–President Obama, Cambridge, Mass., police Sgt. James Crowley and Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. are planning a “beer summit” together at the White House in a public attempt to smooth over the hard feelings from Gates’ arrest and Obama’s remarks, but now people are getting worked up over which beer Obama will drink.  An excellent example of how hard it is to get anything done in this country.

–New research out of London is suggesting that organic food isn’t any better than ordinary food.  The study finds that organic meals aren’t healthier after all, though they do seem to increase your eyesight, making it easier to look down your nose at those who don’t eat it.

–According to some new reports and statistics from the Good Sam Club (an RV owners community) lots of folks are cutting ties to everything and living out of their RV’s exclusively while they just drive around the country with no job and no real possessions outside of what they can fit in the RV. They’re called “full-timers,” but if the economy were normal they’d be called “gypsies.”

–The House of Representatives passed a resolution on Monday to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Hawaiian statehood by a vote of 378-0.  This resolution included additional language to officially recognize President Obama’s birthplace and confirm his U.S. citizenship.  Wait . . . isn’t that second part an earmark?

–According to a post on Yahoo’s music news channel, plenty of season 8 American Idol contestants that didn’t make the cut are claiming the show “is in fact rigged, and that its contracts are unfair to contestants.”  Nooooooo.  You’re kidding.  What’s next? Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs?

–Breaking news this week about Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz testing positive for performance enhancing drugs in 2003 . . . two more reasons to watch the NFL.  Yeah, I know those guys are on ‘roids too, but in football you can break people in half so ‘roids are totally acceptable.

–Thanks to the gift of social networking, airline companies are going out of their way to befriend people on sites like Twitter, using the medium to spread the word about offers and even have friendly dialogue, but I’m not fooled.  What kind of friend charges me money to help carry luggage?  “Hey buddy, can I help you carry that?  20 bucks.”

–Despite cutting off funding for the F-22, Congress is still trying to give the Pentagon $6.9 billion worth of ordnance that the Pentagon doesn’t want.  Sigh . . . alright, fine!  I’LL take the money.

–Joey Alfino, Red Editorial Staff

With the dog days of August upon us, keeping out of the heat becomes a priority. The stifling warmth banishes any thoughts of cooking on the grill most days, making cold food a perfect alternative to sweating it out over the coals.

As the central location for many a fine feast for friends and family, there is a certain level of expectation visitors seem to have when it comes to food at our house. As a culinary professional, telling someone we are doing cold for supper usually garners a wince or two.

My guests are always expecting the most from our cooking efforts and cold food just doesn’t pack the punch grilled ribeye does. That hesitation usually vanishes when dinner is served and some incredibly flavored salads hit the table utilizing home grown basil blended into pesto.

Along with rosemary, a prolific grower, and a few other smaller herbs, the basil has taken over parts of the garden. After a few false starts with over watering, a few crops attacked by giant mutant grasshoppers that my husband takes great pride in blasting with a pellet gun and a time or two the birds have delighted in basil seeds, the crop is growing and spreading furiously, making pesto a great way to use it up.

In addition to the usual basil pesto seen in Italian restaurants the world over, other herbs can be blended into pesto style sauce. Cilantro, when blended with tomato, garlic, jalapeno and olive oil makes a great sauce to serve chilled over grilled fish or chicken.

Parsley, blended with olive oil, garlic, vinegar and other ingredients becomes a version of chimichurri sauce. Even sun dried tomatoes, blended with basil, walnuts, olive oil and parmesan cheese can be used like a pesto in both hot and cold preparation.

As with all dishes, ingredients should be fresh. Basil leaves should be vibrant green with no brown. Stems should not be used in the pesto but can be added to olive oil to make it both fragrant and add some flavor to it. Basil pesto can be held refrigerated for a few weeks without a huge impact on its flavor.

To give the pesto a vibrant green color, as it loses some color in the blending process, blanching a few tablespoons of spinach and adding it to your sauce will give it that great green color back.

