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I quickly want to put my two cents in before Superbowl XLIV commences in about fourteen and a half hours.

Who I Want to Win: I really want the New Orleans Saints to win. With the city of New Orleans, still recovering from the destruction of Hurricane Katrina, and the subsequent mismanagement by the U.S. Government from 2005, the city’s spirit could use something like a Superbowl victory. People and communities have often turned to sports to lift their spirits in times of hardship. A victory for the Saints, is a victory for both those effected by Hurricane Katrina, and for the city of New Orleans.

Who WILL win? The COLTS! Sorry Saints fans, but they will not win the Superbowl. Why? The Saints have too much stacked up against them. First, the Colts have previous Superbowl experience. The Colts won the superbowl just three years ago when they defeated the Chicago Bears 29-17. For the players who are left over from that team, they understand what the environment is like on Superbowl Sunday and they understand the media frenzy that leads to up it. They can offer valuable insight on how to manage the particular conditions that superbowl brings. Secondly, and more importantly, you can not bet against Peyton Manning. I did once on a Monday Night Football game. With five minutes left in the game, my favorite team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, were up by 21 points. I knew I was going to win the bet. What does Peyton Manning do? Lead one of the greatest comebacks in football history! (You can read about it here). Manning hates to lose and is easily one of the best quarterbacks in the history of football. Lastly, the Saints lost to the 2009 Tampa Bay Buccaneers – a team that only won three games all season. This means that the Saints do not always show up, and their offense can get stagnate. If they can run the ball effectively they will have a shot, but I don’t think it will be enough to overcome the Colts.

I do think it will be a close game. I think the Colts will edge out the Saints 38-30.

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Cards over Saints, Chargers over Jets, Colts over Ravens, and Cowboys over Vikings. I went 1/4 for last week, hopefully this one will be better.

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I just wanted to make a quick post that details my predictions for the first round of the 2009-2010 NFL playoffs.

Jets @ Bengals - The Bengals will win because the Jets are less talented. The Jets may have one of the best RBs in the league for the season, but they also have a rookie quarterback who made a lot of mistakes. Carson Palmer will step up and prove he is one of the best quarterbacks in the league. I don’t care if the Jets blasted the Bengals in week 17; the playoffs are a differenct monster entirely, and they will win on Saturday.

Ravens @ Patriots – I really wanted to pick the Ravens, but they didn’t meet my expectations all season long. I think they are a better team than the Patriots right now, but due to their disappointing nature and the high level of playoff experience of the Patriots will allow them to emerge victorious.

Eagles @ Cowboys - I think the Eagles are a better team, but its just about time that the Cowboys and Tony Romo win a damn playoff game. The Cowboys haven’t won one since 1996. Romo has been playing quite well recently, and I think he will continue to roll the Cowboys to victory.

Packers @ Cardinals – This is my upset pick. I think the Packers are a vastly underrated team, and the Packers quarterback, Aaron Rogers, is one of the best quarterbacks on the team. With the Cardinals having a couple key injuries  (Bolden & Rogers-Cromartie), the Packers will take this opportunity to take out the Cards and advance to the second round of the Playoffs. In fact, the Packers are kinda my darkhorse team for the Playoffs. I think they are going to go quite far, maybe not to the Superbowl but I can easily see them getting to the NFC championship game.  I think they even have a chance at the Superbowl, but it would be pretty tough to get past the Saints.

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In November 2008, Plaxico Burress was at a New York club and he accidentally shot himself in the leg, when his gun went off in his pocket. Today he pleaded to a deal where he would go to prison for two years according to the New York Times. Now, what is so controversial in this case is the actual deal which was made. If you think about the whole issue, it seems that the Manhattan prosecutors were going after him for what might have happened.

Burress committed an act of stupidity and what he did was nearly killed himself. He shot himself in the leg, and he was the only one who was hurt. He was then rushed to the hospital. He did not try and run to a private doctor in the back of some alley. He did the responsible thing in that aspect. He also paid his punishment because all he did was hurt himself. He didn’t light the club up with gunfire. He didn’t get behind a wheel drunk, then drive off and kill someone. He didn’t take innocent animals and force them to fight to the death or torture them. He only hurt himself. So is a two year plea deal a fitting punishment? I don’t think so. Vick got two years for torturing innocent living creatures. At best, that was a fair punishment, it could have been longer. Dante Stallworth got behind a wheel drunk and killed a man. He served less than a month in jail. That isn’t justice. Burress is not getting justice because all he did was hurt himself. I can not stress that enough.

