A few random thoughts before we head in to the weekend:

- Michael Vick is facing a 4th down and 40 at his own 2-yard line. The next time you see him on the football field it will either be in a game of "inmates vs prison guards" or at an Arena Football League game near you. The guy is toast. I love this column and some of the ideas for how Vick can pay his penance. Also some good info here regarding how the Falcons may try to get a good chunk of Vick's signing bonus back.

- How about a little scrimmage......with 105 "amateur" football players from a Division I football program.........at Nike World Headquarters? Shhhhh. Nobody is supposed to know about this.

- Memo to the person/group that purchases the Chicago Cubs this offseason: After you pay about a billion dollars just to purchase the team, you've got some serious player contracts to pay off over the next 5-8 years. The team signed pitcher Carlos Zambrano to a 5-year, $90M contract today. He joins the likes of Alfonso Soriano (in the midst of an 8-year, $136M contract), Aramis Ramirez (in the midst of a 5-year, $75M contract), Derek Lee (in the midst of a 5-year, $65M contract) and Lou Pinella (in the midst of a 3-year, $10M contract) as guys who will be paid some serious jack that will rank the Cubs payroll in the top 5 in all of baseball.

- Dan Patrick does his last radio show for ESPN today before he departs for some company called the Content Factory. In the "brilliant career moves" department this ranks with Michael Jordan's decision to play baseball instead of basketball, Katie Couric deciding to depart the "TODAY" show to anchor the "CBS Evening News" and Luke Perry leaving "Beverly Hills 90210" when the show was at its peak so he could become a "producer" (only to return to the cast of the show a few short years later).

- One of America's most opinionated sports columnists changes addresses this week.

- Classic video courtesy of the Blazers Evangelist. Let's hope that Greg Oden fares better than Bill Walton did during his rookie season indeed.

- And I'll leave you with this hilarious video of Will Ferrell preparing for the upcoming football season. Talk to you on Sports Business Radio this weekend!