A Look at Landis from Both Sides...

As someone who has spent years as a professional journalist, I try very hard to remain neutral when it comes to certain things related to reporting...even when I am a fan. If you search my site, knowing I am a big Patriots and a big Red Sox fan, you will find articles that are often critical of my favorite teams. I'm a fan, but I understand reality.

I don't give players or the team a pass when I think they have screwed up.

Shades of guilt?
I have to admit...in all the doping scandal involving Floyd Landis, I think he screwed up. I don't know that he actually doped...he might not have, he might have. I do know that his initial reaction is problematic in the court of public opinion.

In the immediate aftermath of the first test Landis, a former teammate and domestique of perennial accusee Lance Armstrong launched into a variety of excuses for why the tests came back positive for elevated levels of testosterone. I freely admit to being no doctor, but the lines about ingesting the alcohol and the line, “now there's also the possibility, and it's an argument that has been used by other people. At this point, I don't know if it's somehow or some way I ingested something that caused the tests to be that way,” that he gave Jay Leno both ring hollow.

This led Landis to fall back on the stand-by of pointing the finger at the lab, which typically smacks of desperation.

Reasonable doubt...
Let's look at some of the surface issues here, I won't even delve too deep.

Landis has been able to fall back on the lab because, let's face it, this lab has had a history of mishandling samples.

Landis finds himself caught in a "perfect storm" type of scenario. Consider the following - cycling as a sport in recent years has garnered a reputation as a haven for the performance enhanced, particularly blood dopers. Cycling's governing body decided it was finally time to crack down hard on suspected cheaters - bouncing some of cyclings' biggest names, including Jan Ulrich and Ivan Basso, before the Tour even got underway last year. Couple that with the president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Dick Pound's), profound and even slanderous contempt of Lance Armstrong and a growing resentment of American riders dominating the French event (wins in 10 of the last 20 years - Greg LeMond twice, Armstrong seven times, and Landis once) and what do you have? A situation in which being able to disqualify the winner gives the IOC the biggest trophy of all in cleaning up their sport.

I'm not saying this is what has happened, but I don't believe this is outside the realm of possibility.

Even those believing in Landis' guilt - which I admit is a possibility - I pose to you the following questions -

If WADA was convinced that there was no possible way that the test on the A sample was wrong, then why require representatives of USADA to be present when Landis' representative is present?

If the USADA rep couldn't be present, then why not reschedule?

In 2004 two riders were kicked out of the Tour after doping investigations. Is there some reason that the IOC's and WADA's people were unable to complete an investigation with enough time to prevent Landis from crossing that finish line? They were able to do it in 2004.

Also, with historical issues with the lab, would it really have been so difficult to farm the test out to a different lab that both parties could agree on?

Due process has been negligible at best throughout the course of this affair, and I am only scratching the surface here. And I think it's safe to say that it doesn't look like he will get a fair hearing from doping officials.

More quick hits

In the news for all the wrong reasons...again
It seems my favorite Atlanta Falcon punching bag, the highly over-rated quarterback Michael Vick appears to have run afoul of the law...again, this time he has been implicated in a drug probe which has revealed, at the very least, some sort of indirect support of the illegal practice of dog fighting at a home Vick owns in Virginia. Currently a 26-year old relative who was being investigated as a drug dealer in a narcotics probe lives at the home.

According to the report, "more than 60 dogs were found in three buildings. Some appeared malnourished, scarred and injured, officials said."

Unfortunately, since Vick was not there...and I don't believe this would be his primary residence, I have a hunch that this will provide him with plausible deniability, allowing him to walk away from this dog fighting and what is yet another drug-related scandal unscathed.

I think it's interesting that trouble always seems to be hovering around this guy - whether it's as Ron Mexico, flipping off the fans, or being detained at an airport...not to mention the MySpace photos with a girlfriend and the marijuana use comments contained therein. Sure, to be fair one has to ask, "is he an innocent target?" or, "is he somebody that keeps putting himself in position to be a target?"

Just plain sloppy...
Orioles announcer and Maine native son Gary Thorne screwed up...bad. Assuming he heard Doug Mirabelli right and Mirabelli did actually say that it was paint on Schilling's sock, as someone who has worked professionally as a journalist for over a decade, here are the questions I have -

If the story is true...
1. When he first heard this, as he claims, two years ago (to the best of his recollection), as a journalist why didn't he follow up on this and get confirmation? There were plenty of potential sources to confirm -

A. First baseman Doug Mankiewicz who had a very acrimonious departure from the Red Sox.

B. Former Sox center fielder Johnny Damon.

C. Former Sox first baseman Kevin Millar.

D. The doctor, Bill Morgan, who performed the procedure and later was fired by the Red Sox.

Those are the ones off the top of my head. Keith Foulke comes to mind as well.

2. Mirabelli has a reputation as a practical joker - always has had that reputation. Wouldn't that make it more important to a reporter to confirm a story?

3. Most importantly, why would any reporter sit on a story like this for two years?

Red Sox fan or no, as a journalist I know that's something I'm working on getting out quickly and I'm making sure I have corroboration for my story. This was just sloppy and irresponsible.

28th and wondering where to go...
Right now the Red Sox are third in the majors in ERA (3.21), the Yankees 27th (4.83), the Yankees are 4th in batting average (.275), the Sox are 13th (.259). However, from the 7th inning on the Sox are 5th (.277), and the Yanks are 8th (.263) in batting and the Sox are tied for 2nd in ERA (1.83) while the Yanks are 28th (5.03). All of this has translated into the best record in baseball for the Red Sox heading into the final weekend of April. For the Yankees? A better record than only the Royals, Rangers, Nationals, and Cubs. Technically, that leaves them in 28th overall in the bigs.

How loud will the thus far quiet George Steinbrenner become if the Yankees extend their losing streak against the Red Sox this weekend? If they are swept again? If they lose two of three?

It could get really ugly really soon in the Bronx.

I know that the Yankees started like this last year, but last year they had a deeper bench and the Red Sox pitching wasn't as good as it is this year. They can turn it around. The question is, will they in time?

Clearing out the recesses of the mind...

And those are lonely places. Lonely, lonely places...

Dissecting labs...
According to the French newspaper L'Equipe, Floyd Landis' B-sample has tested positive for epi-testosterone. This of course is the same paper that has led witch-hunt after witch-hunt against American riders and the same French lab that has repeatedly bungled the testing of Tour-de-France riders.

Landis has of course responded, making some very valid points about the potential invalidity of the test results. I am not defending him, nor any other American rider, as I honestly don't know what to believe. I do have to say that something smells very wrong about the process here and the term "railroaded" pops into my head.

Pushing the panic button...
Brian Cashman must really feel Steinbrenner breathing down his neck at the moment. The Yankees are off to a great start offensively, but have been horrible on the mound (I think the longest any starter has gone has been 6 innings). Cashman will be promoting top pitching prospect Phil Hughes to start Thursday's game. The Yankees GM has been loath to do this in light of the fates of other top prospects rushed to the bigs such as Kerry Wood.

Dropping three straight to arch-rival Boston and then a fourth to Tampa Bay must really be eating at The Boss...and Cashman I'm sure knows it, otherwise Hughes doesn't go any higher than AAA before September of this year. The move smacks of desperation which is kind of funny when you think about it - do the conversion to a football season. This would be like management panicking somewhere around the early fourth quarter of the second game of the season...say with 13:45 left on the clock in the 4th quarter.

