Since bursting onto the NFL scene in 2001, Michael Vick has divided people with his talent and potential. There were folks that thought he would revolutionize the quarterback position as a strong armed, scrambling threat. There were others that thought he was nothing more than a running back lined up under center. Vick’s play didn’t help to settle the argument. He could stink it up for a few games and be amazing in others. He was never as good as the Vick lovers made him out to be, and never as bad as the haters claimed. Michael’s every move was seen as potential ammunition in the pro/anti Vick debate, and he was dealing arms to both sides. Unfortunately for MV, his enemies have the bomb, in the form of his plea agreement.
I’ve written about the Vick case from time to time, but I was trying to wait to see how things would truly develop. The plea deal means that the story is over for the time being, and that Michael Vick will be going to jail… Possibly for 3 years?!?! The things that he’s been accused of and will admit to are disgusting and ignorant. I’m not here to defend Michael Vick and his actions, but 3 years in jail or a lifetime ban from the NFL would be cruel and unusual. Six to twelve months in jail and a one year ban from the league seem fair to me when you keep things in perspective.
After reading the indictments and gathering all of the information I could over the past few months, here is what I have learned from Michael Vick’s predicament…
Hypocrisy Is Rampant: I don’t even know where to start. Some of the people that are advocating for animal rights want to kill Michael Vick. Johnathan Babineaux is still on the FALCONS roster and Qyntel Woods didn’t go to jail. The NFL might be more concerned with the gambling charges against Vick than the dogfighting charges. People hunt for sport and it goes on and on. The hypocrisy has been what’s bothered me the most. Especially in the case of Vick versus Babineaux. Killing dogs in the manner that the Bad Newz Kennel crew did is disgusting. What Johnathan Babineaux did is sinister… Using a hammer to kill a girlfriend’s dog because you’re mad at her might be a sign that you have problems. I could see that situation leading to domestic violence or worse… Which to me, would be a bigger crime than dogfighting, but a segment of our society believes…
Animals>People: If I’m ever in a LOST type of situation, I’m gonna pray that there’s no PETA members in the group. There’s no way I’m arguing about why we should eat fish instead of the pilot. Who isn’t wary of a person that would save an animal over a human in a life or death situation? And truthfully, most of this is about dogs rather than all animals. It’s easy to see why dogs want to be human’s bff. People got their dawgs’ back. Another form of animal pugilism, cockfighting, doesn’t get attention like this. Roy Jones Jr. only has to look out for Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson not the Feds.
Michael Vick Is A Terrible Businessman: John Elway got into the car dealing business, Mo Vaughn’s helping low income families with housing issues, and Michael Vick goes into dogfighting. He could have done a million things with his millions, but he’s investing in a cotdamn dogfighting ring. What’s the ROI on a dogfighting enterprise? He could have started a record label like Willie McGinnest or rapped like Troy Hudson… Sure nobody’s heard Hudson’s album but he ain’t going to jail… Unless selling under 100 copies in your first week goes on the books.
Davon Boddie, Quanis Phillips, Purnell Peace, And Tony Taylor Are Snitches: Let’s keep it real for a minute. If criminal activity is your chosen profession, you still have a code of ethics. Rule Numero Uno: Never Snitch. Never… And you don’t cook the golden goose. That’s a violation and bad business. Extensive evidence aside, if these snitches had shut up and done their time, Mike would have gone on with his football life… And when the Four Tops got home, he woulda looked out for them. Greg Anderson went to jail for Barry Bonds, Kato Kailin kept his mouth shut for the Juice, and Lil Kim perjured herself for the homies. I guess she’s a real bitch… Sorta like the Falseto Four.
Race Always Plays A Role: Minorities (Blacks) get accused of playing the race card, but a racist never admits to being racist. Ever. Just one time I would like to see somebody come out and say, “I don’t care either way. I just hate Blacks”. Race plays a factor in the Vick scandal, at the minimum because of some blacks feeling that Michael Vick was taking so much punishment in the media and the court of public opinion that they felt compelled to take Vick’s side… And I’m confident that some of the people protesting Michael Vick were more upset by his race than his actions. I heard one clown ass local sports radio host say that Michael Vick needs to get rid of his Black friends. And when he was called on it, he said that it wasn’t a racist statement. He’s full of shit just like my homeboy that’s a Falcon fan. The brotha told me he would be supporting Joey Harrington or Matt Schaub the same way. Yeah right.
Michael Vick Will Get A Book Deal: Pete Rose, Martha Stewart, and Heidi Fleiss all did books after being in jail. This is a market that Vick has to tap in to. Especially since he might be forced to quit his day job. He’s gonna have plenty of time on his hands so he should be able to crank out “The 48 Laws Of Dogfighting”, “The 7 Habits Of People That Blow 100 Million Dollar Contracts”, or “Federal Prison: How Herpes Saved My Ass”, in no time.
Put Vick, other sports ‘crimes’ in perspective. Courtesy of The Gainesville Times
Active Animal Cruelty Charge, Active On The Roster. Courtesy of Leave The Man Alone
NBAer Avoided Jail Time After Dogfighting Charges. Courtesy of Sports By Brooks
August 24th, 2007 at 8:27 pm
You suck we need to kill michael vick, end of story, your a sick piece of shit for defending such a cruel SOB.
