NFL Playoffs FAQ

The second best time of year is upon us, with Christmas easily being the best (thanks Mom and Dad!) and March Madness a solid third (would be first if so many of the games didn’t just become a three-point shooting contest). Or, as Eagles fans call it, the most agonizing, frustrating time of the year.

The NFL playoffs have finally arrived, which means we get to look back and forward at a pretty crazy season. And since the owners and players are arguing about how to split billions of dollars, we’re going to have to enjoy this one extra special. The only way to do that is with the Frequently Asked Questions.

How did those preseason picks turn out?

To quote Charles Barkley, tuurrrible.

I had three NFC East teams in the playoffs, and none of them named the Eagles (though to be fair, my Eagles pick had serious merit. Redskins? Not so much). I had the Cowboys and the Redskins both being good. Yikes.

I had the Bears 5-11, though to be fair, they kind of play like a 5-11 teams. That should be half points. If the Packers weren’t so decimated by injuries, they definitely could have gone 13-3.

I underrated the Falcons; I overrated the NFC West, big deal. I had the AFC North right and the AFC South almost right. I, like everyone else, believed in the frauds that are the San Diego Chargers. And I thought the Patriots were going to suck.

(Wait, you caught that last part? How could I think the Patriots were going to suck? Well, um, let’s just move on and pretend it didn’t happen. Alright, so I got it mostly wrong but their defense is bad.)

A Funny Little Feeling

Since the day Donovan McNabb was traded to the Washington Redskins, I looked forward to the day that he would make his return to Philly. Even more so, I hoped and rooted for a huge Redskins victory and a career day from McNabb. I even secretly wished he would give the middle finger to the crowd, just as a final thank you for all the loving support they've shown since the day he was drafted.

Donovan McNabb is gone and 

I don't know how to feel.

I really was prepared to do the unthinkable: hope for a bone crushing Eagles loss.

I spent almost the whole summer getting ready for it: preparing my Andy Reid lard in the brain jokes, calling Joe Banner a cheapskate, making apparently racist (really?) Corn on the Kolb quips and throwing in gratuitous shots at Jason Peters for good measure.

Things were going swimmingly too. Corn on the Kolb was terrible in preseason, Andy Reid kept the hard sell through training camp and the first half against Green Bay made me think “When did we trade for Alex Smith?”

Then Reid did something I never thought I would see him do: fold to the outside pressure and start Mike Vick.

My fandom of Mike Vick has been well documented in the brief existence of The People Say Booyah. I felt he was wrongly treated by the media who wanted to crucify him like he was the second incarnation of Timothy McVeigh, which is why I firmly stood in his corner (which is why a small part of me is happy that the three PETA protesters outside of every Eagles home game take crap like they were wearing Tony Romo jerseys).

This turn of events threw a complete monkey wrench into my treasonous plans to root against my beloved team. I was completely prepared to sit on my high horse and as the great Jason Whitlock says cackle and roll a blunt as Reid’s handpicked successor, Corn on the Kolb, struggled even though he had really not shown anything that he had the ability to succeed the greatest quarterback the franchise has ever seen (and please, for the life of me, do not bring up those two games from last season. It makes me want to throw things. He threw three picks against New Orleans and embarrassed a Kansas City defense that noted terrible quarterback David Garrard played well against. So that’s that).

But with Vick at the helm, the story completely changes. I don’t want Vick to fail like I wanted Corn on the Kolb to fail (though wanting Corn on the Kolb to fail has everything to do with the misguided decision by the front office and wanting to see it explode in their faces and not reflective of my opinion of Corn on the Kolb). Instead, I want Vick to do very well.

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.

There are conflicted feelings everywhere: on one hand, I want everything about this Eagles season to fail, just so Reid and the entire front office eat crow about the McNabb trade (though with Coach Reid, it’s probably already been eaten). Then on the other hand, I want Vick to be successful so all the fanatical animal-rights activists can have their heads explode (though most of them are caring, reasonable people, Jen Utley notwithstanding). But on my third hand, I want McNabb to rub his junk in the face of the hateful fan majority (though there has been some revisionist history that most people in Philadelphia liked McNabb. If you think that’s true, Bernie Madoff has stock to sell you). Then on my fourth hand, there’s always that little bit of unchecked optimism that this could be the year: a true year of destiny, a resurrection of the city and a quarterback once thought to be no more of a gimmick. So if you’re counting at home, I look like Goro from Mortal Kombat.