Early returns looking good...
My other sports gig, Bitterfans, asked its writers to submit predictions for this year's baseball season season, and right now I'm looking good in my picks for each division winner (hey, I know it's early and anything can happen between now and October). Here they are along with current standings -

AL East - Boston 1st
AL Cent - Minnesota T-1st (with Detroit)
AL West - Oakland - 1st

NL East - New York - 1st
NL Cent - Milwaukee - 1st
NL West - Los Angeles - 1st

I fully expect to be wrong on a couple of these...but hey, I need to give credit where credit is due while the standings still fall in favor of my predictions. Yay me.

Bright lights, big city...
This weekend marks the biggest holiday in football fandom for anyone whose team is a perennial bottom feeder...Saturday is Draft Day. It is the day that is meant to give hope for the turnaround, give belief that what was once bad can become good in a hurry. Fans gather in Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan to see who the future of their franchise is going to be.

The draft was created and designed on the premise that it favored the worst teams, giving them first shot at the top talent in the draft. It hasn't exactly worked that way - ask a fan of the Arizona Cardinals, a perennial bottom feeder. Of course that is no fault of the draft. The draft itself is sound as long as the organization picking has all of its front office and coaches on the same page.

To wit; the Cardinals, Lions, and Browns are consistently picking in the top ten. Theoretically those teams should be amassing an immense amount of talent. The Colts, Patriots, and Chargers typically are picking in the late 20's of the first round, amassing what should be lesser talent.

All teams work with the same salary constraints - and in spite of a reputation as being "cheap" the Patriots usually spend to the cap as does most of the league. What has been the difference between the bottom feeders and the cream of the crop? Management, talent evaluation, and coaching.

Bad luck does play a part (injuries, sudden retirements, etc), but even that can be overcome; the Patriots won a Super Bowl with a defensive backfield so decimated that one corner was a street free-agent, a safety was a career corner, the other safety a career linebacker, and the nickel-back was a career wide-receiver; the Philadelphia Eagles made it past the NFC Championship, getting that monkey off their back, sans the wide receiver who was supposed to be the missing piece in the previous seasons.

To put it a different way - If I told a Colts fan that Matt Millen was going to be their general manager, the Colts fan would probably go all Oedipus and claw his eyes out before killing himself. If I told a Pats fan that Dan Snyder was buying the team from Bob Kraft...let's just say what they would do would make the Boston Tea Party look tame by comparison.

For some reason it's like playing kick-ball when you're little, but the kid picked for team captain somehow finds a way to always pick the kid that everyone else would pick last. That's what it has come to for those bottom-end teams.

Management for the successful teams have set rules and prices and often will part with a highly talented player who thinks they are worth more than the team has budgeted for the position. The teams at the bottom? They're the ones who pay the big bucks thinking that the free-agent is the missing piece. Ask Redskins fans how well that has worked out, or Raiders fans.

The problem isn't the system...the problem is human, and the system wasn't made to account for human error.

Lucky Sevens...

It's early yet, so I'm not going to make a big deal about the Sweep at Fenway, however, if they take the three at the Stadium next week, The Boss (and I'm not talking Springsteen) isn't going to be happy. However, I do want to address some strange facts about this past weekend's series.

The finals of the games from Friday to Sunday - 7-6, 7-5, 7-6. One more run for the Yankees on Saturday and we're looking at the Number of the Beast. Is anyone really surprised by that?

Now onto the real trivia related to the weekend and the things that can be taken from this series.

The Yankees hitting is keeping some dismal pitching afloat. After this weekend, according to ESPN, Yankees starters are averaging fewer than 5 innings pitched per start and the bullpen has thrown the most innings of any bullpen in the majors. None of the starters is averaging even six innings per game.

The Bombers have largely been kept afloat through the efforts of the usually unreliable in the clutch Alex Rodriguez who has more home runs (12) than the rest of his team combined (11), and has more than twice the RBI's (31) of all but one of his teammates (Bobby Abreu with 16).

Red Sox pitching was mortal in the series, but still seemed to prove the old baseball adage, "great pitching beats great hitting." Also, Sox starters lasted a minimum of six innings in each start, keeping the Boston bullpen fresh. The Yankees had one starter last at least six full innings. In two of the three games Yankees starters relinquished the mound with the lead only to watch the bullpen cough up the lead. The Boston bullpen held in each instance it was asked.

Last night a rookie became just the second pitcher in the history of baseball to give up home runs on four consecutive at-bats. Curious connections - JD Drew is the only batter to be involved in the last time that four consecutive batters hit home runs (it happened a total of five times in the sport's history, but only twice was the same pitcher on the mound for all four dingers). Drew is the only batter involved in the quad-fecta more than once. Terry Francona's father was involved in the last time four were hit off of one pitcher.

What can be taken from this weekend? Not much more than a smug sense of self-satisfaction for Sox fans, with the understanding that the tables could be turned next weekend. But Yankees fans still should view this as a warning about the state of their pitching. As a Sox fan, I have seen my team try to build offensive juggernauts and ignore pitching. I can say that it can be good enough to get you to the post season...occasionally, but it won't get you much farther.

Let the Games Begin...

There really is nothing quite like it.

I'm talking Sawx-Yanks here.

I've been immersed in the rivalry for as long as I have followed baseball, and that brings me back to about four years old I would guess. For thirty-three of my thirty-seven years I have been through the ups and downs - the 1978 meltdown, Yaz's last game at Yankee Stadium, the mid to late 1980's when the rivalry stalled a little due to fact the Yankees didn't compete at the highest level when the Sox were going to the post-season every other year, the mid-1990's when the same was going on the other way, and of course 2004.

2004 was a very cathartic year for Red Sox fans - and at the same time it was somewhat anti-climactic. After the gut-wrenching drama (The Sox never do anything the easy way) that was the American League Championship Series between the Yanks and Sox (really, the way it needed to happen too), the World Series win over the Cardinals (which was also appropriate considering 1967) was...nice, but not momentous...well, not as momentous as the AL Championship win. That might have been why the dismantling of the Cardinals seemed almost an afterthought in that post-season.

The irony of that post-season is not lost on me either. Up until that point, the Yankees were the Beast in the East, Goliath to the Red Sox' David. They owned all the great post-season records - more World Series trophies than any other team, and more than many teams combined. The Sox? They hadn't won since 1918. The post-season record - no - the post season reputation of the Sox since? Epic collapses - 1967,1975, 1978, 1986 (and my brother is a Mets fan), 1988, 1990, 1996, 2003 (what were you thinking Grady, what were you thinking?).

But in 2004, and this must absolutely eat at George Steinbrenner, the Red Sox turned the table on their nemesis. The Yankees were just three outs away from the World Series and up three games to one over the Sox. No team in major league baseball had ever come back from down 3-1, let alone 3-1 and only three outs away from elimination. But the Sox did it, and against the pitcher universally accepted as the best closer in baseball.