August 25th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
I loved the article. You spoke the truth.
August 25th, 2007 at 8:45 pm
This isn’t about race. It’s about Vick being a scumbag. The situation would be the same if it was Peyton Manning. It just so happens that Vick is black…stop listening to Stephen A. Smith and defending all scumbag black people just to “keep it real.” I’m sick of the race card. Normal people hate people who do things like this…is just happens that a lot of ignorant people with money happen to be black. You can take the thug out of the ghetto but you can’t take the ghetto out of the thug! One last thought for you, Jeffrey Dahmer started off with animal abuse…look what direction he went from there.
August 27th, 2007 at 2:27 am
Guess what y’all… this isn’t about race. This is about race AND money. Look at how the media and the feds are handling this…
Tell me what the media coverage of Chris Benoit has revolved around. It has revolved around a tragic family man who was pulled into a life of consistent drugs and steroid use that ravaged his body, threw him into depression and caused him to commit such a heinous crime. Imagine if Michael Vick killed his wife and children… wait a minute… you see what they are doing to him about ALLEGEDLY killing dogs. I don’t even want to know what they would do about the PROVEN killing of a person…
Speaking of the killing of a person… What about Danny Heatley killing his teammate while driving at extremely reckless speeds? Heatley did not go to jail, nor did he get suspended (correct me if I am wrong on this), and nor did he get any really negative feedback from fans/media. Danny Heatley, at the time a member of the Atlanta Thrashers, was CONVICTED of vehicular homicide in the death of his teammate Dan Snyder while driving too fast here in Atlanta.
What about the Patrick Kearney rape case. That happened in his house nonetheless and while he was present. When is he going to be suspended? Is alleged dog fighting more heinous or egregious than PROVEN rape? I’m patiently waiting on the NFL to say something.
Also Jonathan Babineaux, another Falcon player who is black by the way, killed his dog with a hammer. Let me repeat that… KILLED HIS DOG WITH A HAMMER. No one said anything, PETA or anyone else. Ahem… where was PETA? Oh… my bad, he has no money. I’m still waiting on the NFL… he’s at training camp as we speak.
These guys have ALL broken the law and have yet to be punished for it as severely as Mr. Vick is being punished by the NFL or the media… AND he hasn’t been convicted of anything. You are ALL hypocrites!
I hope that you are all vegetarians. As I see it, raising cattle to be slaughtered for human consumption (or pigs or goats or lamb or fish for that matter) is no different than raising and training dogs to fight, even to the death. The slaughter of animals is no less of a cause of death to the animals than a dog fight is a cause of death to the dogs. Generally the animals we eat are cut while alive so that they will bleed as much as possible – helps the quality of the meat.
The consumption of animals is no more necessary than a dog fight. Both are sheerly for human pleasure. Meat is a luxury.(everything you can get from meat from a sustenance and nutritional perspective can be gotten from non-meat sources) Assuming we were never lost in the wilderness in the winter, every single one of us could survive our entire natural lives without ever consuming meat.
Are you hypocrites as eager to refute the meat and poultry industries as you are to refute Michael Vick (who by the way you don’t know what specifically he’s done if anything.)? Hmmmmm? The reason why you Walt Disney raised children know nothing is because you are happy being ignorant. If these dogs looked like snakes or spiders i’m sure you’d have no problem with their fighting. You’re only getting your collective panties in a wad because you’re thinking about this emotionally and you all actually ‘like’ dogs.
Where is the logic. You wear leather right? You eat meat right? Where is the outrage about the industries that allow you those pleasures? The reason you’re not upset with them is that you don’t see the cruelty that goes into killing a cow.
I’ve thought for a while that it might be a good idea to make people slaughter an animal, in order to be licensed to eat meat. It would combat the sort of happiness in ignorance that people enjoy today. I know I know… you’re saying that this isn’t about eating meat it’s about dog fighting… to that I say you fool! It’s about the hypocrisy. The hypocrisy that allows you to say that this one way of being cruel to animals is ok while another way isn’t. Cruelty is cruelty right? Or is cruelty only cruelty when it suits your selfish, hypocritical purposes?
We eat bacon because we take pleasure from it, not because it is necessary to our survival or health. It gives us pleasure, just as Mr. Vick took pleasure from watching dogs tear each other apart. In order for Mr. Vick to derive this pleasure, dogs had to be tortured; in order for us to derive the pleasure of eating bacon, pigs must be tortured.
I should add, incidentally, that what Vick’s pit bulls went through during their miserable lives is a far cry from what a pig goes through in a factory farm. Barely out of the womb, piglets are held up by one leg and subjected to the following: without anesthetic, their genitals are cut off, their tails are cut off, their ears are sliced, and their teeth are pulled out with pliers. This is how they BEGIN their lives. The rest of it will be spent in a space barely large enough to move. It’s essentially a life-long torture chamber for a sentient animal with a nervous system fully capable of feeling pain just like you do.
