Author: Anthony Stalter (Page 1400 of 1503)

Former player and coach Mike Ditka is making it known these days that he’s upset with Gene Upshaw – who many current and former players loath – and the NFL Players Association for the way they refuse to take care of former players. Teamed with Joe DeLamielleure, Ditka recently spoke about the issue at a restaurant in Chicago and introduced former offensive lineman Brian DeMarco, who is unable to work because of several football-related injuries.

“This is unacceptable,” Ditka thundered at a news conference organized by Gridiron Greats at his Chicago restaurant.

“We are past having committees. It’s about right versus wrong. Do the right thing. Just do the right thing.”

While the health of former players vs. the NFLPA has always been an issue (especially when the topic of concussions are brought up), this particular battle with Ditka is interesting because of what former Chicago Bears safety Dave Duerson recently told to the Chicago Tribune:

“[Ditka] was not one who [cared] about the players or their injuries when he was coaching. He was very disrespectful of guys who got hurt and now he’s trying to champion for a couple of guys. The fact of the matter is he’s way off base and he’s late in the game.”

If Duerson is spot on about the way Ditka used to be, than the former coach is being hypocritical. However, how many other current and former coaches have/had the “tough it out” attitude with their players? In all their bikering, these guys can’t miss the point that there are former players like DeMarco who are walking around crippled because of the way the game left them. It seems like there are more players coming out (like Ted Johnson of the Patriots) saying that their former coaches ignored their health concerns so they would play. This situation is likely to get uglier before it gets better.

On Friday, I posted a story from WVEC in Virginia, which stated three dozen dog carcasses were allegedly found by Federal investigators on the Surry County property owned by Michael Vick. It became such a national story that even ESPN Radio allegedly reported the same story via WVEC on some of their broadcasts.

Well apparently WVEC jumped the gun on the situation, because they’ve since taken down the story and replaced it with one dedicated to Surry County prosecutor Gerald Poindexter and how he’s upset with the way the Feds are now involved in the situation.

How can WVEC misconstrue the situation that badly? Did they make up that dog carcasses found or did they really know and just shouldn’t have reported it without the Feds releasing the information first? Either way, these national media outlets better get their crap together in reporting what’s really going on with this whole Vick-dog fighting fiasco. You can’t report something as serious as “Over three dozen dog carcasses were allegedly found on Vick’s property” and then later in the day pull the story and replace it with something else. If it comes out later that no dog carcasses were found on the property and this was all just a misread on WVEC’s part, then they should be ashamed of themselves just like Vick should if there really was dead dogs buried at one of his homes.

And shame on me for believing that there are journalists out there actually doing their jobs in reporting on this situation and not jumping the gun on something as big as this. What a freaking mess.

UPDATE: WVEC has a correction on its main page about Friday’s article, but now the network is blaming ESPN:

Correction: Friday, WVEC.com reported information about dog remains allegedly found at the Vick property. We attributed the information to ESPN Radio. That information was not reported by ESPN and cannot be confirmed by WVEC. We regret the error.

Interesting, WVEC didn’t “attribute” the news to ESPN Radio in the orginial article. Hmm…

With each passing day, more and more is coming to light about the Surry County, Virginia property owned by Michael Vick, in which an illegal dog-fighting ring allegedly occurred. Thursday, Federal investigators searched Vick’s property for the possible remains of dog carcasses. On Friday, national reports – including this one from WVEC.com – claim nearly three dozen dog carcasses were found buried on the property.

In related news, Davon Boddie, a cousin of Vick and the one who led investigators to the home originally after being arrested for marijuana possession, has been quoted as saying this whole situation was his fault. He also apologized to the NFL and the Atlanta Falcons for, “what’s going on”, but also claimed that, “there was no dog fighting” going on at the property. Riight Davon, there was no dog fighting going on – just a bunch of dogs who dug holes in your backyard and then somehow managed to burry themselves in the process. And I’m sure the Feds will take your confession about all this being your fault to heart and leave Vick alone from here on out.

From dog fighting in general, to Vick’s possible involvement, to many media outlets hanging Vick before any charges have been brought on, this whole situation is sickening.