reached out to Vick and then vouched for him to the Eagles brass for the second chance. 1 week in and talk has died down. Cross-sports tension as Jenn Utley tried to protest the signing at the news conference. Support from the Humane Society president. Backlash from thousands and thousands of fans across the Pennsylvania and Southern Jersey area on talk radio, in newspaper columns, blogs, etc. How did Tony Dungy fit in? No word further word from Commissioner Goodell. Andy Reid said no initially, a backup QB gets hurt, and then they move to sign him?
From how I look at it now, nearly 1 week later, here's how I see it playing out. There will be protests at a few games in Philly, then it will die down. Every away game a group of people will show to protest. It will be a small distraction. Vick will be seen around town in the next month with the ASPCA in Philadelphia - pictures will be taken, front page news at first until his reinstatement, then 10th page news. The local news in Philly will show the pics as well, dogs rescued from dog-fighting houses in Southwest Philly. The debate will be whether Vick gets to hold the dogs for the pictures and videos or is just seen afterward. It'll play out like lawyers locked in a room deciding strategy in a Grisham book. Then the reinstatement, probably after the Eagles Bye Week - October 11th home against his old nemesis, the Buccaneers. He'll be on the field for just a few snaps, lined up behind the Center flanking McNabb or out as receiver behind Hank Baskett or Jeremy Maclin for blocking purposes. As the season progresses he'll get some more snaps, Reid not showing all his cards as long as they're winning games and progressing toward the ultimate goal. They'll have McNabb, Vick, Brian Westbrook, Kevin Curtis, DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin on the field for a few plays. Quite the nightmare for D-coordinators across the NFL. By November the talk of Vick the inhumane dog-fighter will be long surpassed by the amazing story of a turnaround of the Ron Mexico era. Trade bait for the future or a potential replacement for McNabb is he decides to move on. The risk/benefit analysis turns more benefit than risk. I mean he can't be stupid enough to start breeding dogs for fighting again, can he?
Second chance for Vick, 4th unretirement for Farve.
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