Dogfighting, Hypocrisy, and Why the NFL Won't be Around in 10 Years

Football star Michael Vick was sentenced to 23 months in a federal jail today for his "involvement in a dogfighting ring." This is an unfair conviction because of who Michael Vick is. Now, I could be saying that because Vick is a celebrity, he and his co-defendants were treated in an unfairly harsh way to send a message, but I'm not. I could be saying that because Vick grew up in Virginia, he should be judged by the prevailing morals of the southern culture, which seems to be fairly permissive of dogfighting at least according to Whoopi Goldberg (go to around the 1:45 mark of the video,) but, I'm not. I could argue that Vick has been targeted unfairly because of his status as a popular Black figure in Atlanta -- an argument that was explored in "A History of Mistrust" by Wright Thompson, but I'm not. It is hypocritical to sentence Michael Vick to almost two years of jail time for acting as an owner, financier, and profiteer involved in dogfighting while lauding, supporting, and idolizing him as a participant in very similar activities throughout his life as a football player.

The first time I saw Vick play football was on September 23, 1999 when he was a red-shirt freshman (otherwise known as a Sophomore who didn't play football his first year at college... I tried to claim that I was one in my second year at Rutgers, but it didn't get me very far...) at Virginia Tech University. This was the third game of the season. Vick had missed the second game after being carried off the field in his first game. Running towards the end zone, Vick had shown such speed, agility, courage, fearlessness, elusiveness, cleverness, and yes, aggression that he refused to stop until an opponent managed to flip Vick completely. Vick still made it into the end zone for a touchdown, but he sprained his ankle when he hit the ground. If you never saw Vick play, check out this video (musical accompaniment by Ludacris, flips around 0:44 mark.)

Why is this relevant? The same qualities that made Vick successful in football are the ones that I imagine would make a pit-bull successful in dogfighting. Yes, you say, but dogfighting is a horrible, violent, and often fatal activity, where the dogs get no reward out of it, whereas football is a sport whose participants are rewarded beyond reason.

I'm not sure this is true. Dogfighting is clearly violent, and football players who do not train well enough to make the NFL are not taken out and shot or electrocuted and killed (although encouraging college kids to concentrate solely on football and to ignore academics and then to set them loose with no support after they don't make the NFL is a violation itself, but that's another story...) but, football itself is no less violent then dogfighting.

In the past year, a Buffalo Bill, Kevin Everett suffered a life threatening spinal cord injury during a game. More and more information has been coming out about the effects of the repeated concussions that many football players have had and continue to have. Retired players have suffered from severe depression, early onset dementia and Alzheimer's (and we're talking about mid-forties early,) leading to suicide and death. Even if your brain manages to make it through, your body most likely will not. Bo Jackson a legendary athlete had his career ended when he tore his hip. The great quarterback John Elway recently had knee replacement surgery at the age of 47. Linemen in the NFL (and increasingly at younger ages) are usually 300+ pounds, which puts an incredible toll on their bodies.

Quite simply, playing football at a high enough level for a long enough time will kill you. But football stars like Michael Vick are fawned over by fans, paid millions of dollars by team owners. Yet Vick is thrown into jail for lavishing the same twisted funding and adoration (remember, little to no mercy is shown to football players who don't perform either, see Ryan Leaf, see the NFL's bizarre refusal to fairly compensate retired players, see team's abilities to cut a player at any time) onto fighting dogs.

I actually saw Vick in an airport once. He was reading a magazine, waiting for a flight to Atlanta when a man approached him:

"Hey, are you Mike Vick? I love playing you in Madden!"

I think Mike Vick just got played in real life.