A more fitting and fair punishment may be in educating others. Burress should take classes on weapon safety. What if he served no prison time but instead spoke to all of the NFL in meetings about gun safety and why one shouldn’t go to clubs and dangerous settings at 3am in the morning. What if he went into classrooms to talk about the importance of gun and weapon safety to youth? It seems that this way Burress would at least be serving and contributing to the community. If he sits in a prison with murders, rapists, con artists, and other scum of the human race, does any justice get served? No, that cell could be better used for the criminals who truly do need to be separated from the normal communities of the United States. I normally do not side with the “criminal” in situations like this, however I really think the Manhattan prosecutors are not serving the New York community but instead are serving their own personal interests.

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I have yet to announce my opinion to the world on Mike Vick’s situation. Today the NFL has released their guideline for letting Vick back into the league and I felt this was the right time to do so. If you do not know who Michael Vick is, I suppose you do not watch a whole lot of news. He was one of the more popular Quarterbacks in the NFL because he was an electric player who could make make plays with his great running ability. In 2006 he became the first quarterback to ever rush for 1000 yards. After that season his image took a drastic downward spiral. He as charged with dog fighting allegations after neglected dogs had been found at his house. He eventually pleaded into a deal admitting that he fought dogs. He was sentenced to roughly two years in prison and it came to an end on July 20, 2009.

Today the commissioner of the NFL released a statement reinstating Michael Vick on a conditional basis. He can’t play in the first six games of the NFL regular season, but he can play in the last two preseason games and participate in all other team activities. That is provided that Vick is a good sport (no pun intended) and doesn’t do anything outlandish in nature. All this actually rides on the variable of Vick actually being signed to an NFL team this season.

Now that you know the back story as well as today’s development I will get to my view of the whole situation. I admit I was a huge Michael Vick fan before the allegations hit. Although as a Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan I was supposed to hate Mike Vick and the Atlanta Falcons. Instead I had a Mike Vick bobblehead, jersey, and pennant. It is fair to say I was a big fan of his. After the accusation and eventual addmitance of Vick for what he did made me feel horrible. I am a dog lover. My family has four labador retrivers and I just kept picturing Mike Vick making my dogs fight to the death. That is horrible. He fell off his pedastal in my mind.

Now that he served his time people are saying we should forgive him. People do make mistakes and some are forgivable. What he did I don’t feel was forgivable however.He took animals and made them fight. This is whether the animals wanted to or not. Can you imagine a person putting two guys in a ring to fight to the death and it wasn’t their decision to do so? The outrage would be horrendous and no one would forgive him for the people he killed. Sure dogs are not on the same level as people, but we all share one simple thing – dogs and humans are both LIVING beings.

Personally, I do not like the idea of Vick plaing in the NFL again. Lets take Vick’s situation and apply it to a non-sport profession. Lets say Vick was a high school teacher. He would be fired and never allowed to get his job back. Heck he probably wouldn’t be allowed to get a job with any school district in the country after that. His only hope would be in a place that would desperate for teachers. After teacher in a place such as that and hte person proving themsleves they could have a shot at teaching at a more coveted institution. Lucky for Vick there just happens to be a football league that is desperate for talent in the UFL. He could play there for a year or two and prove that he is a changed man. If he is then I wouldn’t have a problem with the NFL taking him back.

Before I get criticized for not mentioning the likes of Leonard Little, or Donte Stallworth? I think the same above punishment shoud have happened to them. They should not have been allowed to EVER play their sport again. Do you think a teacher, construction worker, or taxi driver would be given their jobs back once they committed those horrendeous acts? No, they would not nor should they.  Justice doesn’t often come to professional atheletes and they all to often get their jobs back. It appears society has a double standard for atheletes and it’s other citizens.

In conclusion, Vick should only be given a second chance if he proves himself somewhere else. Just as any other United Statesian would. People like Little or Stallworth should be banned from the game – plain and simple. Its just too bad that ratings are getting in the way of justice being served.

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