Cook’s Notes: Well, it’s been established I’m a lazy entertainer, but for some reason, people keep coming back for more. My secret is supremely fresh ingredients served in a simple manner. One of my secrets is this basic homemade pesto sauce.  My basil continues to grow rampantly all over my herb garden like wildfire so it’s time to take a whack at it . . .

The best thing about this fresh and classic pesto recipe is that from one tub of pesto, you can make several dishes that make you look like a gourmet rock star. The other great thing about this recipe is you can freeze this pesto in ice cube trays so next winter, you can pop out the pesto for a warming pasta dinner in January!

Classic Basil Pesto Recipe
4 cups fresh basil
½ plus ¼ cups good quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/3 cup pine nuts
2 garlic cloves
½ cup Parmesan Reggiano, the best you can afford
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Zest from ½ a lemon

Blend basil, ½ cup olive oil, pine nuts and garlic in a blender. (A blender makes a smoother pesto than a food processor) Add the parmesan cheese, lemon zest and salt and blend again until smooth. Pour into a small bowl and drizzle about a ¼ cup of more olive oil on top. Chill the pesto until you are ready to use.  Hint: You can substitute the pine nuts with walnuts or almonds for a twist.

Pesto Vegetable Caprese Pasta Salad
serves 4-6
4 sliced vine ripened tomatoes, sliced into chunks
1 log of fresh mozzarella sliced into chunks
1 red onion, slice thin
2 cups cooked penne, cooked al dente
1 orange pepper, sliced or cut into chunks
½ cup fresh basil pesto
Shavings of fresh parmesan
½ cups toasted pine nuts

Take the tomatoes, mozzarella, red onion, penne pasta, orange pepper, pine nuts and mix in a salad bowl. Drizzle the pesto onto the vegetables and pasta then toss lightly. Sprinkle toasted pine nuts and then shave fresh parmesan on top.  Serve chilled.

Walnut Pesto Salad
Serves 4-6
½ cup walnut pesto
½ box cooked Rotini or spiral-type pasta
1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
½ cup chopped sundried tomato
½ cup chopped walnuts
½ cup chopped feta cheese
½ cup chopped fresh flat leaf Italian parsley

Make the classic basil recipe but substitute walnuts for the pine nuts. This makes a delicious walnut pesto. Mix this walnut pesto in a salad bowl with the pasta, pepper, sundried tomatoes, walnuts, feta cheese and parsley.

–Shelly Connors, Red Editorial Staff

–Sir Bobby Robson has died of cancer, aged 76. A much loved gentleman of the sport, Robson guided the likes of Ipswich Town, PSV Eindhoven and Barcelona to success. His England side reached the semi-finals of the 1990 World Cup, but lost to West Germany on penalties. May the great man rest in peace.

–John Terry has revealed that he has the ear of Chelsea’s owner, Roman Abramovich. So why, if he has a hotline to the top man, did it take Terry five weeks to confirm he was staying at Chelsea and rejecting a move to Manchester City?

–Former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has confirmed he’d like to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United. But the self-styled Special One admitted: “United have to consider if they want me.” How unlike Mourinho to suggest a club might not want him.

–Harry Redknapp wants to bring prolific striker Klaas Jan Huntelaar to Tottenham from Real Madrid. That’s a Dutch international, in a World Cup year, who craves Champions League football. You sense Spurs found their level with the striker they have signed, Peter Crouch.

–What a week it’s been in F1. Happily, Felipe Massa is recovering well from that horrific accident at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Intriguingly, Michael Schumacher will drive for Ferrari while Massa recovers. The Valencia race on August 23 will be the seven-time world champion’s first Grand Prix for three years.

–Plenty of rugby fans will get to see live action when England host the 2015 World Cup. Many games will take place at high-capacity football grounds, such as Wembley, the Emirates and Old Trafford. It may be a snub for some of the old rugby stadiums, but at least the game is being taken to the people.

–Opener Phil Hughes has been rebuked by the Australian team’s management for leaking on Twitter that he’d been dropped for the third Test. The 20-year-old has shown during this Ashes tour just how much he has to learn.

