#21 Sean Taylor was in a "catch 22"

We've heard the debate and controversy surrounding Sean Taylor's death and how unfairly the media is portraying his unlawful past. Many say the media is blaming him for his own murder. After thinking about it myself, it seems far too easy to simply blame his murder on "running with the wrong crowd". I believe this is a grossly oversimplified explanation. The truth is, you can't always choose every single person who runs in your group of friends.

To make sure I have my bases covered, I know that there hasn't been any suspects in the case, so this theory is NOT necessarily the explanation of what happened. It's a theory. I'm only going by what I've heard about his rough past, and especially by what his longtime friend and former U of Miami teammate Antrel Rolle told The Associated Press (from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel):

"They say it was a burglary," Rolle said. "It absolutely was not a burglary. Down South, where we're from, there were many people talking to Sean, a lot of jealousy, a lot of angry people. Sean, he had a large group of friends, and he no longer hung out with those friends, so you never know where this came from."

"This was not the first incident. They've been targeting him for three years now. ... He didn't really say too much, but I know he lived his life pretty much scared every day of his life when he was down in Miami because those people were targeting him. At least he's got peace now."


Pretty scary stuff if you ask me. Even more scary is that this is a problem that is literally bleeding into the National Football League. Everyone remembers the nightclub shooting that was loosely associated with Pacman Jones. Pacman's Mom says that he is a good kid and can only explain all of his run-ins with the law by saying he just "runs with the wrong crowd". Sound familiar? Okay, I'm definitely not defending Pacman and his 38 arrests (give or take), but it's not that easy to simply walk away from your lifelong friends.

We all know Mike Vick is going to the slammer for at least a year or two for being loyal to his childhood friends (even though a couple of those "friends" testified against him). However, on the flip side of that, Taylor is being buried six feet under because he broke his loyalty to his friends (according to Rolle). What are star athletes supposed to do now? They get arrested if they hang on to their past, but then get punished if they break ties with their past (assuming it was a former "friend" who killed Taylor). It has become a dangerous (and deadly) catch-22. Who knows what would/will happen if Pacman breaks ties with his past? His pro wrestling moves sure as hell won't do him any good.

R.I.P. Sean Taylor

So the A-Rod Saga Continues...

Alex Rodriguez. The name brings so many thoughts to mind; future Hall of Famer, big contract, no World Series rings, and most recently: drama. One minute Alex is “100% committed to being a Yankee,” the next he is opting out of his contract knowing the Yankees’ stance on renegotiating with him, and now, just after “Goodbye,” is uttered from Hank Steinbrenners lips, the two are close to a(nother) record breaking deal. $290 million dollars is the early estimate. With all he brings to the table, two, soon to be three, MVP titles, gold gloves, silver sluggers, media spotlight, a divided locker room and sub-par playoff performances, would you pay the man close to $300 million dollars?

If I were the Yankees, I would. However, no other franchise should. We all know pitching wins championships. If a team besides the Yankees were to sign him, any thought of getting pitching help would instantly be out of the window. New York is the only team that could get away with signing him and may still be able to afford Johan Santana next off season.

The Mets could probably get away with it but they already have an all star third baseman. The same goes for the red sox. The Rangers could probably afford him, even Jesus could not help the Rangers (though A-Rod may dispute that). The Angels and Dodgers were mentioned but they both need pitching help to get them over the top. Out of no where the Marlins were brought up. A-Rod would command more than the entire team combined. No, the Yankees are the only team A-Rod should, could and will sign for.

Thoughts?

5 thoughts on the college football season

as the college football season starts to wind down, and the picture gets blurrier each saturday, here's some muddled thoughts and small ramblings on the season so far and what's to come

1. LSU is on the fast-track to the national championship game: Thanks to OSU's major choke-job against a solid Illinois team (which my cohost the big guy so astutely called last tuesday), LSU is back on track for their start-of-the-season goal. Should they win out, and by all means they easil could, with the hardest part of their schedule past them, they can start worrying about the SEC championship game, which will decide whether they get to play in the BCS title game or not. Should they play Tennessee, they'll have a very favorable matchup on offense, but their defense will not match up very well against Tennessee's Aerial attack. They'll really need their entire team to be healthy before their trip to atlanta, or whoever they play is going to be much harder. The most vital injury though, is that of Glenn dorsey. Though Dorsey is back on the field and is still a force, a completely healthy leg would give him that much more force against two strong offensive lines (GA and UT). Bottom line, LSU's title road goes through atlanta, and they have to win out to keep a pack of other hungry one-loss teams at bay.

