- By Jim Clark

The NFL pre-season is done with Week One and I can’t think of any previous one that had so much drama off the field. Brett Favre finally signed with the Minnesota Vikings, Michael Vick is now a Philadelphia Eagle and the Carolina Panthers came up with one of the most interesting ways to prevent a game from going to OT in the pre-season.
Let’s see, Favre is a Viking and is familiar enough with the play-calling lingo be start four days after signing? Word is now out that the Vikings sent him a playbook weeks ago, just in case…
For every positive you can say about Favre, you can come up with a negative as well. Let’s just let his play with the Vikings speak for itself. He could possibly lead the franchise to its first Super Bowl victory, he could tear his rotator cuff and be done in Week 2, or he will provide some excitement that will have ESPN’s Chris Berman off his Viagra for a couple weeks.
I honestly expected the NFL to let Vick back in the league. He did serve his time. I do find it funny that the league can suspend a guy for behavior that doesn’t result in an arrest.
San Diego’s Shawne Merriman sat out four games in 2006 for testing positive for a substance banned by the NFL. Vick and his crew, among other things, went out, stole family dogs and tossed them into the pit with fighting dogs to die.
And this is only worth a possible six game suspension?
The league wants to clean up its players’ acts but has guys who have killed people, tested positive for drugs, been arrested for defying the police, and drunk driving. If the league really wants to clean up its players’ acts, why not ban players with felony convictions. And, to further solidify its stance, why not ban them after (pick a number) arrests.
Didn’t the NFL have a few players show up to the Draft Combine - basically the league’s job fair - and test positive for marijuana? Did the league tell these players that they will have to sit out the year and try again next season?
Of course not. And I don’t think any of them will be suspended for any games this season for the offense either.
But it is a little unfair to NFL players to have these punishments thrown on them now. The reason they think they are above the law is they have been treated differently. Bad behavior in high school and college can be overlooked if the trouble-maker can perform on the football field on Friday or Saturday.
The league is a reflection of society and, as we know from reality TV, we know no shame. And that’s a shame.
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While I do like college football, I am beginning to seriously doubt the ability of the BCS team’s recruiters to evaluate talent. Five of the top ten rushers in the NFL last year did not play for BCS schools.
As fans, we are force-fed how the BCS schools are the best of the best and have the best talent. Yet, year-after year, guys who were stars in the SEC, Big Ten, Pac Ten, etc., disappear at the NFL level.
Meanwhile, guys who you might have seen on a Tuesday night ESPN game are tearing up NFL defenses.
Atlanta Falcons’ Michael Turner went to Northern Illinois and was deemed “too small” to play in the NFL and wasn’t taken in the draft until the fifth round by the San Diego Chargers. He was the second leading rusher in the NFL last year.
DeAngelo Williams of the Carolina Panthers went to Memphis, Chicago Bears’ Matt Forte attended Tulane, Tennessee Titan Chris Johnson was an ECU Pirate, and LaDainian Tomlinson went to TCU.
Are you telling me Conference USA produces better running backs than the Big Ten? The stats tell an interesting story.