Suddenly, not only were the Sox in the series, but they bequeathed their legacy upon the hated arch-rival Yanks. Suddenly the worst post-season collapse in the history of baseball was in The Bronx. There was a weird sense of relief and joy among Sox fans...even the doomsayers were looking at the nature of the rivalry with new eyes - and having trouble trying to tell fellow fans how the (Sox) world was going to end at the hands of the Cardinals. Hell - if we could beat the Yanks, the Cards would be easy.

Sure, Steinbrenner has driven up salaries around the sport. He has created a multitude of problems for small market teams trying to compete. But he has been good for the sport. He has given us a bad guy...an almost cartoonish evil villain sans any true evil. His biggest sin is that he wants to win at any cost and will try to buy a championship - but he doesn't do anything against the rules. He is the owner of the Indians in the movie Major League, or the owner of the Washington Sentinels in "The Replacements." He is the owner who lacks any real expertise, but is trying to win no matter the fiscal cost. And he is a great villain - I will miss him when he is gone.

But all of that is incidental. Tonight begins the Fair in the Fens, the Carnival by Kenmore Square. It is the only rivalry in professional American athletics that evokes a virtual post-season atmosphere for every game. Tonight and for the next three days John Updike's, "little lyric bandbox of a ballpark," will become a rocking juke joint with pilgrims from New York going to the Park with the Fenway Faithful.

With Sox-Yanks, it's not a game. It's a religion.

HoF Case for Bledsoe, Part 2

Visitors already know where I stand on this. I acknowledge that Bledsoe is a borderline Hall of Famer, but, based on the history of the quarterbacks enshrined, I would say that he is a HoFer never the less. I hear a lot of people talk about how you can not look at these statistics in a vacuum. In that case, let's not.

I addressed in my last post a number of the statistical comparisons...now let's look at something else that's relevant, Hall of Famer players with whom these players played that might have made the quarterback's job easier - defense, linemen, wide receivers, running backs, etc.

Let's even take a look at some of the current quarterbacks that reports regularly call "future HoFer..."

For the purposes of this I am not going to count Vinatieri (even though his best seasons came with Brady), due to the fact that other deserving kickers have been unable to get enshrined, and until Vinatieri is actually voted in, I will not count a kicker amongst the sure-fire or even likely to make it into Canton.

Let me start by posing the following question - Name more than one sure-fire HoF player that Bledsoe played with for more than a season. The only likely candidate I can come up with for Bledsoe is Curtis Martin. The only wide receiver with a shot? Terrell Owens with whom he spent one season and seldom passed to because (this was from a Dallas newspaper) he hadn't bothered to learn the playbook. So Bledsoe played with one definite. The only other is likely Ty Law.

So let's give him two there.

Tom Brady? Four - For at least one of the Super Bowl runs he had a future HoF in running back Corey Dillon and one and a third for Ty Law, for two of them Rodney Harrison, and in all three, Richard Seymour. Remember, I am going with the players with which HoF gets mentioned.

Peyton Manning? Four, possibly five - Marvin Harrison, Edgerin James, Marshall Faulk, possibly Tarik Glenn and some have even begun to mention Reggie Wayne.

Brett Favre? One - Reggie White.

Dan Marino? One - Dwight Stephenson. And even when Stephenson was gone, Marino had go-to guys Mark Duper and Mark Clayton for multiple seasons, Bledsoe never had the same pair of starters for more than two consecutive seasons.

Troy Aikman? When all is said an done it could be as many as three - Michael Irvin, Emmitt Smith, and there has been talk about Larry Allen.

Dan Fouts? Only one - Kellen Winslow (and Fouts didn't have to jump right in like Bledsoe did - his first season he was able to learn under Johnny Unitas and see how things were done by veterans like Deacon Jones).

Terry Bradshaw? Eight - Lynn Swann, John Stalworth, Joe Greene, Mel Blount, Jack Hamm, Franco Harris, Jack Lambert and Mike Webster.

Joe Montana? Two - Jerry Rice, Ronnie Lott.

Warren Moon? Two - Bruce Matthews, Mike Munchak (and even Earl Campbell for a season...and talk about statistics being aided by longevity - he played in the NFL for 20 seasons not including his work in the CFL).

Jim Kelly? Two - James Lofton, Thurman Thomas.

John Elway? The only quarterback that has none listed with him, although Bob Kuchenberg and Terrell Davis have stirred up debates on it (Kuchenburg making it to the round of 17, and Davis being debated by the actual voters), so I give Elway two.

Almost all of those HoF QB's had HoFers catching their passes. The exceptions? Elway, Moon, Favre and future HoFer, Brady. Of those without a big presence catching the ball, Moon played behind two HoF pass-protectors and Elway played behind one on the verge. So only Brady, Bledsoe and Favre among the above lacked the pass catcher and/or protection that all the other quarterbacks benefited from.

Of the quarterbacks to throw for more than 3000 yards at least nine times in their careers (Bledsoe, Favre, Marino, Manning, and Moon), only Favre has done it while surrounded with less talent on the offensive side of the ball.

So, in the modern era of passing who has done more with less? Very few. You can count on one, maybe two hands tops the quarterbacks who have done more with less than Bledsoe - Favre definitely, maybe Fouts, maybe Moon, Steve Young (who also had Rice and Lott), and Elway, but you're going to be hard pressed to argue that any of the other recent Hall of Fame inductees at quarterback did more to raise mediocre talent to a championship level than Bledsoe.

His one truly talented receiver? The oft injured and and mentally impaired Terry Glenn. His most reliable target? Ben Coates who hasn't even sniffed Canton. Outside of those two, non-Pats fans would have a hard time remembering that Bledsoe's big receivers were less a list of who's who at the position than of who's that with Vincent Brisby, Ray Crittenden, Michael Timpson, and Shawn Jefferson. Even with Montana everyone remembers Gary Clark.

A Case for the Hall of Fame

I know a losing battle when I take it on. I write to raise awareness regarding Genarlow Wilson - check here for the update on what's going on with Wilson - and now I'm starting a campaign for Drew Bledsoe's induction to the Hall of Fame, knowing full-well that for whatever reason, sports columnists around the country are down on him in spite of a body of work that rivals most of the quarterbacks in the Hall of Fame.

Let's start with Sports Illustrated columnist and Massachusetts resident Don Banks (with whom I often find myself in agreement) and his recent column in which he says Bledsoe is "not even close" to a Hall of Famer...

Banks primarily argues the following

consider this overview nugget that in my mind clearly defines Bledsoe's legacy: As a starting quarterback, Bledsoe saw three organizations give up on him: New England, Buffalo and Dallas. That's nearly unparalleled among Hall of Fame quarterbacks.

Twenty-six-year NFL veteran George Blanda lost starting jobs in Chicago and Houston, but his memorable stint in Oakland was primarily as a kicker and backup quarterback. The newly enshrined Warren Moon -- himself a borderline Hall of Fame candidate in the eyes of many -- saw Houston, Minnesota and Seattle replace him as a starter, but his Hall candidacy was aided immeasurably by both his six record-setting seasons in the CFL and his pioneering role as the game's first star black quarterback.

Bledsoe has no such historical niche to hang his Hall candidacy on.

