Steelers MMQB: NFL Offseason News

What We Learned This Week in the NFL Offseason:

• Ravens Ray Rice’s wife deeply regrets the role she played in getting knocked out by Ray Rice
• Michael Vick thinks he can take Jets to the Super Bowl while backing up Geno Smith
• Tampa Bay Bucs want your baby…to be a Bucs fan
• Happy Memorial Day

On Friday, the Baltimore Ravens and Ray Rice provided a pretty good example on how not to address a situation of domestic violence. Rice addressed the media for the first time since his February arrest for assaulting his then fiancé, Janay, in an Atlantic City casino. Surveillance video of him dragging her unconscious through an elevator surfaced and another video showing him punching her in the face unconscious is reportedly in the hands of authorities. Rice entered into a pre-trial diversionary program which will allow him to not only avoid a trial, but also avoid any jail time for the assault. For some reason, Rice decided to publicly address the incident on Friday via a press conference in which he inexplicably apologized to everyone except his wife, and never addressed the video or specifically what he was arrested for. He also did not answer any questions from the media and used some awful choices of words during his conference. The Ravens official team twitter page live tweeted the conference. Some of the most troubling quotes from the event include a since-deleted tweet where Rice was quoted as saying:

"“I won’t call myself a failure. Failure is not getting knocked down. It’s not getting up.” – Ray Rice"

A tweet in which the Ravens didn’t feel was deleteable was where they quoted one of Janay’s few comments.

Rice hasn’t been disciplined from either the Ravens or the NFL as of yet. There is speculation that he will face at least a 3-game suspension but I’ll believe that when I see it.

Last week New York Jets quarterback Michael Vick said that he’s conceding the starting job to Geno Smith and that he knows his role is to be a backup. This week, however, he thinks that he can take the Jets to the Super Bowl. Possibly he’s just talking about chartering a plane or something for the team to travel to watch the game. Vick should know how well making absurd claims works out for a team, considering he was a part of the Philadelphia Eagles “Dream Team” a few seasons ago. Now that he’s a Jet, this is just part of the package. Make an unsubstantiated, overblown claim of how good the team is going to be before the season starts? You’ll fit right in here with the Jets, Vick!

Most of us in Steeler Nation inherited our fandom. We were raised into it since birth. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers seem to be starting a strategy to achieve the same level of fandom for their team. The team launched a program for the month of May to provide free Buccaneers swag to any baby born during the month in the Tampa area.

"“You are never too young to be a fan, and we are excited to welcome the newest generation of Bucs Babies and their parents to the Buccaneer family.”     – Bucs Chief Operating Officer Brian Ford"

Well, that’s one way to go about it. Seems like a good plan to try anything for the Bucs, the state of Florida is notoriously vanilla in their support towards the professional teams.

Happy Memorial Day to everyone! Today we honor those who have served and were unable to come home and enjoy cookouts and three-day weekends. These things are available to us thanks to the sacrifices made by men and women in uniforms.