On August 20, 2009, Plaxico Burress was given a two-year jail sentence that began on September 22, 2009. Let's think about that for one minute. A man goes to jail for two years for accidently shooting himself? Again, the keywords in statement are accidently and himself, and that warrants someone to get the same jail time as Michael Vick and far less than Donte Stallworth? God forbid if he tried to shoot someone else in that nightclub, he might would have gotten much, much more.
First of all, setting all personal feelings aside, but Michael Vick's 18-month sentence was fair. He took part in an illegal activity where he bred dogs with the intent to kill other dogs, and if they did not perform well to expectations, the dogs were tortured to death. The legal process seemed to do good for him, however, as he is trying to rebuild his image to pre-2005 status (before Ron Mexico, the water bottle incident, and giving Falcon fans the new meaning of "Dirty Bird" by flipping two middle fingers to them), again, one can only hope that he recovers fully from this.
Next, the Plaxico Burress case was unfair from right off the bat. He was going to actually get three years of jail time, because he was going to be made an "example" out of? Seriously, be real...how do you make an example of someone who shoots himself? That's basically adding insult to injury (sorry for the pun). Granted, he had an unlicensed gun in New York, but no one would have known about it if it go off. Also, I do not think that he was going hunt someone down in the club either, he was using it for protection from himself. Come on, he caught the game-winning catch in Super Bowl XLII and is one of the more famous athletes in New York City. Obviously, he was being smart because anyone could have robbed him.
Last but not least, is the Donte Stallworth ordeal. People instantly knew that he was going to get major jail time after having alcohol in his system and striking a pedestrian in the streets of Miami. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail and only served 24? What a joke of the legal system! Killing dogs gets you 24 months, but not paying attention and killing someone gets you 24 days? Granted, the pedestrian did not cross the street at the assigned spot and essientially jaywalked, but Stallworth was clearly drunk (0.12 BAC), speeding (doing 50 in a 40), and was not paying attention. At least, he claimed to warn the man, or it could have been much worse.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Friday, September 18, 2009
IS MICHAEL CRABTREE CHANNELING IN HIS INNER BEYONCE?
First of all, I'd like to start off with this...sorry for not writing a note in a while, including finishing up with my NFL predictions (if you must know...Philadelphia, Arizona, Atlanta, and Green Bay will win the NFC divisons, Dallas and Pittsburgh in the Super Bowl, and Dallas winning). I am a student first, a worker second, and pretty much a freelance writer third, so I have been settling down with this, without an idea in the world until...bing! Here's a GREAT story!
April 25, 2009 would mark the birth of one of the biggest cases of spoiled behavior that the NFL has ever seen. The Oakland Raiders had the seventh pick of the draft and they selected...Darrius Heyward-Bey? Three picks later, their neighbors on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco Bay, the San Francisco 49ers, would select the highly touted Michael Crabtree from Texas Tech. The 49ers did not know the headache that they would get themselves in.
Now before going on, is Al Davis insane for not taking Crabtree? Yes, absolutely. Think about it...JaMarcus Russell at QB, Darren McFadden/Michael Bush/Justin Fargas forcing a tandem at RB, and Crabtree equals dominating in a weak division. The Raiders would actually live up to their slogan in the 2010s of "Commitment to Excellence"! At least they are not a BAD team.
But I digress, and this is about Crabtree solely...
"Ego": Perhaps the Raiders knew about Crabtree all along... At Texas Tech, Crabtree was amazing. With the pass-happy offense, he had 231 catches, 3127 yards, and 41 touchdowns in two years with the Red Raiders. For his efforts, he won the Blietnikoff Award twice (the only college football player to win that honor multiple times). However, allegedly...he has as big an ego as the state he played for. There where reports that he got his own way at times like a petulant little child, such making people get his lunch. Come on, man...Tim Tebow does not even do that at Florida...