–Rob Wightman, Red UK Senior Sports Writer

This last week changed the face of MMA for a long time to come; as Affliction had to close their promotions department due to a failed drug test by one of the headline fighters.

But is it the beginning of the end for all MMA?

Yesterday, I sat in front of my TV waiting for coverage of Fedor Emelianenko’s press conference.  The big story I was hopping for was the announcement that the big man signed with the biggest promotion (UFC).  Instead, all I got was the announcement that Fedor will headline in an EA sports MMA video game and that his manager, Vadim Finkelchtein, had not yet reached a deal with the UFC for the same reasons that seem to haunt every rumour between Fedor and the UFC: Co-promotions.

Vadim Finkelchtein is also the CEO of M-1 Global, another competitor with the UFC.  Since he is also the Russian behemoth’s manager he won’t allow Fedor to fight in the UFC without having his company’s name married to the UFC’s in a cross promotion.

The UFC on the other hand has worked too hard to build their brand to marry it with some second rate promoter’s for the sake of one fighter.

Notwithstanding the fact that a fight between Brock Lesnar and Fedor Emelianenko could possibly be one of the highest grossing fights of all time, it would also solidify the question of an UNDISPUTED WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION and finally MMA could possibly begin to solidify their presence in professional sports alongside the Premiereship, the NFL, and NASCAR.

So where does yesterday’s press conference leave the world of MMA?  It leaves us, the fans, frustrated by the fact that the argument of a true heavyweight champion may never be settled.  Why?  Because as long as unscrupulous managers and promoters continue to try to hold the UFC hostage, the sport can never truly move forward and take its place on top of the world of sports.

Meanwhile, tomorrow (Friday), Dana White is scheduled to hold a press conference to re-issue the card for UFC 104, comment on Affliction’s downfall and the dealings with Fedor and M-1 Global.  Don’t hold your breath or expect to see any miraculous changes in anyone’s attitudes.  You’re more likely to see Dana step into the ring with Vadim Finkelchtein than you are to see him bend on the idea of cross promotions.

–Ryan Matwiy, Red Editorial Staff

If I have learned anything from the countless horror movies I’ve watched over the years it’s this; the machete-wielding masked psychopath is never really dead.

Not if he’s been stabbed or shot multiple times, drowned, burned–whatever–and just when the music goes all soft and happy, he jumps out again and dragging our starlet away with a blood-curdling, slow-motion scream.

The same seems to be true of baseball’s now infamous “list.” No matter if it were supposedly confidential or anonymous, allegedly destroyed or illegally seized by the government, as the Players Union contends, it just won’t go away.

In case you’ve been living with your eyes shut and ears plugged, the “list” is the results of Major League Baseball’s 2003 drug test to determine the extent of the performance enhancing drug use in the game. The results came back positive for 104 current and former big-leaguers and MLB reacted placing a 50-game ban for a first positive test, 100-games for the second and a lifetime ban for a third.

But the 2003 results were supposed to be confidential and ultimately destroyed by MLB. They weren’t, and one name after another came to the surface, implicating some of the greatest players of this generation in connection with PEDs.

The list took its first victims back in February when Barry Bonds’ (shocker) and Alex Rodriguez’s names were leaked. Bonds is currently facing perjury indictments and A-Rod has since admitted use, apologized (while blaming his cousin) and is currently hitting .251 with 19 homers for the first-place Yankees.

Next on the chopping block was dreadlocked slugger Manny Ramirez, who also tested positive in May for a banned female fertility drug and served a 50-game suspension.

Slammin’ Sammy Sosa was nailed in June and quickly forgot English again, declining to comment.

Thursday morning the list struck again when lawyers (go figure) with knowledge of the results leaked another big name: Boston’s David Ortiz.  And the game suffers yet again.

The steroids era has already destroyed the reputations of some of this generation’s best players and tarnished some of the greatest accomplishments and feats in the game’s history.

