This and That.
J. Panetta
December 11 2007

Michael Vick was sentenced to 23 months in prison yesterday for his guilty plea against dog fighting charges. I don't think that it is too stiff a penalty but I was a little surprised that it is that long. Vick, who not only originally lied about being involved and never really accepted responsibility also test positive for marijuana use, which violated terms that were set for his release.

Of course Vick's attorney Billy Martin, said Vick had been diagnosed as clinically depressed.

"Mr. Vick in life had numbed himself to a lot of events around him. That was, in a sense, his way of surviving,"

The funny thing is that the other two defendants that turned against Vick and plea bargained out received close to the same sentence as Vick did.

It wasn't bad enough for the Atlanta Falcons that their season was ruined but the sentencing took place on the same day as their game on ESPN's Monday Night Football, so a large majority of the talk was about the situation. To make things worse Falcons wide receiver Roddy White showed how oblivious that he is to the situation by displaying a home made Free Mike Vick in the end zone after scoring a touchdown.

Look I understand teammates sticking up for each other and supporting each other but Vick is not being held illegally of war crimes or anything. He broke the law, lied to Federal investigators and felt that he was above the law.

FSU held a press conference to announce that Jimbo Fisher will succeed Bobby Bowden as Florida State's next football coach, someday. Nobody knows when this will be because Bowden has no plans on retiring just yet.

While Fisher was quoted as saying "This gives me some peace," said Fisher, who has not been a head coach before. "I'm content to wait for it." My is question regardless of when, what has Fisher done to be given the keys to the Nole's? The offense that he was hired to fix this season still stunk and FSU really did not look like a better football team.

If you ask me decisions like this really make you wonder what the state of FSU football will be in the next 5-10 years. Also what head coaching experience does Fisher have? I guess that we will just have to wait and see on this one.

Retired baseball player David Segui admitted that he purchased steroids from former New York Mets clubhouse attendant Kirk Radmonski and repeated an admission that he used HGH with a prescription.

Segui, who spent 15 years with the Baltimore Orioles said that he had nothing to hide and had no problem talking about it. So ask yourself, will all of the talking heads and writers want Segui striken from the MLB records like they do Barry Bonds? I bet not.

They are still celebrating in Gainesville after Tim Tebow took home the Heisman trophy over the weekend. People are calling in the local radio station saying that Tebow will win two more trophies and that the Gators will win the next two National Championships. I wonder what the Georgia Bulldogs Knowshon Marino and Matthew Stafford will have to say about that.

Gator fans can really be ridiculous sometime.

In case you did not already know the Les Miles to Michigan saga still is not over. It seems that there is still a buyout clause is Miles contract at LSU, that permits him to leave for the Wolverines head coaching job. Keep in mind that Michigan doesn't seem to be in a big hurry to fill it either.
That's right is he staying or is he going?

ESPN and a bunch of radio stations, including the local sports stations in The Sports Blitz headquarter town of Gainesville are now having mach or make believe BCS playoffs. Of course they all have their own rules and setups. Some of them having 8 teams, some 10 ten teams and some having as many as 16 teams. The thing is they all, especially ESPN think that can pressure the NCAA and BCS to change. Well listen people YOU CAN'T. There is too much money in the system the way that it is. No matter how much that moan, groan and cry it will not happen. At least in this decade.

Hey did anyone out there know that it is hockey season? What channel is the NHL on now anyway?

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You can send your comments to Joel Panetta by email at joel@thesportsblitz.com