BTSC Steelers Daily Six Pack- Bam Morris Weighs In On Mike Vick Edition

The Steelers don’t need a guy like Micheal Vick, the whole NFL managed to survive without him. With all the personel problems the league has seen, the Steelers have done a fairly good job of dealing with behavior problems compared to other teams in the league, such as Dallas or New York. Why should the team have to worry about what kind of trouble is this guy getting into next? I feel that if the Steelers sign Vick I will not purchase another Steeler merchandise item, go to another game or watch another game and I love the Steelers, but what Michael Vick did was WRONG

I was not around at the time, 23 years old now. Noll in my opinion should have been higher on this list, on that we agree. But how do you put him above Shula? Shula had a .678 win percentage (172 games over .500), 328 wins (most all time). Don’t get me wrong, Noll was no slouch, boasting a .566 win percentage (45 games above .500) and 193 wins (seventh all time). Noll has a better playoff record (by a nice margin), 16-8 (.667%) to 19-17 (.528%). Numbers aren’t everything, I know. But like I said, I didn’t see either in their coaching prime. I guess that’s why I’m asking.

I have no problem with Noll’s overall placement as it’s impossible to compare across sports. As far as pro football is concerned, he is ranked behind Lombardi, Paul Brown and George Halas which seems about right. Over the last decade of his tenure with the Steelers they missed the playoffs six times and were about .500 overall. There is no way Shula should be No. 5 overall considering how many big games he lost and particularly how unproductive his teams were in the playoffs with Dan Marino at quarterback for more than a decade. I don’t think the Steelers go 4-0 in Super Bowls in the 70s with Shula as head coach instead of Noll, and the last decade of Noll’s career would have been significantly different with Marino at QB instead of the motley crew he had at his disposal.

The real travesty on this list is placing Bill Belichick ahead of Bill Walsh. Walsh took over an inept team and went 3-0 in Super Bowls in his decade as 49ers head coach with an overall record of 102-63-1, then handed over the dynasty to George Seifert for two more SB wins. He was a brilliant innovator who revolutionized offensive football in that era and his influence continues to this day. A number of his assistants also won Super Bowls as head coaches. Walsh was also a very successful head coach in college football. As an individual and as a coach, Walsh was superior to Belichick in every conceivable way.

The Steelers could only protect 29 players in the 1976 expansion draft so even a first-round pick like Brown was expendable. Blount and Thomas were still relatively young and both went to the Pro Bowl that year, so Brown wasn’t going to play much. They did him a favor not protecting him.

Don’t agree that Noll stayed with older players too long. Poor drafting forced his hand in many cases but when the team picked a good player, he contributed pretty quickly. From 1975-90 the Steelers had 36 draft picks in the first two rounds and no more than a dozen could be considered good picks. You can’t replace Hall of Famers with that kind of draft record. It’s actually to Noll’s credit he was able to keep the team competitive.

First of all, I’ve been here speaking for Vick’s side since he was released. Look it up, facts. Secondly, your arguements and how you make your points hurts his side. Calling all these people idiots makes you immediately seem stupid yourself. You can’t win over the other side of an arguement by getting everyone on the other side angry at you, whether you think you can or not.

On to the actual post. No one here let either Plaxico or Stallworth off the hook for what they did. NOBODY. Find one post where someone said what they did was okay, I dare you. In Plax’s case, he acted stupidly… extremely stupidly. Ignorance of the law (which is part of his lawyers arguement) is no excuse. Only harming yourself (which is another one of his lawyer’s “points”) is the saddest excuse in the world. As far as Donte goes, if you look at the facts of the case, how the accident was handled by Donte and what he has done since the accident his punishment is still light, but more understandable. There’s a post on that too. Look for it.

Finally the Vick stuff. First of all, prove to me he made no money off of the dog fights. I’ll give you the benefit of doubt, so prove it to me. Yes, dogs and other animals will fight in nature. But when you train them specifically to do nothing more than fight, put them in rings, let them fight to or near to death, it is a totally different thing. Add to that when they don’t quite die because of the fights themselves, he killed them with his own hands in brutal ways it’s not the same thing. It’s just not. I do agree that he has served his time, paid a hefty price, and deserves a second chance. 100% agreement there. I still haven’t seen proof he’s a better man because of it, but just like your “no financial gains” arguemnet, I’ll give him the benefit of doubt too. Until he proves me wrong.

We’re not ball-less morons here. For the most part we all put together logical arguements for our side. Then through discussion, the objective isn’t to make them agree with us, but understand our side better, and maybe find a middle ground. Arguements like yours, even though I think we agree in general on the actual topic of Vick itself, do not, have not, and will not help us get our point across. Thanks for your opinions, if you’d like to respond to any of this go right ahead (not trying to challenge you to an arguement here, just would like you to elaborate your positions a little better).