Thursday, March 13, 2008

The Trade

I mentioned in the comments in this post that I had made a trade with LilKat1. We were looking at my football cards and he said that he wanted to trade me. I asked him which card he wanted and he pointed to the former University of Oregon standout and former Cincinnati Bengal not-so-standout Akili Smith. I tried to make sure that that was the card he wanted. I showed him some other cards that I thought he might like. But his mind was made up and he knew what he wanted. I asked him what he wanted to trade me. He looked through his cards and picked out his fanciest one. A shiny silver Mike Vick card.

Now the whole idea that my son just traded me a Mike Vick for an Akili Smith was quite funny to me. And I decided that I should break down the trade to see who got the better end of the deal:

1) Card Quality
Mike Vick: Shiny silver card, almost like a hologram. But a boring pose, just him holding a ball.
Akili Smith: Glossy black card. Picture is of him going back to throw.
Advantage: Akili Smith. The shiny silver is cool, but doesn't make up for the boring picture.

2) Draft Position
Mike Vick: #1
Akili Smith: #3
Advantage: Mike Vick

3) Trade Value
Mike Vick: Traded for an All Pro running back, a Pro Bowl quarterback, and whatever Tim Dwight is.
Akili Smith: Mike Ditka offered basically a whole draft in trade for him.
Advantage: Akili Smith. But that's just because Ditka is crazy.

4) College Achievements
Mike Vick: Led his team to the national championship game as a freshman. Although his team lost, he singlehandedly made the whole Florida St. team look silly trying to catch him.
Akili Smith: Had good stats in his senior year that made people think he would be good.
Advantage: Mike Vick

5) Pro Football Career:
Mike Vick: 3 Pro Bowls, won a big game over the Packers in Green Bay in the 2002 playoffs. Got a bazillion dollar contract. Got in trouble for making obscene gestures at fans.
Akili Smith: Did poorly in Cincinnati, was released. Released by Green Bay. Tried out with Tampa Bay who sent him to NFL Europe. Did bad there and was cut. Tried playing in the Canadian Football League. Did poorly and was released.
Advantage: Mike Vick

6) What are they doing now
Mike Vick: Got in trouble for torturing dogs. In jail.
Akili Smith: Not in jail.
Advantage: Akili Smith

Well, it looks like it's a tie 3-3. But I'll give Akili Smith the tiebreaker for not being in jail. So LilKat1 comes out slightly ahead in the deal. Good trade by LilKat1.

2 comments:

Brett said...

Are you sure about the Mike Ditka trading a whole draft for Smith? I thought that was Ricky Williams. Did he do it for both players? If not, mabye you got the better of the trade...

BigKat said...

Ditka wanted to trade his whole draft to the Bengals for the #3 draft pick in order to have draft Ricky Williams. So the Bengals chose Akili Smith over the whole Saints draft.