Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Tuesday 07/28 Quickie: Vick, Goodell,
LeBron, Pryor, Bowden, Rose, Okafor, More

Michael Vick and Roger Goodell can spin all they want, because the only spinning that counts will be coming from the teams that will consider pursuing Vick.

"Are you thinking about Vick?" will be THE question at training camps, much like "Did you vote for Tebow?" was the question last week at SEC Media Day.

It's an easy storyline for reporters, the fans are certainly curious and -- let's face it -- Vick's return (even if it won't be until Week 6 or beyond, and in a limited role) will be the most prominent (though hardly most intriguing) story of the season.

If you were an owner or GM considering Vick, would you want to be first to announce it? You better have a p.r. plan ready for the vocal detractors -- I'm still pretty convinced that NFL fans, like NFL coaches and owners, just want to win. If Vick will help, they're sold.

(Make no mistake: For fans of the team that has Vick, they will cheer for him, much like Giants fans cheered without compromise -- OK, maybe a little compromise -- for Bonds.)

Or do you wait for the first team to say it, take the p.r. firestorm, then sidle up and quietly learn some lessons and figure out your own deal with Vick?

Anyway, for me, that's the big story about Vick: Who will be the first team to even float their interest, let alone sign him?

Meanwhile, the second most intriguing storyline of the day is this one about the NY Mets beat reporter, Adam Rubin, called out by GM Omar Minaya for asking the Mets GM about a job.

What media person WOULDN'T want to be running a front office? Rubin's cheeky answer should have been: "Have you seen the state of the media industry?" (He could also have added, "At least newspapers aren't the Mets.") (UPDATE: He sort of did, to reporters afterward.)

Learn a lesson from Simmons: Make your candidacy for a front-office job a talking point of your own -- an open campaign -- rather than being defensive about it.

I don't know if Rubin is going to parlay this into 15 minutes of fame -- it likely won't be parlayed into a baseball exec job -- but his colleagues seem ready to jump all over Minaya for "outing" their teammate. And Minaya WAS a fool for bringing it up.

But let's agree that it was inappropriate for Rubin to talk about front-office jobs -- seemingly, how to GET a front-office job, not about front-office jobs as part of reporting -- with the folks he covers.

There's a ton more in today's SN column, including a ton on Big Ten and ACC Media Days, the latest on LeBron's re-signing in Cleveland (ha), the Okafor-Chandler trade, the grand-slam-off between the Cubs and Nats and more.

More later.

-- D.S.

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