Month: May 2007 (Page 3 of 12)

Miami Dolphins wide receiver Ted Ginn Jr. is apparently healing nicely from his Lisfranc sprain and according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, will be ready to attain the Dolphins’ June 7 mini camp.

People are going to continue to criticize Miami for passing on Brady Quinn in last month’s draft, but give Ginn a chance. He’s unbelievably explosive and while his impact will be made on special teams first, he’ll have the chance to develop into a nice deep threat too. I know I’m in the minority, but I still think Quinn looked more appealing than he normally would have because it was a weak draft on the whole. Remember, judge the Dolphins decision to pass on Quinn by including second round pick John Beck too, because obviously they thought the combination of Ginn and Beck were better than Quinn and another receiver in the second. And time may prove their decision was just.

In other news, according to the NFL Network, the Dolphins have upped the anty for quarterback Trent Green. Miami was offering a sixth round pick, but now are offering a conditional sixth round pick, which means if Green reaches playing time incentives, the pick could turn into a fifth rounder. Personally, KC has to take this deal and put an end to the madness.

New England Patriots defensive end Marquise Hill is believed to be missing after a jet ski incident that occurred on a lake in Louisiana Sunday evening. Hill was riding with a young woman when a strong current knocked the two off their watercrafts. According to the Boston Globe, Hill saved the young woman’s life by keeping her calm and eventually getting her a buoy to hang onto. She was eventually saved after people on a boat heard her screams for help, but Hill drifted away and is still missing.

So many times we hear about athletes who are selfish, but obviously that’s not the case with Hill. My thoughts and prayers go out to him and his family and hopefully he’ll be rescued soon.

Update: According to New Orleans Times-Picayune, Hill’s body was recovered at 2:15pm Monday, but he had already passed. Hill was 24.

Yet another source is reporting Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick is or has been involved in dog fighting. On ESPN’s most recent broadcast of “Outside the Lines”, a unnamed source said he has not only seen Vick at a dog fight, but has also competed against him (or more specifically, his dog has competed against one of Vick’s dogs).

“He’s a pit bull fighter,” the source says of Vick. “He’s one of the ones that they call ‘the big boys:’ that’s who bets a large dollar. And they have the money to bet large money. As I’m talking about large money — $30,000 to $40,000 — even higher. He’s one of the heavyweights.”

“I’ve fought dogs, I pitted them, I bred them and I’ve done everything with them,” says the source of his three decades in dog fighting. He then went on to describe the scene from that night seven years ago, as he took his 42-pound dog into the pit (the area where dogs fight) to face off against Vick’s dog. He says Vick did not get into the pit, but had a member of his entourage handle his dog, while Vick placed bets with the 20 or so people in attendance.

What’s interesting about this latest news is that this unnamed source told ESPN that he saw Vick at a dogfight as early as 2000, one year before the Falcons drafted him. Where would Vick get $30 to $40 grand to bet on a single dogfight while at Virginia Tech? It’s not unrealistic to assume Vick got some booster money, but $30 to $40 grand just to blow on a dogfight? That seems like a stretch. I’m not saying this source is lying about Vick being evolved, but I can’t see him blowing thousands of dollars on a fight until after he signed his contract with Atlanta. Either way, I bet many athletes in the NFL and NBA are holding their collective breaths in this scandal, because I get the distinct feeling Vick isn’t the only one wrapped up in this mess. Although let me say again for the record, these prosecutors better get more evidence than just a few unnamed sources or Vick is going to walk regardless.