On Mike & Mike's show...Vitale, incensed by his own personal experience where his family was hospitalized after being hit by a drunk driver, went off screaming (more than usual) about Edwards and Rex Ryan being a disgrace. Totally understand the emotion, but I've had enough. Yes, Edwards was wrong and will and should be punished by the league, but he didn't get into an accident, he didn't kill anybody. If he had, he would not have played the other night. And so what Ryan did was acceptable given the circumstances. You don't punish based on what could've happened. You base it on actual events. Why? Well, if you based these decisions on maybes, then everybody who has every driven drunk in their lives...a younger Gary Myers, or a younger Dickie V (before his own personal brush with the madness of DD), would be guilty of the same thing as Edwards. And everyone of them should turn themselves in right now. Please don't tell me that neither of these guys or any of these other Stone Throwers never drove after having drinks...that's total bullshit. Especially for a guy like Vitale who has traveled the party circuit with the NCAA basketball circus. Come Dickie, admit it, you've driven drunk in your life. Come on Gary, fess up. You got away with it--you were lucky, thank God, and so was everybody you drove past that night. Let he who is without sin...
Typical. Where was Vitale when Leonard Little was in the news? Stallworth? More Jets hate and just another example of the double standard.
Where was all of this when Ronnie Brown and Kareem McKenzie got their DUI's? I didn't even hear this much uprise against drinking and drive when Donte Stallworth killed someone.
Vitale can be annoying but I'm 100% sure he was syaing worse things about those guys when that happened.
dickie admitted he felt strongly on this issue b/c dickie his wife and his kids where in a very serious car accident with another car with kids who where drunk. so i see where he was coming from and i did listen to the interview,but the subject is something that he feels strongly about. how did he feel about the Duke Lacrosse players when accussed of rape??? suspend the players? suspend the season??? and in the end the girl lied and they the players where robbed of their season b/c we as society jumped to conclusion instead of allowing the justice system we have played in place to do it job. when braylon is found guilty in a court of his peers then the punishment should be laid out and not before.
if one of his college coaching butt buddies got one you wouldnt hear a fucking peep and hed prob be defending them
I heard it and was really turned off by it..I like DV and I see where he was coming from. However, deciding to show up and play moral police in the Edwards case and not screaming about every other DUI in football, domestic violence in basketball, college sport arrests it just comes off in the wrong light. He made comments about Edwards as a person and was insulting. I doubt he knows or ever met Edwards...I doubt he knows what he is like as a person...what he does for charity...how is is with family and friends. he is taking an altercation with one of Lebron's groupies in Ohio and this do label Edwards a piece of shit and I think that is wrong and unfair. Ray Lewis pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice after being charged with murder...he was fined and never missed a snap! No player in the NFL that wasn't a practice squad or marginal roster player has ever missed a snap for a DUI...not one! Maybe people should stop basing everything off the back pages of the post and do some research...look at the bigger issue and not one person. Unless the league and the union decide to institute a rule about first time substance abuse cases this is how things will be handled. Dungy plays his card Sunday stating well if i was in the same situation I would have suspended the player...but you weren't in that situation. If Peyton had gotten arrested and you had a divisional game for a playoff spot on the line what would he do? You think the fans and owners want a moral example victory and a loss that costs a playoff spot? Easy to say something when you have no chance of ever having to enforce it.
In My opinion that's a real tough ledge to go out on when you are a Sports Commentator..... Guys like Francesca and now Dickie V will certainly find themselves in position in this business to have to show the same kind of outrage over and over now.... I have NEVER heard such outrage.... There's a list of DWI's in the NFL a mile long, you look at that list and some are current and cases you barely even heard of - with no suspension or little mention...... HEY YOU KNOW WHAT- IT"S PARTLY A GOOD THING.... We're all debating it and we all have it on our minds - I went out the other night and I have Braylon on my mind had just one or two and got a ride.... So, I think it's good for kids and other to hear and see what a Big deal it is.. BUT, Jeez, it took a NEW YORK ####'NG JET to do it for people to wake up... Before this no one really cared much unless someone died.... It's a new Chapter now - NOW, when a player gets a DUI I'm expecting the radio waves to go BALLISTIC.... Bring it on... A Jet did it so, From NOW ON, we hang the guy and expect Immediate action....