Now with Ortiz (who along with Manny formed one of the greatest hitting tandems ever) among the accused, the Red Sox’s 86-year World Series drought which ended in 2004 is brought under scrutiny, as well as their 2007 title.

Just how big a role did the “juice” play in the greatest comeback in sports history when Boston beat New York 4-3 in the ALCS after losing the first three games? What about Manny’s MVP-worthy 7-17, one homerun performance in the four-game sweep of the Cards? Just how many more black-eyes can baseball take?

I don’t know, but one thing is for sure–the list is not dead. If I were Mark McGuire or Roger Clemens or one of those yet to be named, I’d be sleeping with the lights on.

–Aaron Whitebread, Red Editorial Staff

Following news that Michael Schumacher is to make a sensational return to F1, the question is: can the legendary German driver still compete at the top?

It is nearly three years since Schumacher quit racing, bringing an end to a glittering career in which he was crowned world champion no less than seven times.

Schumacher, who has been working for Ferrari as an advisor of late, has agreed to help out the team by standing in for the injured Felipe Massa.

He will return to the grid in next month’s European Grand Prix and stay until Massa is fit enough to make a comeback.

Clearly, Schumacher’s manager, Willi Weber was out of the loop when discussions between Ferrari chiefs and his client were taking place.

Just 24 hours before the announcement was made, Weber insisted that all talk of Schumacher returning to F1 was well wide of the mark.

He said: “Whoever sits in the car at the next race in Valencia, it will not be Michael Schumacher. I am not 100 per cent sure; I am 200 per cent sure.”

Oops. What a shame, Willi, you could have cleaned up at the bookies if you’d have been in the know.

F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone is one figure in the sport who has expressed doubts over whether Schumacher can make an impact on his return.

There is no doubt that the 40-year-old will need to undergo a punishing fitness regime to get himself ready for the rigours of F1.

If Schumacher does make a successful return to action, will he be tempted to continue?

The likelihood is that he will compete as fiercely as he did before in the hope of standing on the podium once again.

Mission accomplished he will then hand the car (hopefully undamaged) back to Massa once the Brazilian has recovered.

The F1 scene has changed in the last few years but don’t bet against Schumacher giving some of his younger rivals a run for their money.

–Nick Johnson, Red U.K. Editorial Staff

Chicago Cubs: Amazingly, the Cubs are very much still alive, and ready to buy, buy, buy. Unfortunately for Cubbie fans, though, there isn’t just one area in obvious need of improvement: there are four–starting pitching, hitting, bullpen and defense.

The fact the Cubs are in it at all after their miserable May and June is a testament to just how much money they’ve spent the past few seasons, but they’re going to have to take on even more salary if they want to have a realistic chance of beating the vastly improved Cardinals and winning their third straight NL Central title.

How about an outfield bat? Alfonso Soriano, Kosuke Fukudome and Milton Bradley comprise one of the most expensive outfields in all of baseball, but also one of the lightest hitting and most defensively challenged ones, too.

Former Marlin Josh Willingham or current Marlin Jeremy Hermida would both be perfect, low cost fits. Neither are defensive dynamos, but both have lively bats, and would be upgrades over either Reed Johnson or Milton Bradley as a fourth outfielder (and Hermida could be effectively platooned with his left-handed bat–something Bradley now lacks).

When it comes to pitching, Ted Lilly, Ryan Dempster and Rich Harden are all question marks going forward, and former lights-out setup man Carlos Marmol is leaving them on a lot more in 2009.

Jarrod Washburn would be the perfect fit on the North Side of Chicago–he’s healthy, eats innings for breakfast and induces plenty of groundballs.

The bullpen? Three words: Michael Wuertz reunion.

Philadelphia Phillies: As you’ve surely heard by now, the Phillies have already bought–the Indians’ Cliff Lee and Ben Francisco will be ringing the Liberty Bell on a daily basis now.

Both are great pickups–but not the one the Phillies had to make.

