"Don't Blame Vick "

This originally was going to be a column, ho hum, about Roger Federer winning the Masters Cup title in Shanghai. For the record it was his twelfth title of the year and pushed his earnings over the eight million dollar mark for the season. Pretty much all you need to know about Shanghai is that Andy Roddick played the best match he has ever played against Federer and still lost. Rafael Nadal was dismissed in two close sets. The same result for Ivan Ljubcic. In the final James Blake looked good in warmup, then they started playing points for real and that was all she wrote for Blake. So much for that.

Now on to Michael Vick. I'm sure most every football fan has seen the footage of Vick walking off the field and flipping the booing Atlanta fans the bird. Not the "dirty bird" of glory years past but the good old middle finger we all know what it means bird. The fans have a right to boo whomever they want, they paid the money for their tickets. My only question is, are they booing the right man? Vick wasn't the one being burned for a 76 yard touchdown pass on the third play of the game. That would be DeAngelo Hall. Vick wasn't the one mistiming his leap and allowing the Saints to score on a "Hail Mary" pass on the last play of the first half. Again, that would be DeAngelo Hall. Vick wasn't the one who dropped an easy touchdown pass (even Vick is not fast enough to throw it and catch it). That would have been Roddy White. Vick was the one who stayed in the pocket to take the hit to put the ball in White's hands though. The Falcons knew that Vick was not going to light up the league with a high percentage of passes completed when they drafted him. But here's a novel idea. How about trying to catch the passes that he does throw well. How many passes have been dropped this season? 20? 30? Maybe more than that. Granted, Vick's still going to make some stupid plays, he's still going to fumble with the way he carries the ball while scrambling. He's still going to throw some bad balls. But if Joe Horn can catch the ball one handed while falling out of bounds surely the Falcons can find someone to catch it when Vick puts it right in both of their hands.