I've been asked for a recommendation for a decent Nikon telephoto zoom lens for someone on a student budget.
He wants to spend no more than maybe 2-300$
I can't really recommend a good lens for that amount of money, but i want to recommend a lens that is good enough.

Having never shot with Nikon it makes it a bit hard.
I know that canon has something like 75-300mm f3.5-5.6. I think its a decent lens on a budget.

I am thinking to recommend he buys a used 70-300mm. Shoot with that until he can afford really good glass.
Does anyone know if that lens is good enough? Also, I saw a VR and non VR versions...
I'm not too worried about the VR part as this is going to be used for sports, so if the glass in that lens is same as the VR version, I'd go for it.

What about sigma or tamron?.. do they have lenses that would suit him?