So, in his own argument he points out two other HoF QB's who lost jobs to other quarterbacks. Only one of the two others, however, could be considered a casualty of the salary cap era as Bledsoe was. When Bledsoe was released from the Bills he hadn't been beaten out by JP Losman, he was more expensive and the Bills felt that Losman's scrambling ability behind their suspect offensive line gave them a better chance in spite of the fact that he was unable to outplay Bledsoe for the starter's roll. Additionally, when in New England, Belichick opted to stay with the hot-hand in Brady when Bledsoe came back from a devastating injury.

With the time missed and the nature of the injury, a coach would have to wonder about the ability of his quarterback to take a full 60 minute beating. Also not the first time in history that a future HoF QB languished on the bench behind the hot-handed back-up.

Banks other major arguments -

Bledsoe's career 57.2 completion percentage ranks behind all but one of the recent Hall of Fame quarterbacks who competed in his era, among them Steve Young (64.3), Joe Montana (63.2), Troy Aikman (61.5), Jim Kelly (60.1), Dan Marino (59.4), and Moon (58.4). Bledsoe is ahead of only John Elway (56.9). He's last in that group in quarterback rating (77.1), yards per pass attempt (6.64), and second-to-last in touchdown percentage (his 3.74 beats only Aikman's 3.50).

Bledsoe is also near the back of the pack of his peers when it comes to winning. His 98-96 career record as a starter is about as middle of the road as you can get. He went to just one Super Bowl as a starter, throwing four interceptions in New England's loss to Green Bay in that championship game a decade ago, and led a team to the playoffs as its No. 1 quarterback just four times in 14 years (going 3-4 in those games). That pales next to the postseason exploits of QBs such as Montana, Aikman, Elway, Young, Kelly and Marino.

So, he's behind in a couple of the statistical categories that Banks chooses to list, but even so is still ahead of Elway and Aikman in two of those listed. He cites the starting record of 98-96 (and a playoff record of 3-4, but is 4-4 if you count the relief appearance in 2001), but if win-loss is so relevant, then why is Joe Namath in? Namath had a losing record...by a lot, and less than pedestrian statistics. Here's the comparison -

Namath - 77-108-3 27,663 yds.140 games.173 TD/220 INTs. 50.1 % cmplt. 65.6 rating

Bledsoe - 98-96 44,611 yds.194 games.251 TD/206 INTs. 57.2% cmplt. 77.1 rating

Sure, Namath played in a different era, but even then throwing more interceptions than touchdowns and having a losing record I can't imagine was considered a good thing.

Don't tell me that a Super Bowl ring is a prerequisite, or is playing big in the big games otherwise Warren Moon, Jim Kelly, Dan Fouts, and Fran Tarkenton wouldn't be in. Hell, Fouts and Moon never even made it to the Super Bowl - so what got them in? Impressive statistics.

What's are the major statistics that are supposed to be the tell-all for great QB's? Completion percentage and TD/INT ratio.

And yes, most of the above have better completion percentages, but Bledsoe is better than several in regards to the TD to INT ratio - including better than Aikman who seems to be universally hailed as the best QB of the 1990's. Bledsoe tossed 1.22 touchdowns for every interception. Aikman? 1.17 (165/141 in 165 games). Additionally, Bledsoe threw for more per game than Aikman (1.3 per game as opposed to 1) with what most would consider lesser talent for most of his career. Who was Bledsoe's Michael Irvin?

For all of the knocks on Bledsoe in regards to bad decision making, proportionately he gave the ball to the opponent less than Aikman. Hall of Famer Dan Fouts, who thrived in the same Ernie Zampese developed system that Bledsoe did early in his career also has a poorer ratio of TDs to INTs - 254 TD/242 INTs, or 1.05 TD's for every interception thrown.

Also, consider the following - Bledsoe is one of only five quarterbacks in the history of the NFL to throw for more than 3,000 yards in at least nine seasons (Warren Moon 9, Dan Marino 13, Brett Favre 15, and Peyton Manning 9)

Bledsoe is fifth all-time in completions. Three of the four quarterbacks ahead of him are already in the Hall, the other is Brett Favre. He's fifth in pass attempts, seventh in yards and thirteenth in TD's.

He had two defining moments - one the relief appearance in the playoff game in Pittsburgh, the other? Two come from behind wins with a quarter-inch pin sticking out of the index finger of his throwing hand to propel the Patriots into the post-season. Yes, he didn't have a great Super Bowl against the Packers in 1996, but who would have with the blocking he was (or wasn't) getting from Max Lane who was getting schooled by HoFer Reggie White?

The bottom line - either Bledsoe belongs in, or there are a whole lot of guys in the Hall who don't belong. Enjoy retirement big guy.

"It is a privilege to represent the NFL, not a right," and other thoughts

The above quote was ganked from the AP report on NFL commissioner Roger Goodell's decision to suspend Titans corner Adam "Pacman" Jones for the 2007 season and Bengals receiver Chris Henry for the first half of the season. Goodell went on to explain, "These players and all members of our league have to make the right choices and decisions in their conduct on a consistent basis."

According to the report, both the Bengals and Titans are publicly supporting the commissioner's ruling and Jones can even make it back before the end of the season if he plays ball with his employers...

He could be reinstated before season's end if he adheres to a strict set of conditions set by the NFL that include no further involvement with law enforcement; counseling, education and treatment under league and court-ordered programs; follows restrictions on his activities agreed to with the Titans; and a community-service program submitted to the league for review and approval.

Ranting on contracts...

Check out Bitterfans for an elaboration on my rant about Asante Samuel and his contract SNAFU.

T'ain't a sport...it's an activity...

Could somebody explain to me why golf gets so much play on ESPN? When golf ratings are high, they're in the realm of baseball, but that's the exception, not the rule. According to golf-blogger Geoff Shackelford, this year's season opening event, the Mercedes, had a ratings drop of 44 percent from last year. If I dropped 44 percent of my body weight, I'd be hospitalized - if not dead.

And on the golf note - is it just me, or is getting a green blazer possibly the lames award in sports? Super Bowl/ World Series rings, Lord Stanley's Cup, The Lombardi Trophy...green jacket. And...I know she hasn't been in the news in a couple of months now, but it's only a matter of time before she's back, but could we lay off reporting anything about Michelle Wie until she actually wins something? Is that too much to ask?

Tumblin' Dice...

Last week Daisuke Matsuzaka made his Major League debut against a weak Kansas City line-up and looked like he came as advertised. Tomorrow he faces a somewhat better Seattle Mariners line-up. Should be interesting to see what happens...for now he's looking pretty damn good. The offense on the other hand...

Na-na-na-na, Na-na-na-na, Hey-ey, Good-bye

I think that it's pretty safe to say that Asante Samuel will not be a Patriot much longer, particularly if he thinks his contract demands are realistic. I give him an outside chance of being in the red, white and blue next season, but based on what I read in the Boston Globe, Samuel has no actual clue of his market value...

As part of the recent negotiations between cornerback Asante Samuel and the New England Patriots, Samuel's representatives were seeking a contract that included about $30 million to be paid out in the first three years of the deal.
The Patriots were offering a package that averaged around $6 million per season, and although it is not known how much money would be paid out in the first three years, one thing is clear: It wasn't close to the $30 million Samuel was seeking, which led to his recent comments about being unhappy with the state of negotiations.

