Bill Burt implores the Patriots to sign Vick

[IcyPatriot]

Michael Vick could never be a Patriot because Mike Vick has never shown leadership or the ability to be a team player.

 

[bagwell368]

I get a kick out reporters claiming that the Pats are interested, and furthermore they use Moss and Dillon as examples of why its a good idea. Vick shares nothing with those guys. His moral equivalent in Pats history is Christian Peter. Remember how fast they dropped him after the draft?

I know that BB would likely bring in anybody if he thought he could win - but what do you do, make a shadow offense for Vick? I'm not even sure he can help at non QB positions, and that he would want to. But the overall question would be Kraft. Kraft is never going to sign off on a deal that could lead to protests by Peta and others. The reward isn't big enough.

No.

 

[CrazyDave]

Bill Burt - 11 years old?

 

[MoLewisrocks]

Burt is actually the Sports Editor of the Lawrence Eagle Tribune. I think the only way you make a living at small daily's like the Tribune is multitasking. It was under his tutelage that Tomase broke into the sportswwriting ranks and quickly figured out that you had to do something to get noticed or you'll never get out or earn enough to get ahead. Taking controversial stands represent a means to an end. Burt hasn't been getting much air time of late on WEEI, and I'm sure with the economy down and newspapers slashing budgets Bill could use some alternative income sources.

To date beyond his comical article on the Letterman rerun his other signature move was accosting Drew one night in a hotel lobby when Bill was returning from a night out with a couple of his peers. So maybe he'd had a few belts before he penned this nonsense.

It's an insult to Dillon and Moss to remotely compare their situations to Vick's. It's an insult to intelligence to propose that Vick could ever serve as a backup to Brady, let alone in this system. It's an insult to assume a businessman as savvy as Kraft would ever make a move this potentially polarizing with virtually negligible upside at best. Particularly given this players history of thoroughly screwing over one of his closest friends and allys in the league and nearly destroying his franchise.

If Vick is allowed back into the NFL he will play out the string one mistake of any kind away from a 1 year suspension if not a lifetime ban. I understand the national media wants to see him back because either way he will represent a compelling storyline for them. Kinda like what Favre represents to them... But why a local writer, who should if only by osmosis have developed a better understanding of who the principals are here and what they value, would want this is beyond me. Unless it's to make fringe mediots like himself more marketable to national outlets.

There are few things that would cause me to walk away from this team. Cameragate didn't come close. Signing Vick would. What he did over a period of years was no accidental mistake. It was a calculated and deliberate lifestyle choice and just a step below what Ray Carruth did. It tells me he's borderline sociopathic at best and has little regard for any life beyond his own. Football for him represented the opportunity to have his lifestyle of choice. And that is all he wants back. Just like Pacman. He doesn't care about the game, or his family, or his teamates, or coaches or ownership or how what he did impacted each of them. He was perfectly willing even when exposed to try and hang it all on his boys, and stunned when they in turn hung it all on him.

Bob Kraft's good friend Arthur Blank loved him like a son and knows him as well as anyone outside his immediate circle and he's on record saying that until he proves he can break from that circle he and the pattern of his life will never really change. That circle has spent the last 18 months trying to get Michael back to where he was when this all unfolded. That's not moving on, that's handlers dealing to get Michael Vick (and his entourage) his former multimillion dollar lifestyle back. They won't get a nickel towards that end from me. And I can't imagine they will get one from Bob Kraft either.

Unless Goodell says otherwise he has every right to persue employment in the NFL. But every owner in the league has just as much right to just say no. They're not all the brightest or most highly principled bulbs on the planet, so eventually some desperate shmuck will likely be talked into the concept of Michael somehow improving their franchise's fortunes. Hopefully they will get just about what they deserve for taking a shot...

 

[PatsFanSince74]

A couplof comments.

On the "Bill Burt Debate." I guess if the Pats have the misfortune to play in a region that gives an idiot like Tomass a soapbox at one of its two largest Dailys, then the bar is already set so low that criticizing this guy personally is kind of silly. He's a writer. He has a byline. Criticize his arguments, not him.

As for his argument, I doubt very much that Michael Vick really wants to backup anyone and that he still harbors the hope/illusion of starting in the NFL. So, he's not a fit for the Pats. If he's willing to change roles and if BB wakes up some morning and decides to play from a Single Wing formation (aka, the "Wildcat") a few times a game, then maybe it's a fit. But I'm not holding my breath.

 

[Tunescribe]

What he did over a period of years was no accidental mistake. It was a calculated and deliberate lifestyle choice and just a step below what Ray Carruth did. It tells me he's borderline sociopathic at best and has little regard for any life beyond his own. Football for him represented the opportunity to have his lifestyle of choice. And that is all he wants back. Just like Pacman. He doesn't care about the game, or his family, or his teamates, or coaches or ownership or how what he did impacted each of them. He was perfectly willing even when exposed to try and hang it all on his boys, and stunned when they in turn hung it all on him.