And when it comes down to it, there’s only one spot I can put my cheering alliance. As much as I liked McNabb, he: 1.) isn’t my favorite Philadelphia athlete ever (it’s still Iverson, though the longer the end of his career goes like this, it might have to be reconsidered) and 2.) he can’t supercede the team if he didn’t virtually singlehandedly drive a team to a championship in a Drew Brees/D.Wade circa 2006 way. It also doesn’t help that he’s coming off his annual “bad loss vs. inferior team on the road game” against St. Louis last week.

But that also doesn’t mean that I won’t give McNabb the biggest ovation from my dorm room that I’ve ever given or that I’m rooting for him to have an amazing game, because I most certainly will be.

But when the game starts, everything could change. I could realize that I’m not ready to break up with Donovan. I really don’t know. All I know is he’s coming home and I don’t know how to feel about it.

Eagles Make Right Decision on Two Fronts

It has been a long, turbulent road for Michael Vick’s NFL career. We last saw him in an NFL uniform New Year’s Eve 2006 in Philadelphia, playing (and losing) to the Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field. And while he didn’t have his best game ever that winter evening (8-14, 81 yards, 1 TD, 3 carries, 17 yards in the 24-17 loss) apparently, Andy Reid and the Eagles saw something that they liked.

With the announcement midway through the second quarter during Thursday's preseason opener that the Philadelphia Eagles had signed Michael Vick to a one year deal with an option for a second season, a long, ferocious circle had finally been completed. Michael Vick would finally be back to doing what he should be doing.

But before we can delve into the football implications, the mostly negative reaction by Philadelphia fans must be addressed. Flipping through the local news stations Thursday night and watching them get the average fan reaction as they walked out of Lincoln Financial Field, I can't say I was too surprised by the average fan reaction. One woman was near tears as she described her love for dogs and her utter disappointment in her Philadelphia Eagles that she might give up season tickets (unlikely considering it’s easier to get yellow cake uranium than Eagles season tickets). Another man was so angry about the signing, he would have been better suited yelling at his local congressman about health care reform (and let’s not forget the classy headline the Daily News had Friday).

That leaves us in the very rare situation where someone’s fame has completely worked against him. His public stature has put a face, his, on something faceless, something that was never at the forefront of many minds outside of those fervently involved with animal rights. Therefore, he has little chance of regaining a lot of peoples trust because they can’t forgive him, no matter what he does. He has created an undeniable link between Mike Vick and dog drowning and those are the moments that will stand out in a lot of fans minds. That is what has made it so difficult for Vick as opposed to other crimes. Murder doesn’t shock us this much. Drunk driving obviously doesn’t shock us as much considering we all do it at least once (I’m looking at you Bronson Arroyo). Individuals receiving insider tips to beat the stock market, bending the rules at the expense of the average American, we as a people barely blink an eye (cough Martha Stewart). So when Martha gets her daytime talk show back on and it’s like she was never in jail. I guess it’s the benefits of following Enron.

So Vick gets the distinguished honor of facing all of the negative fervor because he is the only guy you and I know who’s been involved in dogfighting. And that is not fair. Vick should not have his second chance rejected because of the novelty that is a dogfighting offender. No person deserves to have their entire life marginalized through a single period of time where they were not making their best decisions. He hasn’t been a guy who has time and again gotten into trouble with a girlfriend or hung out with “Pacman” Jones at the strip club. He’s not even like Christopher Columbus, who is celebrated with his own day by the way for "discovering" a land that already existed with inhabitants, despite the fact he forced labor and intentionally gave smallpox to those inhabitants of the New World. I just think we should be fair here.

That’s not saying that Vick should just be given free reign or anything remotely like that. Accountability needs to be a major aspect of this. He’s got a tremendous opportunity and if he continues to do the things that he has been going since May, namely listening to the Humane Society and Tony Dungy, he deserves the second chance. And I’m perfectly ok with the Eagles giving him one.

Now, to the football side of things, where it becomes, at least to me, more interesting than some second baseman’s wife not endorsing the signing.

First, Andy Reid said that they didn’t work out Vick which is interesting to me. I would think that you would work the guy out first but that’s neither here nor there. So just for a point of reference, let’s say he’s 70% of what he was in 2006. The amount of possibilities for things to do on offense could be mindboggling.

70% of 2006 Michael Vick is still faster, quicker, more agile that 97% of NFL players. Consider putting Vick and McNabb in the backfield at the same time and all the trick plays you could run. The kinds of things Kordell Stewart did as the original slash or Antwaan Randal-El did as the second slash in Pittsburgh are all things Vick can do, only better.

