Revenge of the Birds
Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon held his usual Wednesday press conference and discussed injuries, the next opponent, the Green Bay Packers, and made a reference to Michael Vick.
Gannon stated about the Packers:
“Well coached, a really good football team. They got some really elite players in all three phases, so we got our work cut out for us. They generate explosives on offense. Defensively, they don’t give them up. They can rush and cover, and they stop the run well. Offensively, they run it well. Big time challenge that we are looking forward to at home.”
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And while all pressers discuss the next team on the schedule, at this particular one, let’s fast forward to the final question.
Gannon was asked this question:
“Coach, how early in your career did you have to start trying to figure out how to take the emotion out of coaching as far as when you have all these injuries and you have all these different pieces, when’s the first time that you can recall that?”
Without any hesitation, Gannon responded with:
“2007, when our quarterback went to jail.”
Then the coach stood up, and left the interview room. It was dead silent when he left, as each media person in attendance was attempting to absorb what he had just said, and at first, who – or what – he was talking about.
2007? What happened in 2007? Who had any inclination what any of us was doing back then. What car were we driving? Where were we working back then? Did we even have a 401-k started? How many of our children were still at home? Who was the President?
Well, to refresh everybody’s memory, the most watched TV shows were “American Idol,” “Mad Men,” “Dancing with the Stars,” and “CSI.” It was also the first season of “Big Bang Theory.” The biggest movies were “Spiderman 3,” “Transformers,” and “Hair Spray.” A dark horse film that year was “No Country for Old Men.”
George W. Bush was the President.
Gas ranged from $2.24 to $2.97 a gallon. Landlines were still in use as the first iPhone was introduced that year. Facebook and Twitter went global. Google bought YouTube. Nancy Pelosi became the first female Speaker of the House. TAM Airlines flight 3054 crashed. The final Harry Potter book was released. The Virginia Tech massacre.
And speaking of Virginia Tech, former alum Michael Vick pled guilty for his involvement in a dog fighting ring and subsequently spent 21 months in federal prison.
The season before, Vick became the first NFL quarterback to rush for over 1,000 yards in a single season with 1,039 yards. He had already been voted to three Pro Bowls.
Now, in August of 2007, Vick was sentenced to prison. At the same time, the NFL suspended him indefinitely without pay for violating its player conduct policy. He was arraigned in late July. His team, the Atlanta Falcons, sought to recover...