Truly, it is inconceivable that the team didn’t buy the best pitcher in baseball, Roy Halladay, when they were given absolutely every chance to.

Lee, of course, is a magnificent pitcher, and a great addition to a team hoping to win a second-straight World Series. But he’s also had only two and a half good seasons, is a lefty (something the Phillies have plenty of), and like Halladay, on the wrong side of 30.

Halladay has been the consensus best pitcher in baseball over the last five seasons, and when you have the chance to acquire a player like that for no high impact major leaguers and some unproven minor leaguers, you damn well do it.

Kyle Drabek may indeed one day be a great major league pitcher, but unless the Phillies are the luckiest team in the world, he probably won’t be half the pitcher Roy Halladay is. Now, in order to ever even have an appreciated career in Philly, he’s going to have to be–which just isn’t possible.

It’s funny–in a roundabout way, the Phils have now ensured Drabek will never be able to live up to the hype in Philadelphia, and likely have to leave one day anyway. So the team might as well have made it happen when they had the chance to get the best player in baseball in return.

San Francisco: The Giants are the rare team that is actually one player away. If they add just one more bat, even Freddy Sanchez, with Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain leading the way, they will have enough offense to wheez into the playoffs as the wild card.

Milwaukee: Stranger things have happened, but being two games under .500 while your two main rivals just got a lot healthier (Chicago) and a lot better (Cardinals getting Matt Holliday), doesn’t make your chances look too good. Stand pat.

Cincinnati: The Reds are reportedly still pursuing Scott Rolen–sounds like they should be pursuing some common sense instead.

Mets: Any move the Amazins could potentially make would be akin to pouring a cup of coffee on a wild fire: it ain’t going to do any good. They should save whatever prospects they have (which can’t be many with Omar Minaya at the helm), and wait till next year–you know, like the Mets do every year.

–Patrick Daugherty, Red Editorial Staff

Born in Highland Park, Michigan and raised in Detroit, Tim Meadows studied television and radio broadcasting at Wayne State University and then went on to perform improvisational comedy at the Soup Kitchen Saloon.  Moving to Chicago in 1985, Meadows joined ImprovOlympic and then the comedy troupe Second City, known for their high wire improv skits.

Currently Meadows plays Paul DuFrayne, the decidedly unique next-door best friend on TBS’s The Bill Engvall Show, now in its third season. Meadows talked to Red about the new season, his character, and since he plays a hair replacement specialist on the show, his hair.

What can the audience expect with new season and your character?

They can expect more family stuff.  It’s away from work and more with the kids, Bill and myself.

What is endearing about the show?

Bill.  People love Bill.  Audiences love him.  It’s comfortable watching him. It’s like The Cosby Show back in the day.  It’s not edgy, but real and likeable.  I would watch it with my kids, and I have.

What are some of the challenges in making the show?

Learning my lines is my biggest challenge this year.  My part has gotten bigger.  I used to do one scene a week and now it’s three or four a week so there’s more to learn.

Explain your character as if telling someone who’s never seen the show:

Divorced.  Hair replacement specialist.  Frustrated he’s not dating.  Wonders why chicks don’t dig him since he’s rich.

Speaking of hair, tell us about your hair through the years.

I had an Afro in high school.  A flat top in the early ’90s.  And different variations of dreadlocks.  I’ll fess up to that.

Are there parts of you in your character?

My personal story is not in the script–other than he’s divorced.  But I have kids.  I find dating as frustrating as my character.

You mentioned that sometimes you don’t let your kids watch the show.  Why is that since the show is known for being family friendly?

We’ll watch if the story line is not about my character being divorced.  My kids are six and eight so they understand it’s pretend.  They’ve seen me play a bad guy before but the divorce is too personal.  I don’t want them to think that when my character says something that I’m talking about their mom.

You’ve done a lot of improv and now you’re doing a sitcom.  Do you have a preference one medium over another?

No, but I like improv.  I’m most comfortable with improv.

Is there any improv in The Bill Engvall Show?

There’s no improv during filming–that happens in rehearsal.  It may stay.