Bob Kraft's good friend Arthur Blank loved him like a son and knows him as well as anyone outside his immediate circle and he's on record saying that until he proves he can break from that circle he and the pattern of his life will never really change. That circle has spent the last 18 months trying to get Michael back to where he was when this all unfolded. That's not moving on, that's handlers dealing to get Michael Vick (and his entourage) his former multimillion dollar lifestyle back. They won't get a nickel towards that end from me.

This has been my exact same stance regarding Vick all along. Vick epitomizes the pathologically narcissistic "hollow man" athlete who lacks soul, mind and conscience. He's the puppet of greedy handlers/enablers.

 

[vyrago]

Though I am sure Kraft, et. al could not give a rat's butt (and what's more, I don't think this is even a remotely possible signing) if N.E. signs Vick, I'll never watch or root for them again.

This is one very sick, mean, nasty man.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

It bothers me and sadly depresses me when a writer supposedly following Belichick's, Kraft's and the Pats' management decisions over the last decade can miss so badly. On SO many levels NFW does Kraft or BB consider Vick for this franchise. Do these writers pay ANY attention to the Patriots management and football philosophy? Likening Vick's criminal felony behaviour to Moss, Dillon, et. al. is unconscionable.

 

[Deus Irae]

http://www.patsfans.com/new-england-patriots/messageboard/10/41383-cap-available-would-you-trade-moss.html

http://www.patsfans.com/new-england-patriots/messageboard/10/50700-any-chance-we-trade-randy-moss.html

http://www.patsfans.com/new-england-patriots/messageboard/10/52069-someone-patriotsplanet-reporting-moss-trade-offer-table.html

http://www.patsfans.com/new-england-patriots/messageboard/10/52016-dont-sign-trade-acquire-randy-moss-petition.html

plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose

 

[Tunescribe]

http://www.patsfans.com/new-england-patriots/messageboard/10/41383-cap-available-would-you-trade-moss.html

http://www.patsfans.com/new-england-patriots/messageboard/10/50700-any-chance-we-trade-randy-moss.html

http://www.patsfans.com/new-england-patriots/messageboard/10/52069-someone-patriotsplanet-reporting-moss-trade-offer-table.html

http://www.patsfans.com/new-england-patriots/messageboard/10/52016-dont-sign-trade-acquire-randy-moss-petition.html

plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose

B.S. post, Deus. There's a world of difference between Moss's shenanigans and Vick's sick criminality. Don't even think of comparing the two.

 

[jmt57]

Here's another take on the whole situation:

Extending Michael Vick’s ban back from playing football for lying is a slippery slope Goodell might want to avoid. He starts banning guys for lying, and there will be about two NFL head coaches left in a week. He starts banning guys for lying about their various off-field problems and, well, where do you stop?

Vick is presently under house arrest. He is wearing an ankle bracelet and will soon begin work as a laborer on a construction site for $10 an hour. If he isn’t broke, he’s close to it, and he still has three years of supervised probation to try and walk off, which with as many people watching him as there will be won’t be easy.

How much punishment is enough? Punishment is supposed to be about rehabilitation, and we are supposed to be a nation of laws. So what is the message to Vick when he hears this constant demand for another pound of flesh after he’s served his time?

While Vick goes through this, a defensive lineman named Leonard Little, who killed Susan Gutweiler in 1998 with his car after driving drunk from a birthday party, continues to play in the NFL. His punishment for killing a woman, a mother, a sister, a daughter, was 90 days in jail and an eight-game suspension from the NFL in 1998. When he got nailed for drunken driving again six years later he got acquitted on a technicality and continued to play for the St. Louis Rams.

If you get eight games for killing a human being what do you get for killing dogs bred to fight? Seems to me 23 months in prison and bankruptcy should about cover it.

Essentially the author is saying that Vick has served his punishment, so he should be allowed to play. This has nothing to do with playing for the Patriots - who I feel shouldn't sign him simply because he's a bad fit for this offense. I can't say that I have much of an argument with his point of view.






Though I'm sure others will disagree once they see who wrote that column:

Call off the dogs on Michael Vick: QB's punishment served its purpose was written by Ron Borges

 

[mesoslo]

The only thing stoping Vick from being a great QB is his accuracy. Vick has the arm strength, the speed and the agility.

As a football fan, I really hope Vick learns to be more accurate with his throws. A good Vick is really fun to watch. Just imagine tom brady with the athletic ability of vick?

 

[Deus Irae]

B.S. post, Deus. There's a world of difference between Moss's shenanigans and Vick's sick criminality. Don't even think of comparing the two.

