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Too much character

Join jaguars.com Senior Editor Vic Ketchman as he tackles the fans' tough questions.

Stephen from Jacksonville:
The Twins and University of Minnesota have built new open-air stadiums. Should the Vikings build an open-air stadium and recapture the homefield advantage they once had?

Vic: What they should've done is gone into an arrangement with the University of Minnesota. The new UM stadium is sensational, but it could've very easily been fitted for NFL use, which would've allowed for more bang for the tax dollars that built the place. City real estate is too expensive to build separate stadiums for every team. How many football stadiums can you have in one city? I would consider this a source of worry for the Vikings. Their best shot now will probably require another domed stadium that the city can sell to the taxpayer as a facility that can also be used for Final Fours, the Super Bowl, etc.

Paul from Jacksonville:
Who is your favorite NFL sportsman of all-time? In other words, who embodied in action and approach to the game the best of the best?

Vic: Chuck Bednarik.

Matthew from Jacksonville:
No question, just an update. I'm in the Steel City for 10 days on business. I'm heading downtown to grab my first Primanti Bros. sandwich tonight. I'm taking in a Pirates-Reds game on Saturday. The sun is shining, the trees are in bloom and the city is in an uproar over Big Ben's behavior; most want to give him the boot. Most folks I have heard are feeling that he is disrespecting the city, the fans, the team and, most importantly, the Rooneys. What do you think about that? Nice to see a city rally around some moral character in their players.

Vic: If that's the new morality, then count me out. I will continue to abide by the law of the land, which says we are all innocent until proven guilty. That was the standard I applied to the Michael Vick dog-fighting uproar. No rush to judgment was necessary. All we needed to do was allow the wheels of justice to turn, which they did. Ben Roethlisberger has taken a terrible hit and I have no sympathy for him because he did it to himself but, following an exhaustive investigation, he was charged with nothing. That's a fact. How he or any of these players lives his life is of no concern to me. I don't want them as role models for my children or grandchildren. They're just football players; that's all. If they wanna screw it up, go ahead, but I'm not going to cast the first stone. I'll leave the administration of justice to our police.

Robert from Jacksonville:
"The Patriots haven't improved their team in years and are only getting older." Since the Patriots have four of the first 53 picks in this year's draft, I wouldn't drop them out of contention just yet. I also think Brady bounces back this year from the knee injury.

Vic: That's another way to look at it. If the Patriots hit on these picks, they'll be right back in business to put together a second run. It's the draft that got them to where they were, and it's the draft that'll return them to that lofty place, or forever seal the end of Brady's and Bill Belichick's run at the top of the league.

Jonathan from Q-West, Iraq:
The Dolphins give up two second round picks for Marshall and the Jets only lose a fifth for Holmes? What am I missing here? They both seem like poor character guys. In my opinion, Marshall is the better player but Holmes is not giving up that much as far as talent goes. Why did this go down like it did?

Vic: What you're missing is Santonio Holmes' positive drug test, which has resulted in a four-game suspension. His next positive test will result in a one-year suspension, and there aren't many teams that want to spend any kind of draft pick on a guy who's one test away from gone for the year. As far as Brandon Marshall is concerned, I think that's just a classic case of wide receiver fever. The Dolphins caught it and it clouded their thinking.

Jordan from Charlotte, NC:
I love that Jacksonville seems ready to pass on Dez Bryant, as they are sticking to the high-character mantra. Having said that, is Bryant the best receiver in the draft and is he better than Crabtree was coming out of college?

Vic: I don't know. I don't do character rankings. In fact, I'm worn out on the whole character thing. I think it's overdone. It's become a witch hunt. A lot of teams passed on Dan Marino due to character concerns. How did that work for them?

Andy from Saint Johns, FL:
Vic, why don't the Jags just charge double for club seats? All that extra money would surely offset the cost of the unsold general bowl tickets and then the Jags could hand out 50,000 free tickets every week. Being the big Lib that you are, I would assume you would support this, just like Obamacare.

Vic: I get the point. You're suggesting that the Jaguars over-charge their wealthy season ticket holders, to the benefit of the team's poor fans. The interesting thing is that the current system is such that the club seats don't count toward the TV blackout number, only the general bowl seats do, which means that the team's poor fans are responsible for putting the games on TV for the rich fans to watch. Isn't that funny? Being the big Con that you are, I would've assumed that you would support that.

Kenneth from Jacksonville:
Hey, Vicbow, now that Tim Tebow's stock is rising up to becoming a first-round pick, do you still feel the same way about the Jags not taking him in the first round?

Vic: Yeah, I just think 10 is too high for him. My hope is that the Jags will be able to take him with their second pick.

Zoltan from Budapest, Hungary:
Do you have heard any character issues with Jimmy Clausen?

Vic: Well, he got sucker-punched by a fan as he was coming out of a restaurant with his family – the fan was upset about a loss the previous day to UConn – but I guess it only counts when the player does a bad-character thing, not when a fan does it. It was all over the Internet. Everybody was laughing about it.

Derek from Cedar Falls, IA:
Terry McDonough, wow! Being a Jaguar fan is great these days. I can't think of any other sports fans that are brought into the fold like we are.

Vic: Terry did a great job on "Jaguars This Week" last night. I honestly believe he kept the lying to a minimum.

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