Some news tidbits from today.

Henry Gets Honored

CB Anthony Henry was named the NFC’s Defensive Player of the Week today for his performance against the Bears on Sunday.

Henry picked off Rex Grossman twice, returning the second one 28 yards for a touchdown that was the killed off the Bears’ hopes, as it put the Cowboys up 27-10 early in the fourth.

Gramatica Gets Cut

After being on injured reserve for the last few weeks, following the last round of preseason cuts, Dallas released kicker Martin Gramatica yesterday.

Gramatica had been in competition with rookie Nick Folk for the starting placekicker role, but Folk took the lead in the competition with his consistent accuracy, and then Gramatica suffered a hamstring injury in the preseason loss to the Texans, which put him out of commission for the last week of action and handed the job to Folk.

Gramatica came on board last season, after the Mike Vanderjagt experiment ended 11 games into the season, and made six of eight field goals in the last five games of the season, and was a perfect 14 of 14 on extra points.

Gramatica was a third-round pick of the Bucs in 1999, and for a while, had a reputation as one of the most accurate and strong-legged kickers in the game. In his career, which also includes a brief spell with Indianapolis, is 144 of 188 (76.6%) on field goals in his career, with a career-long of 55 yards, and 204 of 206 (99%) on PATs.

Someone Needs a Slap in the Head

A day after Michael Vick gets more charges added on to his dogfighting case, it’s revealed that he tested positive for marijuana in a recent test, and is now even more screwed than he was already.

Vick won’t be able to leave his house between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. (but Mom, why do I have to have a curfew? I’m 27!), and will have to be electronically monitored and subjected to random drug tests.

The failed test happened only two weeks ago, on Sept. 13, so it appears that Vick, as contrite as he appeared to be in his apology, is either incompetent or intent on skirting the rules and restrictions any way he can. How hard is it to lay off the green stuff when you know you have to, not only according to the law, but for the sake of your future? He got out of the water bottle situation, but now that he’s in deep doo-doo already, there’s no getting around this one.

That could cost him when he’s sentenced in December, because if he hasn’t followed the rules in between his indictment and his sentencing, then there’s no real reason to be the least bit soft on him. So, if I were Mike Vick, I’d straighten up very, very quickly, or at least get the Whizzinator.

The additional charges on his indictment may well have seemed a little excessive, considering the potential penalties each individual dog killing carry, but this really isn’t going to help his case either.

Someone, anyone, needs to get in this guy’s ear, and tell him that he’s one misstep away from having zero chance of getting back into football, because you know every little slip he makes, Roger Goodell is taking note of it, and not only that, I don’t think he would be allowed to resume his NFL career as a part of a work-release program.