Michael Vick

The Lord Taketh Away

Dog Day Afternoon. Evening and Morning, Too.

In Defense of Michael Vick. Sort Of.

Mean Joe Greene Meets Avril Lavigne: Texans-Cowboys from the Press Box

College Football Preview: Week Three

The College Football Preview, Week Seven: Babes. Lots and Lots of Babes.

Michael Vick Gets 23 Months. Too Bad He Didn’t Kill a Human.

Bobby Petrino Heads Back to College

John Royal’s Friends’ Top Twenty Sports Moments of 2007, Part Two

Cock Fight: Pedro Martinez and Juan Marichal Throw a Couple of Chickens into the Ring

Dog Abuse Bad. Cow Abuse Awesome.

Top Ten Things Not to Do at Hooters on Ultimate Fighting Night

Fighting Over Dogfighting Dogs Continues

We wrote Friday about how the Houston SPCA is killing all those dogs who were "rescued" when a major dogfighting ring was broken up recently.The local SPCA is clear that it does not adopt out pit bulls or fighting dogs because it thinks they are harmful. They made an exception of sorts after Hurrica ... More >>

“Proper Listening”

Gregory Michael Carter tackles racism — on his own timeline

Whitey on the Mike

The all-time greatest white-boy rhymes

MARTA Meets Metro

Manufacturing gridiron enmity from scratch

Conference USA's Media Day Perhaps Not As Smooth As It Could Have Been

​"Media days" used to be a big thing in college football; reporters would fly in to town on a pre-determined day before the season and interview coaches and players. In some of the lower-echelon conferences, schools would gather in a central place to make it easier for reporters.Then came financia ... More >>

Houston Music Fight Club: Roky Moon vs. Joe Mathlete, Asli vs. Zahira, Hippie Mike vs. Little Joe

​Last week Rocks Off was mindlessly trolling the Interweb when we stumbled upon a site solely dedicated to animal fights. No, not the awful kind that say, Michael Vick would have been found at a couple of years ago. This site, Wild Animal Fight Club, trafficks in speculative death matches like kom ... More >>

Five Reasons Why Michael Vick Should Play For The Houston Texans

​Michael Vick, the country's most famous dog-fighter, has gotten out of prison and is now a Philadephia Eagle.This is sad for a couple of reasons -- one, we would have liked to have seen how Eagle fans treated Vick when he came in with another team, and two, he's not a Texan.Michael Vick a Tex ... More >>

I Wanna Be Your Dog: Michael Vick's Entrance Music

Keith Allison​The mystery of whether or not Michael Vick would be picked up by an NFL team was solved pretty handily last week, when the Philadelphia Eagles signed him as a backup for Donovan McNabb. The Eagles were able to look past Vick's history of...questionable behavior because they need a re ... More >>

Social Distortion: Stuff Happened, Then Facebook 3.0 for iPhone Came Out

​You know, this week in current events really was a doozy, wouldn't you say?  Senator Ted Kennedy passed on to the crystal Kennedy camp in the afterlife, Dominick Dunne followed in his footsteps (ALERT: Old white dudes with cancer, don't walk under any ladders this week, o ... More >>

Experts Ask The Pressing Question Tonight: Are You Ready For Some Football?

​The NFL season opens tonight. We've already given you our astute and accurate take on the Houston Texans. (9-7, if you must know.) But what about the rest of the league? Do you actually want to sit through all the games, or learn what will happen in the next few grafs?We thought so.So here is how ... More >>

Game Time: 2009 -- A Celebration In....Death?

Every year around this time, it's not uncommon to stumble across a retrospective of some sort that pays tribute to those who have passed away, typically those with some modicum of celebrity status. I'm always amazed at actually how few deaths there are most years. I mean, I'm no actuary, but when ... More >>

Game Time: The Five Most Dominant Performances In A College Football Title Game

The time for talking is almost over, and tonight we'll find out if the shrinking spread on this season's BCS Title game and the last minute rush by some to the Texas Longhorn bandwagon is a harbinger of things to come. Me personally, I think Nick Saban dials up some exotic blitz packages that give ... More >>

Game Time: Roger Goodell To Decide If He Can Punish More Stupidity

This is why they pay Roger Goodell the big bucks. For a commissioner who quickly gained a reputation as a strict disciplinarian after taking over for Paul Tagliabue in August 2006 by throwing suspensions at his league's miscreants like so many nickels and dimes, the decision he makes regarding pun ... More >>

Game Time: Michael Vick -- Why Can't You Just Be A Schnook Like The Rest Of Us?