Darryl Stingley, rest in peace

September 18, 1951 - April 5, 2007

"He loved the Patriots. He rooted for the White Sox and Bulls, but never for one second did he root for the Bears. He was all about silver and blue." - Stingley's former agent Jack Sands of the native Chicagoan and former New England Patriot

"The real record I have set for over 50 years is the fact that I have had one job and one wife."

The above quote came from the now deceased former Grambling football coach Eddie Robinson. It is all you really need to know about the man to know what was truly important to him. If you need to know more, read on. A fair amount of the following was ganked from today's AP report...

Repeat visitors to theangryfan will be familiar with the fact that I had issues with the media gushing over the importance of a black coach winning this past year's Super Bowl. It's people like Robinson that were the true trailblazers for black America in the coaching realm. While Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in professional baseball, Robinson, according to the AP report on his passing, "'elevated a small town program to national prominence and tore down barriers to achieve an equal playing field for athletes of all races,' Gov. Kathleen Blanco said in a statement. 'Generations of Louisianans will forever benefit from coach Robinson's fight for equality.'

"...Jerry Izenberg, the sports columnist emeritus at the Star-Ledger of Newark and a close friend of Robinson since 1963, said the coach was an inspiration in the deep South.

"'People look at black pride in America and sports' impact on it,' Izenberg said. 'In the major cities it took off the first time Jackie Robinson stole home. In the deep South, it started with Eddie Robinson, who took a small college in northern Louisiana with little or no funds and sent the first black to the pros and made everyone look at him and Grambling.'"

Robinson's impact on equal rights started with his attitude. It was not unrealistic, but at the same time he didn't acknowledge being a second hand citizen, "'The best way to enjoy life in America is to first be an American, and I don't think you have to be white to do so,' Robinson said. 'Blacks have had a hard time, but not many Americans haven't.'" While Robinson saw himself as an American first, he was practical enough to know what limitations were imposed on him and his players by the society he was in, making lunches for his players when they went on the road because he knew that they would be unable to dine in restaurants in the South.

He was the first in his family to finish high school, let alone college, and his achievements at Grambling are college football legend - his "career spanned 11 presidents, several wars and the civil rights movement. His overall record of excellence is what will be remembered: In 57 years, Robinson compiled a 408-165-15 record. Until John Gagliardi of St. John's, Minn., topped the victory mark four years ago, Robinson was the winningest coach in all of college football. "

For my money, Robinson was (arguably) one of the five or ten greatest college coaches to ever walk the sidelines. Only a handful of other names come to mind when I try to think of comparable coaches...Bear Bryant and Joe Paterno are some of the company he keeps.

Robinson died at the age of 88 while suffering from Alzheimer's and leaves behind his wife, two children, five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. I will forever remember the man as he is in the AP photo above - looking tough as nails, a little hunched over in a baseball cap and trench coat. May he find the peace in his passing that must have eluded him for the last couple of years as he combated the Alzheimer's.

Opening Day Aftermath

A couple of brief thoughts regarding yesterday's exercise in futility at Kaufman Stadium in Kansas City.

A. Spring training is over, time to wake up guys, the season is here.

B. One game behind and only 161 left...

C. Schil - You can't spend spring training clamouring for a new contract and then cough up five earned runs in four innings while being out dueled by the immortal Gil Meche and expect to have credibility with Sox fans. We love you for what you did a couple of years ago, but don't negotiate your contracts in the press - it has a way of biting you in your ass.

D. This was one of the Sox uglier opening days...hopefully Josh Beckett will have better luck tomorrow.

E. Is that six losses in a row now to the Royals?

Didn't watch a single minute of this year's March Madness and found I didn't miss it at all.

With the NFL Draft practically upon us there has been a lot of recent speculation about what this team will do and what that team will do. The draftniks have said they believe with their two first round picks the Patriots will...

Draft a safety and lineman

A linebacker and a corner

Trade lower and get more picks while drafting a linebacker

Get a wide receiver and linebacker

A running back and safety

or any number of different combinations of the above. It really covers a lot of possible options, but I will be the first to say that I have looked at Patriots needs in the past, compared it with Belichick's draft history in those years and I think it's safe to say that I have no frakkin' clue what the Patriots will do.

Sure, they could use more youth at linebacker and safety, they could use another running back, and good corners are always hard to find. However, they seem to have addressed all the major concerns in free-agency this year, so don't be surprised if they go after the best available player that fits their system, rather than for high-need.

Rim Shots...

Pacman's about to get ghosted and no power-pills left to eat...
Right now the smart money is on the concept that cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones will not play another down for the Tennessee Titans in light of all of his extra-curricular activities. There is an additional belief that he will be suspended for the season next year.

This poses a question - If the Titans release Jones and no one picks him up next season because they don't want money tied up in a player who can not play, then he isn't really serving a suspension under league rules, is he? It should be interesting to see if his career goes away because of all this, or if he just does (despite all his claims of innocence in regards to the Vegas incident, it does appear that he was caught on camera inciting the melee that ensued).

Man of Steel rolls the dice and they come up snake-eyes...
So Joey Porter, after signing a contract to become a Miami Dolphin, assaults a Bengal in Vegas over trash talking in relation to his former team the Steelers and could face up to a year in jail time for his transgression. While it's unlikely that he will serve that sort of time (if any at all), it was not the smartest move in the world - particularly with the league scrutinizing this sort of behavior.

Pitching in the Venezualan Penal League...
Former big league closer Ugueth Urbina, a former member of the Red Sox (amongst other teams), was convicted of attempted murder. According to the AP Report, Urbina, "was accused of joining a group of men in attacking and injuring workers with machetes and pouring gasoline on them at his family's ranch, located about 25 miles south of Caracas."

I had heard that Urbina was charged at the beginning of this case, but - in all honesty - I don't know enough about the case to say whether Urbina got shafted or not. I can say that the man has not had a good couple of years, starting with the kidnapping of his mother in September of 2004 (she was rescued five months later).

Finally taking a look at the Sox...

We're well into Spring Training, and less than two weeks away from the beginning of the regular season on April 2nd, managers are beginning to let players know who's making the trip North and who isn't. There are already certain givens on the Red Sox roster. Who you might ask? I would say you can count on the following -

Pitchers (Expected to carry 12) -

Starters (5)* -
Josh Beckett
Curt Schilling
Daisuke Matsuzaka
Jonathan Papelbon
Tim Wakefield

Relievers (7) -
Julian Tavarez
JC Romero
Joel Pineiro
Hideki Okajima
Brendan Donnelly
Kyle Snyder*
Manny Delcarmen*

* The Sox will be starting the season with Mike Timlin on the DL, with Timlin on the DL it opens up a second spot in the bullpen to start the season. Look for either Snyder or Delcarmen to be the odd man out when Timlin returns.

The Sox also have additional depth at starter. Lefty Jon Lester will start the season in Pawtucket, and will likely be the first to get the call if one Boston's starters go down. Reports out of Florida this spring also saw Devern Hansack make a serious push for a spot on the big-league club. With these guys waiting in the wings, expect this to be Schilling's last season in a Sox uniform. The real question mark becomes Matt Clement who is rehabbing. Will he ever be seen again in the majors?