I was one who leaned towards the Jets benching him for one game, and I am absolutely sick of this story now. I just thought one game would send a message to entire team. I suppose this is what we get for drawing so much attention to ourselves this season. The moment ANYTHING goes wrong, the arrows fly.
I took the easiest route I just changed the station & waited 7 minutes till DV was gone (hooray) then I began again to listen to M & M
I think it is a combination of the TV show, last years playoff run, and Rex doing a lot of talking. People automatically assume well the Jets are just a wild out of control frat house and they don't care about anyone...win at all costs mentality that will kill the league. The Jets are a very stable and professional organization. Since 1998 they are one of the more consistent teams...lots of playoffs appearances, not a lot of trouble, and always had to play second fiddle to the Giants. They finally get the spotlight for being a solid team and people will find any reason to bash that. Hell the Giants are a mess, the 49ers are firing coaches, the Bills are cutting ties with a starting QB...yet the Jets are the party boys of the NFL with no control.
Why will people not allow this to die? The guy was punished more then any other player in the history of the NFL was for the same crime. How many quarters did Fili Moala sit out? Ronnie Brown? Keith Traylor? Leonard Little? Ray Mauluga? Jared Allen? Cortland Finnegan? BJ Sams? Kahlif Barnes?Antonio Bryant?Deltha O'Neil? Marcus Coleman? Jonhnie Hartline's car was found in a ditch without him in it because he presumably fled the scene because he was drunk. Why no outrage there? In fact according to a San Diego Union Tribune article (as of April 2009) there were 128 incidents in which players were arrested for DUI or 28% of all incidents since 2000. Here is the kicker... I'm not condoning what Edwards did, in fact I think it is one of the worse things you can do but where is the outrage with Phil Merling? The guy not only beat up his girlfriend which makes him a bitch but she was pregnant at the time. Is there lesser of a man than that? Within one month Ronnie Brown and Will Allen were both arrested for DUI. I'm not just picking on Miami because the allmighty Colts had tow guys arrested over the span of a month on alcohol related offenses and a 3rd Taj Smith was arrested for DUI on New Years Day of 2010. You add all those guys up and Edwards sat out more then all of them.
I like Dickey V. But, He was way off on this this one. Not everyone has the same mind set. Ryan should not do anything to please critics. Every coach is to do whats best for their team. That's what Ryan did. Ryan trust his player to be men. Some my stray but thats part of life. I still think if you let them be men and not run a military boot camp, you'll get the best of them. V and Dungey need to calm their nerves.
F the media. Get some thicker skin. And relish their hate. It seems to have brought the Jets together. It certainly didn't hurt them in Miami. Good.
I have no problem with people being outraged so long as they are willing to point out the other NFL players who were charged with the same thing and didn't miss playing time. Screaming about Braylon without acknowledging the others is nothing short of ignorant though. in short, stfu Dickie.
Bingo.... That was why I took issue with Tony Dungy the other night, he had no problem calling out the Jets and Rex Ryan but I'm curious as to why he didn't say a word about the two Phin players who did the same thing within the last year or the one who beat up his pregnant girlfriend. Because unlike Miami the Jets actually punished Edwards even if it was just a quarter. And for the record 3 Colts players have been arrested within the last year... 2 for DUI and one for public intoxication. One of them John Gill was found passed out on the side of a road.
Where was the outrage over all of the other DUI/DWIs in the NFL? No other player has ever been suspended for it yet everyone and his brother wants to throw the book at Braylon. This is our year. We finally have the talent to win the superbowl. Our other starting WR is still suspended. We need Braylon on the field. He made a mistake and he will learn from it. People need to let this go already.
I'm starting to get fucking pissed off. I know Braylon fucked up- I got it. But in NY you get so much more scrutiny than anywhere else. Check this link-- http://www.signonsandiego.com/nfl/arrests-database/ it shows all the arrests in the NFL since 2000. We are one of the lowest teams on here with 8 arrests in the last 10 years. That's not too bad. Miami had 25 arrests over that time, and I haven't heard Dick V on the air bitching about their guys. There have been about 150 DUI's since 2000 in the NFL. This is the only one that has resulted in ANY punishment by the team, yet it is the one that has received the most criticism from media. NY media is quick to build you up, and quick to tear you down and I'm really fucking pissed off at the unfair attention.