But I will not only THINK of comparing the two, I will actually do it. In fact, I already have. SSDD, nothing more. I wanted Moss and Dillon. I don't want Burress and I don't want Vick. That doesn't blind me to the reality that we're talking about the same basic thing here: Uber talented problem player with a bad past. The reason I don't want Burress is because he's been a pain in the ass for two quality franchises already: the Steelers and Giants aren't the Raiders or Chargers, after all. The reason I don't want Vick is because he's never harnessed his talent and he's now getting a bit too old to count on him figuring it out. If I thought Burress would ever smarten up or Vick had the time to become a QB force in New England, I'd be all for them getting signed. It's a risk/reward thing, in my mind, not an absolute.

I'm following a football team. When I want to see choir boys, I can go to church.

 

[jmt57]

Another local viewpoint, this from the New Bedford Standard-Times

No mention of whether or not the columnist believes the Pats should sign Vick, but I don't agree with some of the points that he considers to be "facts":

FACT: Vick was an extremely effective NFL quarterback. ...
FACT: Any team that is not winning will get majority support from the fans on a Vick signing. ...
FACT: Vick comes with minimal risk and as much upside as any rookie blue-chipper. ...
FACT: Nothing is shorter than the attention span of a sports fan. ...
OPINION: Any team that doesn't have either an undisputed Plan A (i.e. superstar veteran) or a viable Plan B (unproven bonus baby). Namely, San Francisco, St. Louis, Seattle, Minnesota, Washington, Carolina, Denver, Jacksonville, Houston, Cleveland, Miami and Buffalo. ...

Ironically I agree with his one 'opinion' more than any of his four previous 'facts'.

 

[Fencer]

I wouldn't root for a team of which Michael Vick was a member.

 

[Fencer]

Here's another take on the whole situation:



Essentially the author is saying that Vick has served his punishment, so he should be allowed to play. This has nothing to do with playing for the Patriots - who I feel shouldn't sign him simply because he's a bad fit for this offense. I can't say that I have much of an argument with his point of view.






Though I'm sure others will disagree once they see who wrote that column:

Call off the dogs on Michael Vick: QB's punishment served its purpose was written by Ron Borges

When it comes to arguing that "Everybody lies; doing so shouldn't hurt your career," I think Borges is showing more than a little self-interest ...

 

[jmt57]

When it comes to arguing that "Everybody lies; doing so shouldn't hurt your career," I think Borges is showing more than a little self-interest ...

Ha Ha, I hadn't even thought about that - great catch!

 

[Tunescribe]

That doesn't blind me to the reality that we're talking about the same basic thing here: Uber talented problem player with a bad past.

Lumping all "bad pasts" together including Vick's extreme end of that spectrum seems odd to me, but from what you say below it matters not via your ends-justifies-the-means reasoning.

If I thought Burress would ever smarten up or Vick had the time to become a QB force in New England, I'd be all for them getting signed.

Somehow I doubt the Krafts and BB share your line of thinking.

It's a risk/reward thing, in my mind, not an absolute. I'm following a football team. When I want to see choir boys, I can go to church.

Good for you. Count me among the saps who can't root for soulless creeps. I never felt that way about Dillon or Moss; but then, they weren't in the same category as Burress and Vick. You paint character issues with a pretty broad brush.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

FACT: Vick was an extremely effective NFL quarterback. ...
FACT: Any team that is not winning will get majority support from the fans on a Vick signing. ...
FACT: Vick comes with minimal risk and as much upside as any rookie blue-chipper. ...
FACT: Nothing is shorter than the attention span of a sports fan. ...
OPINION: Any team that doesn't have either an undisputed Plan A (i.e. superstar veteran) or a viable Plan B (unproven bonus baby). Namely, San Francisco, St. Louis, Seattle, Minnesota, Washington, Carolina, Denver, Jacksonville, Houston, Cleveland, Miami and Buffalo. ...

Missing is the salient FACT that Vick unlike Moss and Dillon is a convicted felon with a jail term who exhibited strong sociopathic behaviour and has NOT shown that he has distanced himself from his enablers. I have no problem with the NFL deciding to re-instate him as a player. He served his time. However since he's still the same lamebrain associating with his posse of losahs, I would NOT want to see him as a Patriot. Fortunately, that's not gonna happen. Those making a moral equivalancy with Moss and even Dillon, no choir boy, need to fine tune their limp discernment skills.

 

[Deus Irae]

Lumping all "bad pasts" together including Vick's extreme end of that spectrum seems odd to me, but from what you say below it matters not via your ends-justifies-the-means reasoning.



Somehow I doubt the Krafts and BB share your line of thinking.



Good for you. Count me among the saps who can't root for soulless creeps. I never felt that way about Dillon or Moss; but then, they weren't in the same category as Burress and Vick. You paint character issues with a pretty broad brush.

Irony writ large.