"Diva": I could actually picture Crabtree saying this if there was a time machine going back to the Draft..."Yo Darrius, I'm really for you, and I'm gonna let you finish your moment of being drafted, but I had one the best collegiate career for a receiver of all-time!" Hell, even Texas Tech coach Mike Leach would have protected Crabtree like that, he did it for Graham Harrell! Crabtree wanted to actually be paid the money that the seventh pick of the draft would normally get. He wanted to be paid the average money of the first draft drafted wide receiver in a draft. Basically, he wanted his contract to be equal to (if not more than) the $38.25 million for five years that Heyward-Bey received, including his $23.5 million signing bonus. As negotiations continued to stall and became more stale, and continued to say the universal statement of what all athletes say during holdouts..."It's not about the money". Well, if it's not about the money, you would be on the first bus/train/plane to San Francisco! The slight hint of the fact that his cousin even has a say in the negotiations means that things cannot be good. Now basically Crabtree will not start this year and may not even see the field at all, and you know that 49ers head coach Mike Singletary will be looking to make an good example out of him (see Vernon Davis).
As this thing is baffling think about this: Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre actually MADE a decision, and fifth-round pick Johnny Knox of the Chicago Bears has more more catches and yards this season (two catches for 82 yards) than Crabtree (zero catches, zero yards). Also, he's making the lengthy holdouts of Reggie Bush, JaMarcus Russell, and Bo Jackson seem tame (Jackson sat out the entire 1986 season after being drafted first by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers because Bo knew he didn't wanna play on a poorly ran franchise like the Bucs back then). But something tells me that this thing is far from over, and it's not even by a long shot.
April 25, 2009 would mark the birth of one of the biggest cases of spoiled behavior that the NFL has ever seen. The Oakland Raiders had the seventh pick of the draft and they selected...Darrius Heyward-Bey? Three picks later, their neighbors on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco Bay, the San Francisco 49ers, would select the highly touted Michael Crabtree from Texas Tech. The 49ers did not know the headache that they would get themselves in.
Now before going on, is Al Davis insane for not taking Crabtree? Yes, absolutely. Think about it...JaMarcus Russell at QB, Darren McFadden/Michael Bush/Justin Fargas forcing a tandem at RB, and Crabtree equals dominating in a weak division. The Raiders would actually live up to their slogan in the 2010s of "Commitment to Excellence"! At least they are not a BAD team.
But I digress, and this is about Crabtree solely...
"Ego": Perhaps the Raiders knew about Crabtree all along... At Texas Tech, Crabtree was amazing. With the pass-happy offense, he had 231 catches, 3127 yards, and 41 touchdowns in two years with the Red Raiders. For his efforts, he won the Blietnikoff Award twice (the only college football player to win that honor multiple times). However, allegedly...he has as big an ego as the state he played for. There where reports that he got his own way at times like a petulant little child, such making people get his lunch. Come on, man...Tim Tebow does not even do that at Florida...
"Diva": I could actually picture Crabtree saying this if there was a time machine going back to the Draft..."Yo Darrius, I'm really for you, and I'm gonna let you finish your moment of being drafted, but I had one the best collegiate career for a receiver of all-time!" Hell, even Texas Tech coach Mike Leach would have protected Crabtree like that, he did it for Graham Harrell! Crabtree wanted to actually be paid the money that the seventh pick of the draft would normally get. He wanted to be paid the average money of the first draft drafted wide receiver in a draft. Basically, he wanted his contract to be equal to (if not more than) the $38.25 million for five years that Heyward-Bey received, including his $23.5 million signing bonus. As negotiations continued to stall and became more stale, and continued to say the universal statement of what all athletes say during holdouts..."It's not about the money". Well, if it's not about the money, you would be on the first bus/train/plane to San Francisco! The slight hint of the fact that his cousin even has a say in the negotiations means that things cannot be good. Now basically Crabtree will not start this year and may not even see the field at all, and you know that 49ers head coach Mike Singletary will be looking to make an good example out of him (see Vernon Davis).
As this thing is baffling think about this: Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre actually MADE a decision, and fifth-round pick Johnny Knox of the Chicago Bears has more more catches and yards this season (two catches for 82 yards) than Crabtree (zero catches, zero yards). Also, he's making the lengthy holdouts of Reggie Bush, JaMarcus Russell, and Bo Jackson seem tame (Jackson sat out the entire 1986 season after being drafted first by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers because Bo knew he didn't wanna play on a poorly ran franchise like the Bucs back then). But something tells me that this thing is far from over, and it's not even by a long shot.
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