Catchers (2) -
Jason Varitek
Doug Mirabelli

Infeilders (5) -
Kevin Youkilis**
Alex Cora**
Dustin Pedroia
Julio Lugo
Mike Lowell

** Players like Youkilis and Cora will give manager Terry Francona the extra flexibility to carry an extra pitcher instead of an extra fielder due to their ability to play at more than one spot on the diamond.

Outfielders (5) *** -
Coco Crisp
JD Drew
Manny Ramirez
Wily Mo Pena

***The only question here is who is the fifth outfielder/utility player. Eric Hinske has not hit well in spring training, but is a proven commodity on the major-league level and can play third. The other option in camp is rookie David Murphy who has had a good camp, but would probably benefit from the everyday playing time he could get at Pawtucket.

DH (1) -
David Ortiz

Likely batting order? I'm guessing...

1. Lugo
2. Youkilis
3. Ortiz
4. Ramirez
5. Drew
6. Varitek
7. Lowell
8. Crisp
9. Pedroia

Extracurricular activities reshaping 2007 NFL rosters

Ah - nothing like the moron patrol to change a general manager's plans...

Consider some of the following -

Chicago Blues -
Tank Johnson, recently sentenced to spend the next four months in jail for violating his probation on gun charges, is likely to be facing a minimum four game suspension from the league when next season starts. While the jail sentence should end in time for Johnson to attend training camp, the violation puts him in violation of common terms in all NFL contracts and, as such, will cost him 25 percent of next year's paychecks.

What it will cost the Bears is a change in the off-season philosophy. The Bears know they will likely be without the services of their starting nose tackle for a portion of the beginning of next season. While the team's schedule hasn't been announced, its opponents have and they will be facing at least nine out-of-division opponents who will try to pound the ball on them in the Cowboys, Eagles, Giants, Redskins, Saints, Seahawks, Broncos, Chiefs, and Chargers.

For a team that already has holes in their secondary due to free-agency, and one pissed-off franchised linebacker, this alters what the general manager has to do both in free-agency and the draft. Act of God is one thing, act of Tank has gotta hack Jerry Angelo off.

Tennessee Waltz -
Pacman never learned that the blue ghosts are only good in the video game. When they're in blue in real-life, they're probably cops.

Adam "Pacman" Jones evidently had two run-ins with Georgia police which recently came to light. Evidently Jones never informed his employers of these run-ins and speculation is that these charges are going to result in a plea as well as a possible season-long suspension from the NFL under the same contract provision that is likely to cause Johnson to miss games.

The rampant speculation is that the volatile Jones has played his last game as a Titan, which led to the signing of former Colt Nick Harper in the first place.

I'll have the Porterhouse -
I'm not saying that this will necessarily result in league discipline, but don't be surprised if linebacker Joey Porter misses a couple of games next season before debuting with the Dolphins for his alleged assault of Bengals tackle Levi Jones. Unless the charges are dropped, Porter was cited by Las Vegas police for misdemeanor battery, I'm guessing that the NFL will come down pretty hard on him - especially considering that the Player's Union has expressed an interest in stemming the police reports associated with its membership.

Just one suggestion to the NFL - do not ever consider Vegas as an expansion site. It seems that whenever NFL player news comes out of there it always involves a police report.

My God, we Red Sox fans are now officially Moonies...

I've heard that Baseball is a religion, and more so for some than others. People will often bring up Red Sox and Cubs fans, Yankees and Indians (but they never address those small cults on the West Coast...just kidding). But the following is a little too much, even for me -

According to the Sports Illustrated Web sites' "This Week's Sign of the Apocalypse" weekly feature, the current sign is this -

"Ben Affleck will narrate a DVD series that prepares infants and pre-school children to become Red Sox fans."

It begs certain questions like - what will the specials be on the DVD?

Learn to speak like a fan from Southie!
Learn important phrases that will get you immediate acceptance from the other bleacher creatures such as, "I'd nevah sit in the Monstah seats, too many Bahneys sit up theah."
or the ever popular, "Jetah sucks!"

Learn the face of 2004 playoff hero Dave Roberts so that you may fulfill your responsibility as a Sox fan in never allowing him to pay for another meal.

See the Dropkick Murphy's video for "Tessie."

Learn in a painfully long documentary, directed by Ken Burns and narrated by Ben Affleck, why the Sox started playing "Sweet Caroline" during the seventh inning stretch.

See the Red Sox help Dora get to her destination while having to cross the lake filled with the evil Yankees!

DVD interactive features include games to help your child improve their spelling, exposing them to names like Varitek, Okajima, Youkilis, Papelbon, Matsuzaka, and many, many more!

The DVD case is a mock-up courtesy of my wife. The news is real, but the stuff after qualifies as my own sarcastic take on the thing. I'm anxious to hear the titles - I like "Horton Hears a Homer - raising your kid to be a Red Sox fan with Sox-Nation lifer Ben Affleck" or, "All Big Papi's Children."

Matthews Speaks...

Rolls over, and possibly plays dead apparently only on the advice of his lawyers.

Mattews yesterday finally came clean, sort of, with the general public, issuing a denial in the use of hGH to boost his on field performance. According to an AP report, the Angels issued a four paragraph release to the press that said the following:

"I have never taken hGH -- during the 2004 season or any other time. Nobody
has accused me of doing so, and no law enforcement authority has said I am a
target of any investigation for doing so.
"Before saying anything publicly I wanted to make absolutely sure of my
ground. In particular, I needed to try to learn whether anybody in authority --
in or out of baseball -- felt they had reason to accuse me of anything with
regard to hGH. If they did, I would have to deal with that. It has taken me, and
those representing me, 16 days to make certain that's not the case. And that is
why it has taken longer than I would have preferred to make a public
statement."

That statement comes approximately a week-and-a-half after the following from Matthews' lawyer, Robert Shapiro (of OJ Simpson fame):

"Gary wishes to cooperate with Major League Baseball, the Los Angeles Angels and
any other investigative agency that may look into this matter. He is eager to
tell his side of the story and looks forward to providing a statement once all
investigations into the matter have been completed.
"However, it is my long
standing policy not to allow clients to comment while an investigation is
ongoing. To do so would be inappropriate and I believe irresponsible."

Now, I will admit to being no lawyer, but these statements ring hollow and leave a whole series of other questions, but precious few answers. Let's cover some of them:

• If Matthews indeed never used hGH, then why wait 16 days to deny use?
• Why did he need to know if someone in baseball was going to accuse him of use before he could deny use?
• Sure, the investigation both he and his lawyer cite - but if he's clean, why did he need to wait?
• Couldn't he have issued a statement when first linked to the pharmacy records denying use and stating that he was sure his name would be cleared? I'm guessing not, or he would have done so. More on that below.
• If he was waiting on the results of this so called investigation to exonerate him, why not release the findings of the investigation?
• Why would it have been irresponsible to issue a "not guilty" earlier than this?
• And most importantly, can he address how his name, address and credit card "mistakenly" ended up in the database of a distributor of the drug along with an order attributed to him?

It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes (or John Holmes for that matter) to deduce the following - the investigation was solely to establish that, beyond his enhanced numbers last season, there would be no way to link his order with him actually taking the hormones. Once they established that a potential break in the chain of evidence existed that would allow him his denial without the possibility of a "Palmiero" coming back to bite him in the ass, then - and only then - Shapiro told him to issue his denial.

