Household names

by Ryan Van Bibber on Jun 10, 2008 8:59 AM CDT in News

Wait a minute.Something's afoot here. Terrell Owens, aka T.O., was placed on the NFL's "reasonable cause" testing program for banned substances, according to ESPN.

Why, you ask? Because he missed phone calls, calls being the plural mind you, to set up random drug tests, which automatically subject a player to disciplinary action from the league. T.O. missed the calls because of a "communication problem involving cell phone numbers." (Somebody get T.O. a marketing deal with Apple so he can get an iPhone.) Fortunately for T.O. and the Cowboys, he will not be suspended or fined because this was seen as a legit excuse by the league.

It's hard to read this and not see a double standard when thinking about the fact that Fakhir Brown was suspended for four games because he missed a drug test while volunteering with youth, supposedly. Brown appealed that decision and got nowhere. Brown, however, hasn't exactly had a spotless record with drug testing, and it was widely assumed that he'd be out for the 2008 season for failing a follow up test.

My initial reaction ("Double standard. BS!") is probably just the wounded sensitivity of being a fan of a 3 win team. However, it's hard not to compare the T.O. situation to the Fakhir Brown situation and see that the league's drug testing and disciplinary policies and Roger Goodell's Carrie Nation impression still seems fairly arbitrary. Exhibit B: Pacman Jones, who won't get a full verdict on his status until September 1. The commissioner runs the risk of pissing off plenty of fans having policies that leave plenty of room for favoritism charges. And that's not really a good thing with a labor battle looming.

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the commish

the commish certainly does whatever he wants, favors who he likes, etc.
he is the judge, the jury, and the prosecutor. that’s an awful lot of power.
the difference i see here from the f.brown situation, is that fakhir scheduled his appointment, then missed it, but t.o. didn’t even get to schedule it because he changed his cell number. (which i assume famous people do all the time)

(gasp – looking back at this, i have just defended t.o. what a strange day)

by jroman on Jun 10, 2008 10:06 AM CDT reply actions

Sounds like a double standard to me.

And sounds like he could win a lawsuit in civil court to get his money back for those 4 games.

Angels Defense. Angels Pitching. Get past that.

by vladtheimpaler on Jun 11, 2008 4:57 AM CDT reply actions

I paniced

Is that how you spelld “paniced”? The past tense of “panic”? Panicked? Panic-ed. Now I’ve written “panic” so many times, that doesn’t look right to me either. Rooods, Row-ads, Rowds. That’s a funny word.

Oh well.

Anyway, I was immediately sent into a panic when I saw your screen name. I thought, “this guy is either a Red Wings fan or a vampire, and frankly either one makes me a bit squeamish”. But low and behold I see your avatar is of none other than Mr. Vlad G.

I went to an Angels game last year (against the Tigers) and loved ever minute of it. Really like the stadium and the Rally Monkey is definately a guilty pleasure of mine. I’ve actually always like the Angels for some reason. They were way out there in California and seemed mysterious, I guess. I used to know every player on the team back in the days of the greatest pitching staff to completely suck ass and never live up to expectations. I’m talking about Chuck Finley, Jim Abbott, Mark Langston,......oh crap, I’m losing it. I can’t think of the other pitchers. Oh well, I’m sure you know who I’m talking about.

Anyway, just had to say ‘hey’.

Peace.

by Tackle Box on Jun 11, 2008 5:27 PM CDT up reply actions

Name

I was trying to think of a cool name for the Halo Heaven SB Nation site. I thought of Vlad. Then I remembered Vlad the Impaler (aka Dracula). I figured Vlad looks like he is going to impale the ball with his bat.

I go back to Fregosi and Knoop (Angels), Gabriel, Josephson, Snow, and the Fearsome Foursome (Rams), Jerry West and Co. (Lakers). Just a weee little leaguer at the time in LA. That is when I chose my favorite teams: Angels Rams Lakers. Never have had a second favorite team. Moved out of California at age 12, but always kept the same teams.

Angels Defense. Angels Pitching. Get past that.

by vladtheimpaler on Jun 12, 2008 3:37 AM CDT reply actions