Holding the record as one of the longest-running cast members in the history of Saturday Night Live, comedian Tim Meadows created some of SNL’s most memorable characters including Leon Phelps (The Ladies Man) and Lionel Osbourne, host of the fictional public affairs show, Perspectives, as well as impressions of O.J. Simpson, Ike Turner and Sammy Davis, Jr. In addition to The Bill Engvall Show, Meadows is also hosting TBS’s new stand-up comedy series The Very Funny Show which premieres this November.

The series will feature performances by 30 fresh comedic talents, all filmed at the Zanies Comedy Club in Chicago during the comedy festival staged by TBS and Just For Laughs.  Meadows also recently completed filming of Aliens in the Attic with Kevin Nealon and Ashley Tisdale to be released on July 31st.  He is a regular correspondent on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and The Colbert Report.

Tell us about the Very Funny Show.

It’s airing this November.  During the Comedy Festival in Chicago, TBS put 30 comics together and we did a show over two nights.  I emceed it.  It’s like going to see stand-up. The comics are really funny.

What was it like when you first did stand-up before going on Saturday Night Live?

My love of stand-up is from Second City and Improv Olympics in Chicago.  The audience knows we’re going to make it up.  I have nothing to learn.  I get nervous performing scripted material in front of audiences.  I’m nervous asking myself “Why did I pick this profession.”  I know I can do things over, but I want the audience to see it in its perfection.  I’m less nervous with improv  beforehand.

What else do you like about stand-up?

I like playing off other actors.  We’ll all discover something.  And at the end of the night, if it’s not good it’s, “What did you expect?  We didn’t have a script.”

Were you the kind of kid that made everyone laugh?

I was not funny growing up.  I was shy as a kid.  I watched a lot of TV.  My family is most surprised of my profession.  My mom used to tell me to go outside.  One day–I was always a fan of comedy–I came out of the closet.  I was watching Stop Making Sense by Talking Heads and was thinking those guys are artists! And I thought, “I don’t want to have any regrets.”  I walked out of that movie and said, “I’m moving to Chicago.”

What did your parents think when you told them you were moving to Chicago to be in Second City?

My mother and father were happy I was working regularly.  They didn’t know what Second City was, but once they came and saw it, they really liked it.

Who influenced your comedy?

Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Bob and Ray, SNL, Steve Martin, National Lampoon, S.J. Pearlman

S.J. Pearlman? He was my mother’s favorite.

Yeah.  When I like a comedian, I like to learn who they liked. I read S.J. Pearlman was an influence on Woody Allen and then started reading S.J. Pearlman. I liked his style, it was writing from a different era.  I heard that Green Acres was stolen from The New Yorker article by S.J. Pearlman called “Acres in Pain” about moving to New York.

Do you have any advice for people wanting to break into the business?

Find what you want to do and stick with it.  Don’t let anyone tell you to stop.  But if you don’t make money in five years–move on.

The Bill Engvall Show can be seen on Saturdays at 9 p.m. (ET/PT).

–Interview by Jane Ammeson, Red Editorial Staff

Regular readers of these blogs will know I hate sitting on the fence–it gives you a sore backside, and all that.

But when it comes to the selection of Ian Bell for the third Test at Edgbaston, which starts tomorrow, I don’t know which way to jump.

Despite averaging 40.59 in 46 Tests, the 27-year old has yet to cut mustard in the heat of Ashes battle.

Back in the day, it was reckoned that anyone averaging over 40 in Tests was a player worthy of his place at that level.

Nowadays, however, 50 is the new 40 for batsmen.

After all, most pitches are batsman-friendly, the boundaries are shorter, and there are few genuinely quick bowlers to separate the Bells from the Ricky Pontings.

And modern bats are, as Australian legend Neil Harvey once put it, “jet propelled”.

To return to statistics, Bell’s against Australia make unhappy reading.

His 20 innings have yielded just 502 runs at 25.10, with a top score of 87.