2. Dennis Dixon is the hands-down favorite for the Heisman: No one has played as consistently well as Dixon this year. Tebow, Woodson, Daniel, Ryan, and Mcfadden have all tripped up over the season, but Dixon has consistently led Oregon's high powered spread offense to perfection. After a shaky 2006 season and an offseason playing minor-league baseball, Dixon is having an eye-popping year. So far, his line looks like this...

167-246 for 2074 yards, a 67.4 completion rate, 20 touchdowns vs 3 interceptions, and 103 rushes for 549 yards and 8 TDs.

Sure, some of the other candidates have better numbers, but Dixon is indispensable to his team, and he has not had a bad game yet, playing against some seriously tough competition in the pac-10

3. Kansas deserves some respect, and they'll get it before its all said and done: I'm just going to flat out say this. Kansas is a really good team. The exclamation mark of the season has been, other than going undefeated, hanging 76 points on mediocre Nebraska, which even USC didn't do. Sure, they've played against mostly mediocre competition, but in all except three of those games, they've been completely dominant. they face a tough team in Oklahoma State this week, and then their final game of the season against 6th ranked Missouri will really dictate whether they can keep a top 10 ranking heading into bowl season. as it stands, however, if they should lose to missouri, they'll lose a tiebreaker in their division and be left out of the conference championship game against OU (most probably)

4. Brian Brohm is still a top 10 draft pick: Sure Louisville is having an awful season under first year coach Craig Kragthorpe, but that blame can mostly be placed on a weak defense highlighted by a really bad secondary. This year he's already posted career highs in passing yards (3229), passing TDs (26), and passer rating (161.4). Along with Matt Ryan, Brohm is the best equipped QB to make an impact on a bad team in the NFL. He's been running a pro-style offense under Bobby Petrino his first 3 years at Louisville, and his mechanics are near flawless. Brohm cannot be blamed for his team's shortcomings, and NFL scouts will be highly impressed by his cannon arm and his accurate passes.

5. The SEC is the toughest conference in the land....and its gonna hurt all the SEC teams come bowl time: at one point or another this year, the SEC has had 6 teams ranked in the top 25. The SEC East has been responsible for 4 of those teams (UF, UGA, UK, UT). Should UT and Georgia both lose, we might actually see a three loss team in the SEC championship, which this season wouldn't be surprising. However, this new-found parity has a flipside. Although fans benefit from greater competition and entertainment any week, it becomes increasingly impossible for a team to run the table, which has in past seasons become the standard of a top 3 team. Not counting this season, it has been undefeated teams that have reached the national championship in the past 4 seasons. Making it through the SEC season with one loss is an impressive feat in and of itself, as LSU has so eloquently proven. But the fact that teams have a greater chance to lose every week (see Florida, who had their first 3 game losing streak of the Urban Meyer Era) is bad for the SEC in the national pictures. By achieving parity, which is what everyone had always hoped for, we might just end up effectively shooting ourselves in the foot.

Lost in the joy and revelry of this Saturday's victory over Troy was some incredibly sombering news from one of the less glittery corners of the sporting world. American distance runner Ryan Shay died 5 1/2 miles into the US Marathon Olympic Trials, in one of the most tragic events to strike the distance running community.
While the autopsy has turned up initially inconclusive, doctors believe that Shay's enlarged heart may have contributed to his early death. Shay's heart not only allowed him to run great distances and accomplish a number of notable running feats (9 time All-American at Notre Dame, 2005 US Marathon Champion, Member of the US Half-Mar world championships team, US 15K champion) but also allowed him to be one of the kindest and most compassionate members of the running community.
He will be sorly missed, and not soon forgotten.