He can give you a little bit of slot receiver, maybe some tailback and the overused (but mandatory for anything concerning Vick) excuse of the Wildcat. But what would make me most excited would be McNabb in the shotgun, flanked with Vick and Brian Westbrook on each side with Desean Jackson lined up on the outside. Can you spell speed?

But even in my excitement there is cause for concern because he was in jail for almost two years (insert jail soap joke here) and since Reid hasn’t worked him out, I can’t say that Reid worked him out so he’s got to have something. It’s a real possibility that he comes back average and makes minimal to no impact considering he’s not going to take meaningful snaps at quarterback.

But, that’s ok. It’s the kind of calculated risk that won’t cost much if it fails but could make a magnificent impact if it succeeds. Considering what else this move is doing (someone’s getting a second chance at life), I’d call it a win-win.

Goodell Should Do Right Thing: Reinstate Vick

No one likes dogfighting. It’s not a neutral issue. It is universally hated (except by those involved in the dogfighting). It’s, more or less, a slap in the face to the core of American friendship.

So it’s perfectly natural that the purveyors of said dogfighting, guys like Michael Vick are completely vilified. The radical PETA fundamentalists protested at every Vick-related place possible. The more moderate Humane Society was disgusted. America, as a whole, wanted nothing to do with Michael Vick.

Vick’s actions represented nothing else but sheer stupidity. He lied to federal prosecutors, the Atlanta Falcons, and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. He’s blown all his money and is now in bankruptcy court answering to his creditors. Bad decision followed bad decision and it ended with 20 months in federal custody.

Well yesterday marked the day that Michael Vick left federal custody. Yesterday marked the day that Michael Vick got to restart his life.

But the major impediment to his life being restarted lies in the hands of Roger Goodell and the indefinite suspension he imposed in 2007, the stern disciplinarian with a heavy hand usually ruling against the players whether or not the justice system has dealt with the player. If the justice system has dealt with a player, like in Vick’s case, it’s a virtual no-brainer for Goodell. Brandon Marshall, Adam “Pac-Man” Jones, and Donte Stallworth have all felt the wrath of a Goodell suspension. Which begs the question: should Goodell reinstate Vick from his indefinite suspension?

Yes. If I remember correctly, the old adage goes: hate the sin, not the sinner.

Should we really punish Michael Vick again and again with another suspension after 20 months with the feds? Michael Vick is not “Pac-man.” He isn’t a repeat offender who consistently runs afoul of the law. So does he deserve the “Pac-man” treatment, a one-year suspension? Probably not, considering Vick’s offenses were limited to one event as far as we know: and Vick’s never led to the paralysis of a man.

But as many dog lovers will contest, his offenses were so appalling that there aren’t any applicable comparisons.

The fact of the matter is, while what he did was wrong and shouldn’t be allowed to happen ever again, it is not a career-ending or season-ending offense, considering the price he has already paid. Vick didn’t order the Trail of Tears. He’s not the Son of Sam copycat. Let’s put things into perspective. Vick did awful things, but it doesn’t crack the list of the most horrific.

In a society built on forgiveness, does Vick get his chance at redemption disregarded because of a couple of PETA protesters outside the NFL offices? I really don’t think that we should make decisions based on the thoughts of PETA. They got upset when President Obama killed a fly.

Michael Vick is a football player. He should be allowed to play football. He has served his time, paid his debt to society and is ready to reenter our world.

Just ask Tony Dungy, a man better than me and probably better than you. Just ask Humane Society President Wayne Pacelle. If it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for me.

The reality is that it is pointless to pile on the punishment after the person leaves prison. What good does it do anyone to continue to punish this man for his one crime? You’re not teaching him anymore of a lesson. You’re not making him feel more of this “remorse” that everyone wants to see. All you’re doing is stunting his development back into society.

He can only be taught a lesson by getting a chance to demonstrate what he has learned. He can only show remorse by being given a second chance and doing well with that second chance. Unnecessary punishment driven by ego and PETA makes sure no one wins.

Goodell should reinstate Vick before training camps open in a couple of weeks. Give teams the opportunity to sign him and get him in. Endorse the work he’s doing to stop dogfighting through the Humane Society. Give everyone a chance to be reintroduced to Vick on Sunday’s and allow the forgiving public to begin to accept him again. If you put yourself in his situation, you would want a second chance too. So give Vick the second chance that we would all want ourselves.