Trouble just seems to find him​"As far back as I can remember, I've always wanted to be a gangster." -- Henry Hill at the beginning of Goodfellas, when it was all about greed, excess, and privilege"Today, everything is different. There's no action. I have to wait around like everyone else. C ... More >>

LeBron James -- Society Hates You, I Love Society

LeBron: The power is waning​Mankind, I have to say that I was just about to give up on you. I'm a very patient person, but with every kid running around in a Ben Roethlisberger jersey or every nimrod that decides to turn right on Hamilton at the Texas Street intersection next to Minute Maid Park ... More >>

Texans-Cowboys Debacle 2010 -- 5 Winners, 5 Losers

The Texans bombed big-time​In retrospect, we probably should have seen this coming. For all the talk about this being a different Texans team, about the Cowboys coming in as a wounded animal, about Wade Phillips being thrilled about the noon kickoff so he wouldn't miss the early bird special, has ... More >>

Is Chris Brown Officially Unshunned?

Some rappers happen to be thoughtful, intelligent people. Every Monday that isn't a national holiday, Rocks Off will have some of them hear discussing issues relevant to their culture. Photo illustration by John Seaborn Gray​This Week's Panel: Yung Redd, Fat Tony, Thurogood Wordsmith, Kyle Hu ... More >>

NFL & College Football -- Weekend's Best Bets

When it comes to college football, I'm not a staunch traditionalist. I believe the season is more compelling when the longtime powers are strong (Translation: Texas, Florida, Michigan, Notre Dame, and Miami all being mediocre is, to me, a bad thing.), and yet I picked Boise State before the season ... More >>

NFL -- (Really F-ing Weird) Weekend In Review

The Jets' Sal Alosi is trippin'​Admittedly, on Sundays when the Texans are playing, I tend to get engrossed in whatever it is they're doing. I do a radio show in Houston, I talk about Houston sports, and therefore it is most important that I'm well versed in what the Houston did on the field ... More >>

More Rex Ryan, the Ryan Leaf Trilogy & NFL Best Bets

Rex Ryan: Can you smell them from here is the question​Two more shopping days left. I need money. You need money. So let's get to winning. And by winning let's find a way to weave more Rex Ryan "foot fetish" talk into a handicapping discussion. Can we do this? (Can we touch them? Can we sm ... More >>

Top Ten Celebrities This Decade Who Overcame Controversy

The center of all things smarmy and controversial.​Celebrities have money and fame and are constantly surrounded by controversy. Many of them never make it back from a serious legal problem or a major embarrassment. Ask Mel Gibson. Others, however, find their footing and manage to right the s ... More >>

Dogging Michael Vick

Ladies and gentlemen, your Dancing With the Stars 11th runner-up.​I guess someone got tired of playing third fiddle to Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly: While setting up a segment on President Obama's recent telephone call to Jeffrey Lurie, the owner of the Philadelphia Eagles (wherein the pres ... More >>

College Football Bowls -- This Week's Best Bets

The color, the pageantry of college football​Since it's Week 17 of the NFL season, we're changing it up a little bit this week. I don't know about people who actually know what they're doing when it comes to wagering, but my experience with the NFL in Week 17 is that it's a good time to stay ... More >>

NFL & College Football Best Bets -- It's Crime Time

Lennie knows all, eventually​To some of you this may sound obvious, to some it may sound weird, and to some it may sound deplorable -- I wish I had time to watch more television. With the advent of episodic television on cable channels like HBO and Showtime, the ante has been upped and the ne ... More >>

