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Michael Vick should not be allowed to play in the NFL again, most professional football fans, according to Gallup Poll released by The Associated Press. According to the survey, 58 percent said he should not be allowed to play in the NFL anymore. Only 22 percent said they would want the team they root for to try to acquire him should he return. In addition, 35 percent said they believe he should serve a long prison sentence, 51 percent said they favored a short one, and 12 percent said they believe he should not serve any time. The survey involved telephone interviews with 1,001 adults from Aug. 23 to 26. The overall margin of sampling error was plus or minus four percentage points.

We are three days from the start of the best regular season in sports (I’m not counting the smattering of games on Thursday and Friday). And a playoff at the end of it wouldn’t ruin it. Making it to postseason play would be the same as getting into a BCS bowl, because that’s about as many teams as you really need. Even more games in November would have meaning, which would be a good thing. This would be a great year for a playoff for Virginia Tech. Losing at LSU seems just as likely as winning the other 11, plus the ACC title game. There are no guarantees of making the title game at 12-1, but making a playoff at even 11-2 with an ACC title would be automatic.

Here's what tips you off that Yankees phenom Joba Chamberlain is the real deal. It's not his numbers (0.00 ERA in 11 innings, 17 Ks and 3 walks) or his size (6-2, 230) or even the special regulations (the "Joba rules") New York has created to protect the 21-year-old pitcher. It's what Michael Kay of the YES Network said on Wednesday during yet another scoreless Joba inning, that Gary Smith of Sports Illustrated was in town writing a big piece on him. If Smith -- one of the most talented feature writers in the business -- profiles you, you've either killed yourself, killed someone else or killed your competition. With Joba, I'm guessing it's the latter.

The next time somebody tells you that you pay too much attention to silly old sports, tell them to consider the alternative. Here is an actual excerpt from an actual article from The Associated Press: "Megastars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were spotted Friday with kids Maddox, Zahara and Pax shopping at Lee's Art Shop in midtown Manhatten. Baby Shiloh was not there. According to the New York Post, the family then headed toward Times Square, where Pitt ordered five hot dogs from a street vendor, three with ketchup and mustard, two with just ketchup." And sports are silly?

Another high school sports season started this weekend, and I spent half of Saturday watching one of my daughters play volleyball. We all want our kids to excel, but it's important that we help instill in our kids the value of the team. Some coaches have difficulty keeping a team unified when players are hearing the opposite from their parents. Don't be a parent who complains about the coach and about your child's playing time. Support the authority of the coaches who have chosen to help educate our kids and surely know more about the sport and the team than we do. Undermine them and we undermine one of the foundations of our children's education -- the part where they learn a healthy respect for authority.

So Michael Vick filed a plea deal Friday admitting in court papers that he bankrolled gambling on dogfighting and helped kill some dogs who didn’t make the cut. Then he declared that he had not placed bets and never took any winnings. Anybody else having trouble swallowing that one? Vick previously said his name would be cleared, but now we know he lied to the Atlanta Falcons, the NFL, his fans and everybody else. A famous baseball player once said he never bet on baseball games. Wasn’t exactly the truth. And somebody else once said that he didn’t inhale. Do we all look that stupid?

There are a million things right about the Little League World Series. The one thing wrong: Adults. There are too many of them. Making acronym signs, acting crazy in the stands for the cameras -- stop it. Let the kids have the spotlight. Even coaches sometimes go overboard. The manager from Venezuela must have gone to the mound 36 times Thursday just to shout the same message: "Duro!" They get it, coach. They're trying. But that's why it was awesome to see Curacao hit a two-out, three-run homer in the bottom of the seventh Thursday to beat Venezuela. This proved once again that adults can do all the hollering they want, but the game still comes down to the kids.

William “Wild Bill” Hagy’s death Monday rekindled memories of my wild days of the late ’70s. Unless you’re a Baltimore Orioles fan, you probably haven’t heard of Wild Bill. He was a bearded, beer-gutted middle-aged guy who led O’s’ fans in cheers in Section 34 of the upper deck at old Memorial Stadium. Well, I’ll never forget the Sunday afternoon when my beloved Yankees were about to complete a four-game series sweep. As Hagy cheered in right field, I got up in front of the fans in the upper deck in left. Wearing a NY helmet, I chanted, “One, two, three, four ... that’s it for Baltimore!” I proceeded to get pelted by thrown Twinkies. I never met Hagy, but always felt like I knew him.

The debut episode of the Sports TimesCast: High School edition launched Tuesday on roanoke.com.

Instead of Doug Doughty and Randy King, the HS sportscast features Aaron McFarling and Robert Anderson. Each Tuesday, Aaron and Robert will provide recaps and analysis of previous games while looking to the week ahead.

Monday was a bad day for some college football players, who had to be glad it was the day Michael Vick announced plans to plead guilty to dogfighting charges. Two West Virginia players were charged with receiving and transferring a stolen computer. USC coach Pete Carroll kicked a wide receiver off his team. Two Iowa players were arrested for unauthorized use of a credit card. It’s easy to criticize a coach like Frank Beamer for recruiting players who run afoul of the law. But don’t just blame Beamer. No coach is immune to troublemakers. It will continue to happen no matter how carefully coaches screen recuits, whether it’s Blacksburg, Boston or Bozeman.