Unfortunately he still left the question of how he got into that business' customer database, and really avoids answering the question of why the denial took so long. Personally, I don't buy what he and his lawyer are selling.

Interesting things are afoot at the Circle K...or over at the Razor...

According to a report in today's Boston Herald, Troy Brown is thinking about returning for a 15th season. It poses some questions since Brown has previously said he doesn't see him finishing his career anywhere else, but the Patriots are suddenly rich at wide receiver with the signings of Kelley Washington, Donte Stallworth, Wes "I'm Troy but younger" Welker, and hold-overs that include Reche Caldwell, Jabari Gaffney and Chad Jackson (currently recovering from knee surgery).

It's possible that Jackson will be on IR this upcoming season due to the tear in his ligament which is supposed to take 8 to 12 months to heal (the surgery was in February, so the earliest he will be running is likely to be August, and he probably won't be ready for hitting until the end of September - and that's if he recovers quickly).

Does Brown get resigned as a receiver low on the depth chart? Does he get resigned as a nickel-back? Does he still have enough in the tank to beat out any of the five healthy receivers that the team has under contract - all of whom are younger than him?

I would like to see him go out on his own terms, and go out as a Patriot - but with the current roster, is that really possible? I don't know.

Clearing the dust off the metaphorical shelves of my mind

Well, I think the Patriots are officially the winners of this year's Free-agent Bowl. Typically the winners are the Washington Redskins who go about free-agency with no real regard for what they are trying to accomplish on the field.

To wit - last year the Redskins landed the biggest names available in free-agency and via trades last year in defenders Andre Carter, Adam Archuleta, as well as Antwaan Randle El, and Brandon Lloyd. The problem was Archuleta is the same sort of player as safety Sean Taylor - a hitter with mediocre cover skills. The two did not complement each other in the defensive backfield creating a defensive liability deep in the secondary.

The Patriots seem to be trying to fill all their needs before the draft so that they can focus solely on drafting the best possible player to fit their system rather than having to draft for need.

Entering this off-season the Patriots needed to get younger and faster at linebacker, needed to deepen the receiving corps, needed a blocking tight-end, and needed a back-up running back. If they could get help for the secondary, that would have been a bonus.

Including resignings, this is what they have done -

Adalius Thomas, LB (5yr, $37.5M, $3.4M v. next season's cap)
Larry Izzo, LB (1yr, $820K, $482K v. next season's cap)

Heath Evans, FB (2yr, $1.56M, $720K v. next season's cap)
Sammy Morris, RB (4yr, $7M, $2.125 v. v. next season's cap)

Billy Yates, G/C (3yr, $2.1M, $845 v. next season's cap)
Kyle Brady, TE (2yr, $5.3M, $2.3 v. next season's cap)

Donte Stallworth, WR (6yr, $33.1M $3.6M v. next season's cap)
Kelley Washington, WR (5yr, $22M, estimated $3M v. next season's cap)
Wes Welker, WR (5yr, $18.1M, $1.7M v. next year's cap)

Asante Samuel, CB (1yr, $7.9M, same v. next year's cap - franchised and numbers are subject to change)

The contract numbers were compiled from multiple sources and might not be exact in regards to next year's cap hits.

While the numbers in the contracts may seem puzzling - particularly in the cases of Washington and Stallworth - some of the deals might not really be what they appear. Realistically, Stallworth and Washington are on one year deals that can be extended if the Patriots pick up the options of the players around this time next year.

Both are regarded as highly talented players but both have been plagued by injuries, and Stallworth has had some hits to his reputation as a touch on the lazy side (he has been fined for showing up late to meetings and oversleeping in training camp). If the structure of the deals isn't incentive enough for these players (both of whom gave up more guaranteed money from the Dolphins to play in New England), then the Pats can cut their losses at the end of the season without incurring dead money on the cap.

It's also obvious who the Patriots are betting on as a long-haul sort of player. To pick up Stallworth for next year the option will put his cap hit over $11 million, Washington's hit would likely be in the $6 million to $7 million range. Somehow I get the feeling that Stallworth is one and done with the Pats.

Heard around the 'Net...
Riding the message boards before free-agency I saw a lot of fans from other teams talking about how free-agents don't want to come to New England and play for Belichick because of the Pats penny pinching ways. So much for that idea.

...and on the same subject; for those of you out there upset that the Patriots are spending money to make themselves better, Thomas, Evans, Washington, and Stallworth all took less to sign with the Patriots than they would have made elsewhere. What a refreshing concept in professional sports - taking less money in the hopes of winning.

The car appears to be stuck in reverse...
Jerry Jones must be stuck on permanent meltdown without Bill Parcells to temper his hand. This off season he has hired Wade Phillips as his head coach, and then its been down-hill. Rumblings among long-time friends of Parcells is that he was indeed tired of having to deal with prima-donna Terrell Owens and when Jones didn't release TO that Parcells decided it was time to hang up the whistle. This is the same TO that it has now come out that he couldn't be bothered to learn his playbook and had to be told in the huddle where he needed to be.

Funny thing about that - when Drew Bledsoe was still starting and throwing primarily to Terry Glenn all you heard was TO whine about how he wasn't getting the ball. Interesting how, to this day, you haven't heard Bledsoe say a thing about how maybe he would have thrown TO more balls if the receiver knew where he was supposed to be.

Then, after siding with TO in this little circus called Big D, Jones goes out and signs one of the league's worst starting offensive linemen, Leonard Davis, to a seven year $49 million contract.

I guess Jones learned nothing after driving Jimmy Johnson out.

Bitterfans...
I posted my AL Central predictions over at Bitterfans yesterday. Go on over and take a look, I'll wait for you.

Genarlow Wilson and the idiots in the Georgia legislature...
Eric Johnson (R-Savannah, GA), the self-appointed executioner in the case of Genarlow Wilson has a really twisted view on justice. Here is what he wrote about his efforts to block legislation that would allow the courts to go back and review Wilson's case -

Mr. Wilson decided to fight – and he was convicted by a jury of his peers. (My
personal opinion is that the jury would have preferred to convict him of the rape charge due to sex with the older girl after she was passed out and incapable of consenting, but since she had earlier had consensual sex, they felt they couldn’t. So they used the minor to convict him. Remember, they could have found him “not guilty” and didn’t.) Between conviction and sentencing, he was offered [a plea bargain which would have labeled him a sexual predator] instead of the mandatory 10 year sentence. He refused and accepted the sentence. That offer, by the way, is still available today. He can go before the judge any time and request a new trial. He and his lawyer appear to prefer martyrdom to the 5 additional years in prison. The Georgia Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court has upheld the conviction.
As you know, Georgia passed a very strict sexual predator law last year. Within the
new law was flexibility for prosecutors for consensual sex between a 15 and 17 year old. However, I don’t believe the legislature anticipated permitting leniency with a 6 on 1 situation as occurred here.
The issue before the Georgia General Assembly is SB 37. Genarlow Wilson’s case generated it, but it isn’t limited to this single case. The bill would allow defense attorneys to petition judges to re-open every case of a convicted sex offender who engaged in sodomy, child molestation, aggravated child molestation, or enticed a child for indecent purposes if the criminal and the minor were less than 4 years apart.
The victims involved could be as young as 13. I strongly oppose any legislative effort to require the courts to revisit over 1100 cases like Wilson’s. They violated the law. Police arrested them. District attorneys chose to prosecute them. Grand juries decided to indict them. Juries convicted them (when they could have found them “not guilty”). Each of those convictions left a scarred victim. The legislature should not second guess the process. We did not listen to the testimony or see the evidence. I hate to think of the emotional burden on thousands of victims, the cost to the taxpayers, and the delay in justice to pending court cases if this bill were to pass.
People seem to forget that a 15 year old girl was the victim. I stand with her. I also stand with future possible victims of politically correct apologists who want to turn loose convicted sexual predators. Remember, one of Mr. Wilson’s buddies impregnated a 12 year old while awaiting trial and has been convicted of statutory rape.
Wilson is NOT the victim. The minor girl in a hotel room with 6 stoned adults is the victim.
Usually, society complains about sentences that are perceived as too soft. Granted, this sentence was harsh. But it was MANDATORY under the law. Life comes with accountability for our decisions. Genarlow Wilson could have selected different friends to hang with. He could have joined millions of law-abiding teens all over the country enjoying New Years’ Eve without alcohol, drugs and sex. He could have left the hotel when “the fun” started. He didn’t.
He made a choice. Now his life has changed forever. That is sad. I hope other young men and girls will learn from this tragedy and avoid his errors.