From Bad to Worse: Dallas Gives Michael Vick a Key to the City

Dallas honors Michael Vick, for some unfathomable reason​It has not been an easy week for the city of Dallas. It started with a "once in twenty years"-ish, weeklong snow and ice storm during the one week that Dallas could least afford a snow and ice storm. It continued with sheets of said ... More >>

Kareem Jackson, Cockfighting and Perception

That's entertainment​"Look at all these people that be at these chicken fights, you would think its a college football game." -- Reemboi25 (Kareem Jackson's Twitter handle) Early March is the meaty part of the NFL's offseason relaxation calendar for players. The season has been over for a co ... More >>

My Madden 2012 Cover Ballot

What do you think should go on the cover of Madden 12?​I've said it before, I'm a total sucker for lists. "5 Best This." "8 Worst That." "9 Reasons So-and-so Boned Such-and-such." List it and I'm in. Some will criticize this, and call it a sign of a lazy mind, that I need my world assembled ... More >>

NFL Teams Don't Care That Cam Newton Can't Name A Play

Only one of these guys still has a decent job​Go to Google and put in "2011 NFL mock drafts." I did that this afternoon, and I couldn't find one current edition of a reputable mock draft that didn't have Auburn quarterback Cam Newton as the number one overall pick to the Carolina Panthers. T ... More >>

2011 NFL Preview, Spoken In Wagering-ese

The betting window is open​I hope everyone who has had a chance to check out our Texans 2011 preview "The New Normal" has enjoyed it. Big ups to Monica Fuentes for coming up with the season-long interactive game card tracking Texans' results. You need to go check it out. If you haven't read ... More >>

Houston Texans Game 2 -- 4 Winners, 4 Losers (And A Jennifer Lopez Appearance)

2-0! (again)​I hope everyone had a good weekend of football. I was two plays away from going 6-0 on my picks, my alma mater finally won a game and the Texans are 2-0! On the flip side, college realignment struck a blow in my home part of the country, as the Big East that I grew up with essen ... More >>

Capsule Stage Reviews: Anna in the Tropics, Damaged Divas of the Decades, Ether Dome, Farragut North, Republic Day, Woof

2-0! (again)​I hope everyone had a good weekend of football. I was two plays away from going 6-0 on my picks, my alma mater finally won a game and the Texans are 2-0! On the flip side, college realignment struck a blow in my home part of the country, as the Big East that I grew up with essen ... More >>

Football! This Weekend's Best Bets, A Salute To TV Season Premieres

DWTS = this week's Philly-Giants game?​Television fascinates me. It seems like a new station pops up onto my channel grid every day to the point where I'm actually a little disappointed I haven't been approached by anyone to televise the Sean Network. I mean, doesn't everyone have their own ne ... More >>

Jamie Dukes (Basically) Asks Lindsay Soto To Fondle Him On NFL Network TV

​I'm not sure what the statute of limitations is to make references to Seinfeld and not feel somewhat outdated. My guess is we're past that point, but what the hell. Remember the episode where George is trying to get fired from the Yankees so that he can take a higher paying job with the Mets ... More >>

Capsule Stage Reviews: Anna in the Tropics, Ether Dome, I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change, Republic Day, A Texas Romance, Woof

​I'm not sure what the statute of limitations is to make references to Seinfeld and not feel somewhat outdated. My guess is we're past that point, but what the hell. Remember the episode where George is trying to get fired from the Yankees so that he can take a higher paying job with the Mets ... More >>

Football! Weekend's Best Bets (No, Really!)

Advice even Pacino would love.​I realized something in the last 48 hours. I am a big fan of the Boston Red Sox, which means by sports fan definition, I should be on suicide watch right now. I mean, "my team" just pulled off the biggest September choke in MLB history with a soul crushing ninth ... More >>

John Parr Pays Tribute To Tim Tebow With Tebow-centric "St. Elmo's Fire" Lyrics (w/ VIDEO)

"Gonna be your man in motion...."​In his brief NFL career as the starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos, Tim Tebow has pulled off several feats that border on the miraculous -- a 7-1 run in his first eight games as their starter this season, numerous late-game comebacks, and a win over th ... More >>