Okay, Bell isn’t going to be undone by the spin wizardry of Shane Warne or the relentless accuracy and attrition of Glenn McGrath.

Those days are gone.

Still, his presence at number four, in place of the injured Kevin Pietersen, offers the Aussies plenty of hope after their humbling at Lord’s.

And not simply because of Bell’s disappointing record against them.

Bell was dropped after England’s defeat to the West Indies at Kingston in February and has not played a Test since.

Perhaps appropriately, Thursday marks the anniversary of the last time he made a Test half-century–at Edgbaston against South Africa.

Unfortunately, the Warwickshire batsman’s boyish looks and apparently nervous demeanour when under pressure mark him out as a prime target for Aussie sledging.

They’ve nicknamed him “the Sherminator”, for his perceived likeness to the geeky redhead in the American Pie films.

If the Aussies are thus able to get under Bell’s skin, they may exploit a weakness that could undermine England’s entire effort.

But here is the fence-sitting part: who else would you pick?

Of the other candidates, Owais Shah’s six Test innings in 2009 have produced just the one fifty.

And the unlucky Rob Key hasn’t played a Test since January 2005.

So, the real issue facing the England selectors was the lack of credible alternative to Bell, who was effectively chosen by default.

One thing’s for certain. Bell’s contribution at Edgbaston will determine which side of the fence I stand.

–Rob Wightman, Red U.K. Senior Sports Writer

We all know that Michael Vick will end up on a football field again.  What we don’t know is which particular part of the field he’s going to end up on–the sidelines or the line of scrimmage (but we’ve got a pretty good idea).

Regardless, Vick’s conditional reinstatement is going to be an arduous process; one that’s going to move slowly enough without the media turning minutes into minutia every step of the way between now and opening day.

But now that Vick is a free man, now that Vick is rumored to be fielding actual calls from actual teams who are actually interested, we’ve got a new problem on our hands.

Two years ago, everyone and their dogs (literally) wanted Vick as far away from the NFL as humanly possible.  Now he’s done his time, paid his debt, assumed more debt.  Because of this, many are outraged by the second punishment handed down by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to keep him out of games until Week 6 at the latest.

Opponents of Goodell’s mandate say the commish is piling on.  Columnist Howard Bryant, in a wonderful article for ESPN, writes, “The commissioner did nothing compassionate or lenient or even proper. A man just spent two years in a federal penitentiary, but for Goodell–the commissioner of a sport in which a grown man runs around with a ball until someone else tackles him to the ground–doing real, hard time wasn’t enough.”

A fair point to make, but then again, if we’re discussing Vick’s right to do nothing more trivial than run around with a ball, why bother getting so worked up about it in the first place?

Look, forget about the suspension or conditional reinstatement or whatever you want to call it.  The reality of Vick’s situation is this.  He’s cleared to play football for whatever team wants the PR headache involved with signing him, but right now he doesn’t even have a contract or a job to get suspended from.

If he does get a contract, he’s free to attend training camp.  When he gets to camp he’ll have to get back into football shape, learn offenses, compete for a job just like the next guy, and if he gets a spot on a roster he’ll likely be a third string QB (second if he’s lucky).

And then, when the season starts, he’ll just stand on the sidelines while every single network camera will try to spend the regular season breaking a record for most footage shot of a third string QB standing around watching a game.

If Vick were being courted as a starting QB then maybe this would be a big deal, but even if Goodell let him off scot free, it likely wouldn’t increase his playing time.

So the issue here isn’t playing time at all.  It’s money.  NFL players are paid by the game, and Vick can’t get paid for playing “a sport in which a grown man runs around with a ball until someone else tackles him to the ground” while he’s suspended.

But making this argument about money is disappointing, so I’d rather not do it.  Vick’s story now has very little to do with money and more to do with regaining trust–a difficult thing to accomplish if money is the only issue.

So if I were Michael Vick, I’d focus solely on trust for the time being, and pray that I end up with a suspension.

Because “suspension” is better than “unemployed.”

–Joey Alfino, Red Editorial Staff