Sure this Cowboys-Eagles game is entertaining, but why do I suddenly have the urge to loot the Spanish West Indies? That’s Eagles tight end Brent Celek there striking a pose, with the help of teammate Jason Avant following Celek’s TD reception on Sunday night. Guzzlers of fine rum recognized it immediately as the Captain Morgan pose. But why did Celek do it? And why didn’t Avant get on his hands and knees and act as the barrel?

Turns out it was stealth advertising snuck in by the booze company, in cahoots with Celek, with proceeds going to charity. The NFL of course was not amused, and has vowed to hunt down all such advertising pirates and hang their heads from the yardarm. Read more…

There’s been plenty of talk lately about the NFL doing more to protect officials who find themselves in harm’s way during games.

(Key to the whole thing is the hat flying off)

Strapping helmets on may help, but what about those pesky white lines?

Video after the jump. Read more…

Roger Goodell probably didn’t expect The Spanish Inquisition when he went to The Hill on Wednesday for a hearing entitled “Legal Issues Relating to Football Head Injuries.” But that’s what he got, courtesy of Steve King of Iowa (R-Nuts), who used it as an opportunity to grill Goodell on his opposition to Rush Limbaugh as a part-owner of the Rams.

But when the dust had settled from King’s attack, it was time for Rush himself to comment on the proceedings via his radio show. And that’s when the conservative talk host did a most remarkable thing: He took a page from the Barack Obama playbook. What? Has Rush Limbaugh become a liberal softy? See the quote and judge for yourself. Read more…

Suppose - just suppose - there were a “7 Restaurant” that popped up in the middle of Virginia, just about 100 miles from where Michael Vick went to college at Virginia Tech. Also, just suppose there are pictures of Vick on the wall. And jerseys of his. It wouldn’t take too much of a leap in logic to assume it’s his restaurant, right?

Ah, not so. First of all, thanks to bankruptcy, he doesn’t have any money. Further, the restaurant was indeed started by a standout Virginia Tech Hokie from that 2000 runner-up team, but that would be Andre Kendrick, not Vick. Incredibly, according to DIGITALCITY.COM, Kendrick and his co-owner say the restaraunt’s name has “no association” with Vick. Thank God; there’s no telling what the menu would look like.

Read more…

One might think that Michael Vick protesters and Oakland Raiders fans would be natural allies — the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and so forth. But one would be wrong. Animal rights advocates and Raider Nation angrily went at each other outside of the Coliseum on Sunday prior to the Eagles game, almost coming to blows.

Yeah, lost in all the commotion over the Raiders’ unlikely 13-9 victory over Philadelphia, we almost forgot that it was Vick’s first NFL road game since returning from his federally mandated vacation. So the Bay Area group In Defense of Animals had organized a little welcoming committee, with about 30 people on hand to protest Vick’s refusal to visit some of his rescued pit bulls, which are now being rehabilitated by the organization. Read more…

Yesterday, during Oakland’s somewhat surprising upset of the Philadelphia Eagles, a stray pigeon found a moment of fame when it landed on the field before a kickoff, then provided as real an approximation of kickoff coverage as you’ll ever see a bird demonstrate. Video - which we can’t believe hasn’t been taken down yet - is after the break.

(Oh sure, he looks harmless now…)

Normally, it’s not exactly big news when an animal gets onto the field; sometimes,  play is halted while players and staff shoo the animal away, sometimes we just ignore it. And sometimes Dave Winfield kills it for fun. But the Oakland Football Pigeon wanted to be part of the game, and a giggling Sam Rosen and Tim Ryan were all too happy to share in the moment.

Read more…

One of the odder stories of the past couple of weeks concerns Michael Vick and his amazing disappearing Nike contract. What exactly possessed Vick’s endorsement agent, Blue Equity Sports Television Managing Director Mike Principe, to announce this past Wednesday that Vick “just became a Nike client” and “has a new deal” with the company?

Could it have been a way of testing the waters; a “What if?” type scenario to see if the villagers would take up pitchforks and boycott Nike products if Vick reentered their orbit? Or is Nike simply paying Vick under the table to wear their stuff, thus avoiding the wrath of PETA? Read more…

For as feel-good a story as this whole Michael Vick thing might be (a relative interpretation of the term, that), let’s not lose sight of one fact: the man owes an unholy amount of money. Even the lawyers trying to figure out how much he owes in bankruptcy have requested $2.6 million of their own, which doesn’t make sense until you realize that leprechauns who sell cocaine are a business expense. As for the more obvious clingers-on, well, you know where this story goes.

(Let’s not trust this man around your valuables and bank accounts just yet.)

So even as Vick collects his Eagles paychecks and thanks his lucky stars he doesn’t have to work construction to make his money (like he told a federal judge), it turns out that even being in court has its own debilitating costs. Oh, like you’ve never been told by a judge to pay your own pension plan over $400,000.

Read more…

You’ll recall yesterday that we passed along the announcement from the SPORTS BUSINESS JOURNAL’s “Sports Sponsorship Symposium” that Michael Vick had reached an endorsement deal from Nike. It was a bit of a shock, all things considered, but it’s not the first time Nike’s given one of their athletes a second chance after a PR disaster (see Bryant, Kobe).

(Still not yours.)

But yes, about that. Nike’s spokesperson, Kejuan Williams, decided to clear this morning. According to Darren Rovell at CNBC, Williams and Nike declared unequivocally that Vick, in fact, has no endorsement contract with Nike.

So where did the snafu come from?

Read more…