Interestingly enough, that new law that he talks about was passed because of the problems that were found with the existing law due to the Wilson case. But it gets better. He claims to talk on behalf of the jury, saying they convicted Wilson of the one because he was guilty of the other and just couldn't get him on it, but at least one juror describes it very differently.

From an ABC interview with juror Marie Manigault:

She (Mar. 9, 2006), reported that the jury saw the rape case as very weak: “[I]t
wasn’t even an hour. We immediately saw the tape for what it was. We went back
in and saw it again. Then everybody immediately said not guilty.”

This doesn't even take into account the following:

• That the 15-year old for whom Wilson was convicted of "sexually preying" on initiated the act and had been sexually active since 11-years of age. You might stand with her senator, but I have a hunch she's not standing with you.
• That the senator would rather let people rot in a jail cell than get the spirit of the law right (the legislator who originally penned the law that Wilson was convicted under has publicly said that the way the law is being applied does not match the intent with which it was presented - and that it needs to be changed). He notes that there might be up to 1100 people jailed in Georgia under similar circumstances - that's an awful lot of people to be marked child predators that might not really fit that scarlet letter. I don't know about anybody else, but I'd rather have my courts overburdened in the name of getting the ruling right than my jails burdened with people that don't belong in them.
• I have read nowhere that Wilson was stoned, and as I understand it, none of the seven were 18 or older at the time, so calling the others "6 stoned adults" reeks of hyperbole in order to inflame the emotions of his voting base.
• From reading other accounts the jury didn't want to convict Wilson of anything and were very upset when they learned that he had to serve a mandatory ten-year sentence.
• He claims that the legislature "should not second guess the process." Isn't that exactly what the checks and balances system is all about? Isn't that how the Jim Crow laws were struck down? Some legislator somewhere second guessed a process and the laws changed.

God, I hate politicians.

Doubting Thomas

After the initial "Jaws"-like feeding frenzy of NFL free-agency many of the pundits are declaring the 49ers and Patriots the early winners and a number of them are even saying that the Patriots signing of Adalius Thomas is going to put the Pats in the pole-position for the Super Bowl next year. I don't quite buy it.

The Patriots were thirty minutes away from the big game this year, and likely would have beaten the Bears in Miami (although I will grant that's not guaranteed). However, when you look at what happened to that flu-stricken defense (not an excuse considering pretty much the same defense stricken with the flu got the job done against the Steelers in the playoffs two seasons earlier) in the second half against the Colts, I find it hard to believe they were one player away. I suppose you could argue that a healthy Rodney Harrison and Thomas would amount to two impact starters that they were missing - but you have to play with what you've got.

Here's what the Pats have - the most coveted defender on the free agent market who came from a team whose best players have traditionally failed when they have moved on.

Bill Belichick and Scott Pioli are very good evaluators of talent, often finding value over the years in late round draft picks (Tom Brady), other team's cast-offs (Heath Evans, Antowain Smith, Rodney Harrison), and rookie free-agents (Randall Gay, Stephen Neal). Even so, they have been very erratic in the free-agent market. Yes, they acquired Harrison via free-agency and Mike Vrabel that way - but they also brought in Monty Beisel, Chad Brown and even traded for former Raven Duane Starks.

On paper - I love the additions. Kyle Brady can be a punishing blocker, Wes Welker reminds me of Troy Brown - only faster, and with the Pats committing to Laurence Maroney as the feature back, I think Sammy Morris is a good complimentary piece. Of course the additions of Welker and Morris are important because they also hurt a division rival.

I don't expect Thomas to be the force he was in Baltimore in much the same way that Rosevelt Colvin's roll differs now than the one he filled in Chicago. Thomas will still be an impact player - and be used in multi-faceted rolls, but I figure Belichick will sit down with his defensive coordinator this offseason to look at how they can really utilize someone like Thomas. He'll get his sacks and tackles - there just might not be as many.

This looks like a stronger free agent class than they have had in several years, but until they strap on the helmets in September looks don't mean a thing.

From a GM standpoint - the other teams in the division, who I believe all made good steps in regards to improving themselves (the Jets getting a legitimate backfield threat, Buffalo shoring up the offensive line, and the Dolphins hoarding draft picks while getting Joey Porter), those GMs can't be happy that the Patriots still hold six picks in the draft (including two first rounders) and are expecting two compensatory picks for free agents lost last year. Trading away one of those first rounders could easily result in the Patriots having ten picks in the upcoming draft and still leave them with a first round selection.

And really - the Patriots have made a living this decade out of selecting players outside of the first round - Brady (6th round, 2000), Stephen Gostkowski (4th, 2006), Jarvis Green (4th, 2002), Ellis Hobbs (3rd, 2005), Nick Kaczur (3rd, 2005), Dan Koppen (5th, 2003), Matt Light (2nd, 2001), Garrett Mills (4th, 2006), Ryan O'Callaghan (5th, 2006), Patrick Pass (7th, 2000), Asante Samuel (4th, 2003), James Sanders (4th, 2005), David Thomas (3rd, 2006), Eugene Wilson (2nd, 2003).

So...in the second round since 2000 the Pioli and Belichick have found a starting left tackle and starting safety. (2)
Third round - their second string tight end, a starting corner/kick returner, and a starting right tackle. (3)
Fourth round - kicker, rotational defensive end that could start on other teams, a back-up tight-end/fullback, franchise cornerback, and back-up safety. (5)
Fifth round - Back-up right tackle with the size and potential talent to start, starting center (2)
Sixth round - franchise quarterback (1)
Seventh round - fullback (1)

Fourteen players who are significant contributors - most starters, in the later rounds with most of the damage in the middle rounds.

Another Bitterfans Post is Up...

Covering my predictions for the AL East. Outside of the fun of trying to predict the outcome of a season (often wrong), I tend to stay away from predictions. This article for Bitterfans I went into my reasons for picking where I did - and certain acknowledgements about how I could end up wrong.

Go take a look.