St. Louis Not So Sainty?

There might be a sequel to the movie, "The Longest Yard." This chapter will take place in eastern Missouri.

According to Michael Lombardi of the National Football Post, the St. Louis Rams have a genuine interest in signing Michael Vick when/if he becomes eligible to play NFL football again. That's not a surprise, the Rams have been collapsing for years and Marc Bulger is one defender's shove away from concussing his head into Troy Aikmanville.

Some team is going to take a risk on Vick. He has served out his sentence and is ready to move on with his life. He might even turn out to be a solid addition since he probably won't expect to be cosseted like many modern day superstar athletes. A prison term and the loss of all your wealth tends to bring a crushing reality to that world.

But the folks in the St. Louis Rams P.R. department have to be wringing their hands because adding Vick to the team would not only add a felon on offense, it would remind football fans that the team still has a felon on the defense.

Defensive end Leonard Little has been with the Rams for over a decade and in that span he has over 300 tackles, 81 sacks, two drunk driving arrests, and one manslaughter charge when Little killed another motorist while driving drunk.

Imagine if you went out one night and partied. You drive home a little drunk and end up killing a woman in a car accident. What do you think your punishment would be? Do you think you might be a little haunted by the accident for the rest of your life, knowing you just murdered someone involuntarily and that there could be a kid/husband/mother who's life just got turned upside down?

Little got 90 days in a work house (during the off-season of course) and 1000 hours of community service. Little spent the next year saying all the things you'd expect someone to say: "Not a day goes by that I don't think about it", "I'll never be completely over this", etc etc.

Apparently Little got over it because just six years after killing someone, he was arrested again for DUI. Gee, you think he might have a drinking problem? He didn't kill anyone this time, but you can guess the hit his image took in the court of public opinion.

Little has been smart since then and has pretty much stayed out of the public eye while other players such as Donte Stallworth populate the crime pages. But if Vick comes to town, the ghosts of Little's past will be dug up again. He won't have much time to get used to it because the Rams play the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 3 of the pre-season. Expect multiple prison jump suits to be worn throughout the stadium.