Marcus Vick and Sean Taylor will make you question your sports loyalties. I mean, who are these guys?
Vick, Ron Mexico’s younger brother, got booted from the Virginia Tech football team earlier this week after getting caught on camera trying to stomp on the leg of Louisville All American Elvis Dumervil during the Gator Bowl. Already on thin ice with the school for past illegal ugliness, Vick got kicked off the team Friday and was charged with pulling a gun on three teenagers in a McDonalds restaurant Monday. In between, he declared himself eligible for the draft.
What’s the best way to polish up your shoddy rep in preperation for the NFL Draft? Wave your gun at a group of people, of course. A team would be crazy to draft the kid at this point. Makes you wonder: Why couldn’t Marcus be more like his older brother? All he does is give women VD’s and use awesome nicknames.
Then there’s Redskins safety Shawn Taylor. He got slapped in the head (helmet on, of course) by Bucs RB Michael Pittman Saturday…and the ref slapped Taylor with a 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty. I’m watching that thinking, “What could he have possibly said to earn the flag?” Should’ve realized: “Ah, he spit on him.”
But it’d be unfair to judge Taylor by this isolated incident. No, before rushing to judgment, consider this:
Taylor also had a drunken driving charge that was later dismissed, a fine for skipping the NFL’s mandatory rookie symposium and several in-season fines for uniform violations and illegal hits. He is currently awaiting trial on a felony charge of aggravated assault stemming from a June 1 confrontation near his home in Miami.
And let’s not forget that Bengals receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh (I’ve been practicing that) accused Taylor of spitting on him during a game last season.
You get so tired of saying, “They just don’t get it,” and yet, it’s always so relevant. Just keep your nose relatively clean. You don’t even have to keep it clean, just relatively. Nobody’s asking these guys to be saints (Aaron Brooks can tell you it’s no fun); the NFL would be happy if they just stopped sinning in public so frequently. I like to think the fans have higher standards, but that rarely seems to be the case.
As for the Marcus Vick nonsense, I’ve got to wonder where Michael Vick is. Isn’t he slappin’ his younger brother upside the head and saying, “It’s not that hard. Really”? Mike’s certainly not spotless, but he keeps his nose “relatively clean” and therefore makes everyone happy: the NFL, Nike, the Falcons, and (most) fans. Had Marcus followed in his brother’s footsteps, his path to the NFL was wide open. Instead, his professional career may have ended three days after his college career.
