I am tired of the Michael Vick story. I’ve made my position on this matter unmistakably clear. The league, in keeping with the precedent set forth by the commish’s Pacman Jones ruling, have to suspend Michael Vick. I had a feeling that the animal rights’ groups would pressure the league and the franchise so heavily that they would have to make Vick take an indefinite leave of absence. And that’s what’s happening now. That being said, I’m over it. I don’t want to hear anymore about it on sports talk radio or read more columns from reporters across the country about how the league should throw the book at the (soon-to-be former) Falcons QB. I agree with all of those positions, by and large, but I’m done with this story. There is such a thing as media over-saturation and I’m there.

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No, seriously…

The French government has installed two toilets at the top of Mont Blac, Europe’s highest peak, which will have to be emptied by helicopter.

Great white sharks apparently don’t like kayakers.

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How effective will Rams first round pick Adam Carriker be at defensive tackle? I saw Carriker practice at the Senior Bowl and he’s got it all. He’s very quick, has great feet and hands and an unbelievable motor. The Rams shouldn’t over-think this. Leave Carriker at end. 

Great column in today’s Washington Post by columnist Sally Jenkins about the NBA ref scandal.

George Brett and the greatest gameday promotion ever.

Tennessee joins the list of schools who do not plan to drug test its high school athletes. I think a lot of these states are doing a big thing badly. If you think that steroid use and the use of performance enhancing drugs by high school athletes is limited to states like Texas and Florida, you’re kidding yourself. 

Florida basketball lines up another lackluster non-conference schedule.

Butch Davis on trying to rebuild the UNC football program.

Les Miles backs down from USC/Pac-10 comments. Not a bad idea, coach. Maybe Les peeped the Trojans’ depth chart.

Bobby Bowden has high expectations for his pair of (so far) underachieving quarterbacks.

AJC columnist Terence Moore says there is no way Michael Vick ever plays for the Falcons again.

Bob Stoops says he’s in no hurry to name his starting quarterback. At some point, this is just arrogance. Quarterback by committee has never worked anywhere. The Sooners need a starter. 

Carmelo Anthony follows Edgerrin James’ lead; introduces ‘the new Melo.’

Fellow Huskers impressed so far with new quarterback Sam Keller. I kind of think Keller is a baby. When Dirk Koetter didn’t name him starter at Arizona State, instead of staying and fighting it out with Rudy Carpenter, he immediately packed up and left. His mental toughness is certainly suspect.  

Mizzou coach calls QB Chase Daniel “amazing.”

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Response from last night’s YouTube debates is in. (New York Times/Time Magazine’s TV Blog/Jeff Jarvis). To be honest, I didn’t find this all that spectacular. The questions were predictable and kind of average. They certainly were no different than any question posed to the candidates during a traditional debate. I’ve decided that while I think Obama is the more viable candidate and certainly someone I would vote for, I love Joe Biden, even if he puts his foot in his mouth — a lot. Oh and as anyone who watched last night will tell you, Sen. Mike Gravel is nuts.

Premiere Magazine’s list of 10 TV shows that should be movies.

Is Netflix in trouble?

NBC is being sued after someone caught on Dateline’s “To Catch a Predator” series killed himself. While it is difficult to argue with the intent of this series, as a journalist, I do not feel in any way that reporters should be doing the police’s job for them and making the news. It was really only a matter of time before this happened.  

Teen Vogue to fold? Where will LC “work?” 

Part 2 in Entertainment Weekly’s Top 50 Best Love Songs ever.

The Cinematical on how much a critic should spoil a film when writing a review. When writing reviews and when I did the Industry Outsider podcast, I tried to always be respectful of the readers and listeners who hadn’t seen the film. To not do that, in my opinion, is an arrogant and pompous things to do because at that point you are not writing the review for anyone else, you’re writing it for your own self-satisfaction.

TiVo to debut a $299.99 HD DVR. Nice. I think this will prove to be the right price point for this product.

CBS’ Public Eye on how the internet has become the destroyer of financial models.

