Ok sports fans, it’s time for &8216;This Week In Sports Stupidity’.

And for those of you who think I ride Terrell Owens too hard – all of which he deserves, mind you – I’m shifting gears and taking my gripes from Philly to Blacksburg, Va.

Although, I do just want to throw this out there and let it marinate for a second: Owens’ agent has been cleared by Philly to test the trade waters. Now, the question is, who would want to waste the time of a trade when this guy is going to be released in the spring?

Wait till he’s a free agent and pick him up at a cheaper price.

Isn’t capitalism great?

Now, before I get started tearing into this week’s &8220;student&8221;-athlete, allow me to preface it with this simple fact. As a student-athlete you are a representative, not only of the family to which you belong, but of the university and ultimately the community to which you serve.

Any negative action is reflected back upon those communities.

Being a college athlete at a four-year, big-time college such as Virginia Tech is a privilege that many athletes dream to achieve, but few reach.

Today’s athlete seems to have forgotten it.

That’s right, sports fans, this week’s poster boy for stupidity in the year 2006 – Marcus Vick.

Now, this is a kid who had it all. He’s the younger brother of Mike Vick of Atlanta Falcons fame. He also was the starting quarterback for the Virginia Tech Hokies. Was being the operative phrase.

The talented Vick, who threw 2,868 yards and 19 touchdowns against 15 interceptions through 24 games has been nothing but trouble for the Va. Tech Athletic Department.

He led the Hokies to a Gator Bowl victory but drew negative national attention for stomping on the leg of a Louisville defender.

That one action proved that even highly touted athletes aren’t untouchable. Frank Beemer, the Hokies coach and Va Tech’s AD, met with Vick to remove him from the football team. Those who followed the troubled lad shouldn’t be surprised. This is just the latest in an alarming trend of what basically breaks down to an athlete thinking he’s become untouchable.

Case-in-point:- on Tuesday Vick was arraigned for pulling a gun on a trio of youth who were said to be taunting him. His arraignment is scheduled in the upcoming weeks. Don’t think I’m singling him out just for this one

event. Over the past three years, Vick and members of the Virginia police, sheriff and state troopers have gotten on a first name basis.

In 2003, Beemer suspended Vick for a game.

One year later, he began contributing to minors while being a minor himself. As a 19-year-old, Vick was arrested and charged with allowing three underage girls to partake of his alcohol and then of having sex with a 15-year-old at a January party. He was released on a $2,500 bond. Less than three months later he was convicted of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, sentenced to 30 days in jail and had a fine of $2,250. He was acquitted of the sex charge.

2004 was a busy year for Young Man Vick.

He was suspended not only from the football team but from the school on the same day he pleaded guilty to reckless driving and no contest to possession of marijuana.

As a result, he is fined $300 and has his driver’s license pulled for 60 days. Vick was also placed in a first offender program and had his driver’s license pulled for a full six months and had to submit to random drug testing.

The truly unsettling thing about this whole Vick ordeal, is that, like Owens, some professional football team will sign him thinking they can straighten him out. In the long run, he will make enough money to bankroll a small Third World country for being nothing more than uneducated troublemaker.

But that uneducated troublemaker will be fulfilling a dream that he by all means doesn’t have the right to touch.