For the betterment of the team, and a beef with US lawmakers

Hi all, hows it goin? Hope you've had a good week so far. I know I have. My week started feeling scared to death about this radio presentation I need to do Thursday. It's basically on an older system used way back in radio. The thought process being, if I can operate this machine, I can operate anything in radio. Anyways things have started to come around and I am feeling pretty good about it. I got a 2 hour practice session tomorrow, so I feel that will be more than enough time to get it down pat.

Anyways, I know I blogged last time about Michael Vick, but I just want to make a point about the events since Sunday's win over Detroit. In sports, more often than not, who starts and who is the back up is much more often determined by the players salary than his talent unfortunately. For those who do not know, Kevin Kolb, the Eagles new QB (at the time) got a large contract extension after the trade of Donovan McNabb. After the Eagles win on Sunday, with Micheal Vick in control (KK had a concussion) the Eagles passing attack had looked great, and more importantly, Vick had looked better than at any point in his career, which is saying something given some of his years in Atlanta. However Andy Reid, the Eagles coach said that KK would be starting the next game because he was healthy again. A day later, after some re-consideration (and perhaps some suggestion by the team owner - just a guess on my part) Reid did a 180 and all of a sudden proclaimed Vick as the starter going forward because he had performed beyond expectations. Now whether it was ownership intervention, or Reid legitimately changed his mind, I always give props when a team makes a choice like this. It doesn't particularly look the greatest when your starter, is earning aound 3.5 million, when your new back-up, who has just signed a new contract is earning around 7 million, but kudos to the Eagles for making the right choice, because at the end of the day, winning is the only thing that matters of course.

File this one under why US laws are a farce....I was reading an article online about how a US man's execution was delayed after he attempted suicide. His lawyer argues the suicide attempt proves his client is incompetent and executing him would violate the US Constitution on cruel and unusual punishment....

....excuse me....cruel and unusual punishment. Now I know this is a debatable subject for some, and so be it, be isn't the act of killing someone, especially in the form of retribution cruel and unusual punishment? further more, putting myself in the shoes of the US law makers - why would I care if someone on death row killed themselves? An execution costs more tax payers money than a life sentence does, so why would I care if an inmate "did the job himself" (pardon the language, just the thought process I'd assume from their point of view" It also just seems kind of stupid to me - does the US law makers need to stroke their own ego to the point where they need to carry out the killing themselves? Case in point, in March, an Ohio man OD'ed on anti-depressants, only a couple of hours before his execution. They allowed him to fully recover in a hospital, only to execute him a week after the suicide attempt. Perhaps I am missing some point in all this, but it looks to me as another reason of why the US is looked down upon as much as it is for various reasons.

Take care, please leave some feedback, and if you can't because it wants you to create a user and all that fun stuff - send me a message to my Facebook inbox. Cheers.

Stamps @ Riders, Pat Burns, and more

Hey hows it going? Not sure if anyone caught the football game tonight, or bits and pieces of it, but it was an awesome one. It seemed like Calgary was in control for most of the game but just couldn't keep the Riders offense off the field at the end of the 4th quarter. It was good to see Jason Clermont make some plays. He has pretty much been invisible since he joined the Riders. I guess you don't mind when you have a chance to play for the home town team. Funny thing happened at the end of the 4th quarter for those who didn't see. The game was tied at 27 and the Riders had lined up for a game winning field goal - a chip shot for their kicker Luca Congi who had only missed one kick within 40 yards all year. Anyways the Riders, after they are lined up for the field goal call a time out, and instead send out the punt team (which adds about 15 yards or so to the kick - go figure) to punt it through the endzone for a single point. Of course, the kick ended up being short and the game went to overtime. The great thing about this is I have a proline ticket that has the Riders to win (on a proline ticket your team needs to win by 4 or more points to be considered a "win") so had they gone for the field goal, I would have lost that game. Needless to say in the end the Riders won by a touchdown which kept my ticket going. I need Hamilton, Winnipeg and New England to win over the next couple of days. We'll see what happens.

Pat Burns - Why can't this guy be left alone. He is dying of cancer (3rd different kind in his life time) and some clown starts an erroneous report that he died today from his cancer. Listen, he was in Quebec to visit some family - would it be so hard to let the man live in peace? When he does unfortunately pass, I'm sure the family will make a statement, until then, leave the man alone. I remember being a 7 year old kid, watching the '93 playoffs, game 7 Detroit and Toronto, a series Toronto on paper should have lost, and Burns took a chance on a Russian rookie, Nikolai Borshevski, and of course he got the game winning goal in over time.

My media program has gotten rolling and it's had some very cool aspects to it so far. It is a very busy program, and I've had a few moments where it seems overbearing but I've made it through so far. I will probably have to get some reading done at some point tomorrow. I'd love at one point to see if I'd be able to host a sports program on the campus station, but I don't want to get to far ahead of myself.

Not sure how many Queen fans there are out there, but there is a movie about to be started on the life of Freddie Mercury, and Sacha Baren Cohen (Borat, lol) will be playing Mercury. It will be very interesting to see what comes of this as this is obviously not the kind of role he does. Here is the link if any are interested: http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/2010/09/17/15381021.html

Thats all I got for now, take care, please leave some feedback, and if you can't because it wants you to create a user and all that fun stuff - send me a message to my Facebook inbox. Cheers.

1,357 days

1,357 days. Think about that for a moment - Try to think about how long that is, never mind how long it would seem if that was the amount of time you were to wait before you could do that one thing it is you love to do. Thats the amount of days it will be on Sunday when Michael Vick starts on Sunday against the Detroit Lions. It will be his first start since 2006 when he lost in the NFC championship game against the Philadelphia Eagles.

Now before I go any further, I don't condone any of what MV did in the past, but the key word is, past. He has paid his debt to society, and he sure didn't get the treatment that most in his position do - a big fine, community service, maybe 30 days in jail....this is a guy that was in jail for 23 months. My point in all this is, is that if you've followed the NFL - or perhaps happened to watch the Eagles and Packers game, the guy is one of the most exciting players to ever play quarterback in the history of the NFL. He is the fastest QB to ever play the game, and he still has a cannon of an arm. Heck, I even picked him up to be on my fantasy football team - he has an awesome match-up against Detroit. If he can do what he did to an elite defense like the Packers (Go Pack Go!) in just one half of football, who knows what he will do against a weak defense like Detroit for a full quarter. Regardless, it should be exciting to watch on Sunday, I'm looking forward to it.

Other things I am looking forward to this weekend, other than coming home.... Calgary @ Sask - How do the Riders respond from the whooping they got last week, and how will the Stamps fare facing a team with more than 3 wins for the first time in almost a month and a half

Winnipeg @ Toronto - Was the Banjo Bowl a fluke? Are Toronto finally regressing to the point we all thought they would? No Cory Boyd will definitely hurt this week

Buffalo @ Green Bay - Why this game? Green Bay will kick their ass....Well yes thats true, but it will also be Brandon Jackson's first start at running back in his career as Ryan Grant is out for the year, a 2nd round pick from 3 years ago.

Miami @ Minnesota - My boy Brett has looked very weak so far. If he can't get it going this week, I have serious concerns for him and the Vikings the rest of the way. He misses Sidney Rice something fierce right now.

Thanks for reading. Feedback is welcomed and encouraged :)