As I sifted through my news reader, the two stories that struck me the most were topics that I’d blogged about before. One was The Foul, the other was Arkansas football.

For some reason, I remain fixed on the saga that is the Razorback program because I think it’s a perfect example of what can go wrong in modern recruiting. What Houston Nutt is learning is just how dangerous it is to sell your soul and your program for a recruit.

Nutt and former Arkansas AD saw the potential of having an Arkansas kid lead the transformation of the program into a perennial powerhouse and were blinded to the potential consequences. So they hired Gus Malzahn and signed Mustain’s teammates. It was a package deal. And now the Springdale crew is probably going to be Nutt’s undoing as the head football coach at Arkansas with Damian Williams transferring to USC, Malzahn in Tulsa and Mustain still enrolled but almost certainly on the way out. Nutt’s future is imperiled despite the fact that he’s playing with one of the most talented players in all of college football.

Two stories today on CBS Sportsline focus on the downward spiral of Arkansas football, one focuses on who, exactly, is to blame for the dysfunction. The other is about Darren McFadden counting down the days until he bolts Fayetteville for the NFL.

More on The Foul

I didn’t anticipate writing another blog about this subject… ever. But alas, Tyler Hansbrough spoke for the first time since the incident occured and so here I am. After reading an AP story in the Washington Post and watching snippets of Hansbrough’s interview on The Worldwide Leader, one thing becomes strikingly clear to me… if Tyler Hansbrough meant what he said, he’s a far better person than I am. 

The AP is quoting the ACC’s best player as saying:

“‘I was upset when it happened,” Hansbrough said in his first public comments on the subject. “I don’t think he did it intentionally. I don’t really like talking about it because I really don’t know how to handle the situation, but I’m fine right now. I feel fine. I was kind of shocked my nose was broken. … I just thought it was a really bad nosebleed.’”

This is either one helluva classy move or Hansbrough is still concussed from punched in the head. I like Hansbrough’s comments but I don’t believe for a second  that if Duke and UNC meet in the ACC Tournament that Hansbrough isn’t going to hang 30 and 13 on the Dukies. I was honestly a little taken aback by this. Good for you, Tyler.

This story has been unavoidable for much of the past couple days and I expect that with no new developments expected, it’ll fizzle and die out and become a highlight that ESPN shows when trying to promote the game. This morning I read two fairly good pieces, effectively eulogies on the story, and barring any new developments, I expect that this will be my last post on it as well.

The first was by New York Daily News columnist Bob Raissman. In the column, Raissman blasts CBS analyst Billy Packer for his blatant and borderline repugnant defense of Duke and Gerald Henderson in the moments after the foul.

What’s worse isn’t that Packer says this wasn’t a dirty foul in the seconds after it happened, it was that he insisted it wasn’t (Jim Nantz, coincidentally remained silent on the matter) even after they replayed the play 9 times. What I thought was comical when listening to Packer’s call was that he insisted that Henderson was going for the ball despite the fact that Hansbrough had been stripped of the ball before Henderson even left the ground.

And the coup de gras was when Henderson was ejected from the game, Packer said, “This a poor piece of officiating.”

Boy, who can wait for March Madness? But wait, you don’t have to wait for two more weeks to see Packer behave like a moron. This Sunday, he’ll, no doubt, be confronting the head of the NCAA Selection Committee on whatever teams they pick, or don’t pick, for the field of 65 and pretty much anything else he feels like criticizing.

Billy Packer has a place alongside sometime-Chicago Sun-Times columnist and ESPN talking head Jay Mariotti in the Blowhard Hall of Fame and I think his defense of Duke and Henderson in this case is reprehensible.

Here’s a link to Raissman’s column.

That’s it. I’m done. No more on Tyler Hansbrough, Coach K, Roy Williams, Gerald Henderson.

Pretty good piece on Coach K’s subtle spin of the incident by Yahoo! Sports’ Dan Wentzel. 

Best of the rest…

Great story in the New York Times today on George and Coby Karl.

The Detroit Free Press’ Drew Sharp on Greg Oden’s freshman experience.