Eagles players honor Michael Vick with award for courage

by Chris Chase

According to Philadelphia Eagles players, the most courageous man on the team in 2009 was one who started the year serving time in prison for an act of extreme cowardice.

Today, the Eagles announced that Michael Vick was the 2009 winner of the Ed Block Courage Award, an honor given to a player who shows courage in the face of adversity. Vick's teammates voted for the award, thus demonstrating how tone-deaf and out-of-touch NFL players are with reality.

According to the Ed Block Courage Award Foundation Web site:

Each year, the Ed Block Courage Awards honors those National Football League players who exemplify commitments to the principles of sportsmanship and courage. Recipients are selected by their teammates for team effort, as well as individual performance.

The Ed Block Courage Award recipient symbolizes professionalism, great strength and dedication. He is also a community role model.

One recipient is selected from each NFL team, usually for things like coming back from injury, doing good work in the community or long, dedicated service to a franchise. I'd be surprised if the award's founders intended for the honor to be given to someone doing community service as part of the terms of his parole or for showing courage in the face of reporters asking legitimate questions about federal crimes.

The Eagles' vote is not only a slap in the face to the Ed Block Courage Award Foundation, but to the other 31 players who won the award for their respective teams. Some men are truly deserving of the honor, like Ravens safety Dawan Landry(notes) who was nearly paralyzed last year, but has come back in '09 with four interceptions and a touchdown or Mike Furrey(notes) of the Browns, who does extensive volunteer work in his community. Adding Vick's name to the roll makes the award seem illegitimate and meaningless.

Apparently Philadelphia players confuse Vick handling dogfighting questions and booing with a measure of class as some sort of courage. That Vick only got a chance to show this mild courageousness because of the extreme cowardice it takes to murder helpless animals isn't something that crosses their mind. They confuse Vick's desperation with some sort of integrity.

I'm all for second chances and find myself rooting for Vick to redeem himself both on and off the football field. He's served an appropriate sentence (and then some) and I see no reason for him to keep paying for his past transgressions. But I also see no reason to celebrate his character.

Michael Vick(notes) is very much a work in progress. A few years from now, I hope he will be deserving of such an honor. At this time, however, he has only just started down the path to redemption.

The Best Tech Deals after holidays

The Best Tech Deals After the Holidays

2009’s Top After-Season Sales and Bargains

By Nick Mokey, Digital Trends

Photo: Getty Images

Courtesy of countless post-holiday retail and online sales, Dec. 26 can be the one you score an incredible after-season deal. With consumers gorged to their limits and stores still chock full of overflowing merchandise, retailer desperation reaches a peak, and discounts can easily outstrip the pre-Christmas sales.

Looking to use this opportunity to snag that shiny new smartphone, laptop or HDTV? We've compiled tips to help post-holiday binge shoppers stuff their empty stockings full of today's hottest gadgets and futuristic accessories for a fraction of what they would have cost as little as 48 hours sooner.

Shop smart — buy the gadgets and consumer electronics everyone else isn't.
After-holiday sales typically depend on desperate retailers trying to unload stock that didn't move before Christmas. While that means you won't find hot items that sold out early (i.e. Barnes & Noble's Nook eReader) suddenly under deep discount, you can discover plenty of great deals on equally exciting high-tech gifts that others may have overlooked.

"Look for products in categories that haven't been selling as well, for example desktop PCs or digital music players without Apple or iPod on the box," says Digital Trends' own technology analyst Scott Steinberg. He also recommends keeping an eye on highly-competitive categories where prices reliably drop just weeks after a new product comes out, like CDs, DVDs, video games and Blu-ray discs. In addition, Ben's Bargains' content manager Ken Hoo says that sales of navigation systems have reached a standstill this year, leading to superior pricing for today's shoppers.

Look to retail stores for premium discounts.
Online stores offer many of the best deals in the run up to the holidays, but afterward, brick-and-mortar stores face far more pressure to move stock from their cramped aisles.

Call ahead to make sure retailers carry the item you're looking for. In addition, don't quit looking just because you've found the right item at a single outlet. Even if you end up finding multiple vendors that offer the same price, some retailers offer added perks like free delivery, complementary accessories (e.g. carrying cases and magazine subscriptions) and cash back in the form of store gift cards.

Hoo also believes that traditional retailers offer shoppers the best shot at deals in the days following Christmas, but urges them to buy with caution. Many clearance items may take the form of returned items, factory models or refurbished goods, which aren't always in the same shape they originally arrived at the store in.

Use the Web and online resources to discover the best deals.
Even if you don't utilize the Web to purchase high-tech gadgets and appliances, it's imperative that you seek out its wisdom when doing supporting research. Picking the right bargain isn't as hard as it sounds, with an endless variety of user-friendly deal-hunting sites and resources at your fingertips. These tools can help you cut through the clutter, find the best savings, and know what you're getting yourself into long before ever setting foot inside a local retailer.

Begin shopping the day after Christmas.
You're best off braving stores the day immediately after Christmas, when sales will be going on strong, but shelves won't yet be entirely picked over. "Retailers are not going to wait," says Hoo. "They want to have all these sales out there where they're ripe for the taking."

Steinberg agrees that sharp consumers will act immediately. "Rather than wait until the New Year to shop, you'll find better deals in that window after Christmas and before January," he says. From a retailer's perspective, that's the magic hour to sell, sell, sell, before year-end accounting books swing shut like jail cell doors on the first of January. If you can hold back from buying before Christmas, that's when retailers are going to try to goose those numbers, and if you're there to help them, you stand to be handsomely rewarded.

Don't wait for "the next big thing."
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in early January is Ground Zero for announcements on an array of next-generation gadgets that manyk shoppers hope will push down prices on current-gen goods. Don't be fooled, however: These unveilings won't deflate current market values anytime soon. Unless the item is question is about to ship or presently hitting store shelves, current prices won't budge.

"These announcements let people know that certain devices will be coming, but usually prices will only drop after a product is actually released," says Hoo. "That's when vendors want to start clearing older models out."

Says Steinbert: "Smart shoppers will hit the ground running and take advantage of post-season sales to stretch their holiday cash further. Act now or forever hold your gift card..."

Source: http://shopping.yahoo.com/articles/yshoppingarticles/318/the-best-tech-deals-after-the-holidays/