Michael Vick (3:40 of video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvlp-sCVKSg

He sounds very humble, but also very coached in what to say. I would love to hear him speak spontaneously.

Donovan McNabb: (About 4 min of video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHPShY2r3jA

Donovan sounds very mature, very accepting and open. Way more mature than the historic Donovan.

Listen to the Vick video especially and tell me he doesn't sound like Robo-Vick.

McNabb sounds really gracious and mellow about the whole thing.

You be the judge.

Went to my in-laws this weekend in Smithfield NC. Went browsing at the outlet mall there, the Reebok store. Picked up a Jon Beason jersey for $41 and change plus tax. The adult size, the one that sells for $80 at the Panther's store. They also had a DeAngelo Williams, Steve Smith, and Peppers jerseys there. Plus a Michael Turner and a bunch more if that's your thing. Not advertising, just got a good deal.

What really floored me is they also had a Joe Theisman jersey there. Would get only if I could burn it or joke-gift it.

Now I gotta get some tix and make my way from Raleigh to get to a few games this year!! Has anybody from the Raleigh area taken the train to the games? How was it? I hate the drive.

I can't wait for football season...

Playing around in Excel, I took a few DE careers, then adjusted it to get the following table normalized for a 16-game season.

Here's what the scribble means:

Tackles mean total tackles, not solo. Interceptions, Forced Fumbles, Passes Deflected. Then I figured each one of those is a "Ball Hawk" - an interruption of some kind, a busted play by the DE. So I added 16-game INT's, FFum's, and PD's to get the "Ball Hawk" figure. So that:

INT+FFum+PD = Ball Hawk

I sorted highest to lowest on total tackles, because a tackle is involvement, getting to the ball. Peppers looks like middle-of the road top-tier until you add up the ball-hawk figure. Note that the taller DE's have more PD's and INT's. Freeney has a low PD figure, but is high on forced fumbles. A shorter guy will be closer to the running ball, a taller guy closer to the flying pass.

Just for fun I added a normalized 16-game Charles Johnson and Everette Brown's normalized numbers at Florida State. Enjoy.

By the way, Strahan set his 22.5-sack season record when he was 30. Peppers is 29 this year and turns 30 in January. Just data.