If you eat pork, you will be responsible for approximately one thousand of these life-long torture sessions. Vick only had, what, 70 dogs? It’s not even close.
The only reason eating meat is legal is that we like it. And the only reason that Mr. Vick is being killed in the media is that he’s black. I’m not surprised… it’s been that way for well over a while now. It’s not at all about cruelty to animals. If it were about cruelty to animals then Mr. Vick would not even be mentioned in the same breath as the meat and poultry industries.
Oh and you all act like we’re SUPPOSED to trust the police and the FBI. *LOL* Are you kidding. Seriously tell me you’re kidding. Why would I or Mr. Vick trust the police or the FBI? Oh I know… if you didn’t do anything wrong you’d have nothing to fear right? Give me a damn break! I’ve seen planted evidence and beaten confessions too many times.
Vick ALLEGEDLY tortured and killed maybe a hundred dogs. This occurs every hour at Huntingdon Life Sciences and other corporations who specialize in animal testing, often for products like artificial sweeteners and cosmetics. Like most research companies, Huntingdon Life Sciences uses beagles as their dog of choice. Whereas Pit bulls are chosen for their ferocity, beagles are chosen for their docility. If you want to see what happens to these beagles, as well as cats, chimps and a virtual Noah’s ark of other animals, visit this site:
http://www.shac.net/HLS/exposed.html
It’s harrowing reading, and makes Vick’s ALLEGED dog fights look like a walk in the park.
Once again we’re talking about the torture of animals to produce products that give us pleasure. In this case dogs AND cats as well as our closest relatives in the animal kingdom. Yet while Vick is being crucified in the media and many here calling for his head on a stake, there is narry a peep about the infinitely more monstrous and vastly larger torture operations taking place in research facilities across the country and the world.
Let’s also take a look at Nike while we’re at it. Take a look at this video
http://youtube.com/watch?v=LSHQv9FhvVA
It seems that Nike actually hired dogs that were trained to attack one another. They also hired cameramen to film them as well as handlers to handle the dogs… YET they now want to frown upon dogfighting when they actually MADE a commercial that glorified dogfighting as street and hip in order to hawk some shoes. So…. Nike DOES like the competitiveness of dogfighting…. ain’t that a shock?
Boy y’all damn white people kill me!
(Disclaimer: The above sentence was merely an attempt at humor. Not an invitation. I know y’all hate us for whatever reason, forgive us for not wanting to work in cotton fields from “can’t see†until “can’t see†for no pay or not wanting to have our babies cut out of our stomachs when we weren’t obedient enough.)
Oh… and to you people supporting PETA:
http://www.nokillnow.com/PETAIngridNewkirkResign.htm
Enjoy…
August 27th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
He deserves the same abuse he caused these animals!
CRUEL too bad he can’t get the death penalty!
August 31st, 2007 at 12:42 pm
Let’s put this into perspective for a moment…. If anyone of other than a celebrity was convicted of a FEDERAL FELONY would our boss’s and company’s suspend us for a year after going to jail and then give us our job back … ????? he’s a disgusting person black white latino or otherwise…and certainly is not remorseful or sincere.. he deserves what he gets and i hope it nothing for the rest of his life
January 7th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Dahmer was white and loved black meat
March 31st, 2009 at 7:37 pm
It’s about Vick being a public figure. He is someone kids look up to. Lets make a statement and tape PETA supporters beating the guy senseless. That way we have another video to laugh at on the PEAT website besides pigs being slaughtered.
May 6th, 2009 at 1:59 am
You are a disgrace to journalism.
May 29th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
Hey uncontainable spirit. You need to relax with your conspiracy theory. You seem to forget the greatest famous black murderer that got away with everything because he was black. That’s right mr OJ Simpson l. Your selective response seems to show YOUR ignorance. Other side of the coin says that our system has to tip toe around issues having to do with blacks because of fear of retaliation. Riots anyone I will end this message with a comment pretty similar to yours. Damn black people are stupid
August 11th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
@ Lusitano.
Let me get this straight, you’re asserting that OJ ‘got away’ because he was black? THAT’S the plank that your position rests on? I’m feeling rather generous today so i’ll do the unprecedented and allow you to have a Mulligan. Pick another position, ANY position would be stronger than the OJ position. Consider it a favor as i’m sure you’d not like to have your position or your feelings handed back to you in a paper bag by one of us stupid black people. LOL… fortunately for you I’m not in the mood to eat your ig’nant (yes I said ig’nant) ass alive today.
August 24th, 2009 at 11:00 am
Vick is a sociopath. Sociopaths are people without a conscience. They don’t have the normal empathy the rest of us take for granted. Unfortunately, this condition is rampant in a large potion of the black population. I’m not sure if it’s cultural or genetic or both. I think a lot of decent blacks realize this but don’t want to deal with it. The sociapaths defend Vick and call you a racist if you observe it fairly. This will destroy the NFL…it’s already on it’s way. All the money in the world won’t save it.
December 30th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
That freak discusts me by walking the earth. He should be brutally strangled! I can’t believe someone could THINK of forgiving him! Those dogs went through so much, and he is being LOVED for it! DO NOT FORGIVE HIM!!!!!!!!!!!