Filter Through Life

Michael Vick is no longer relegated to the likes of ESPN, FOX Sports, SportCenter, Colin Cowherd or Jim Rome.  No, Michael Vick is in the mouths of seemingly every news organization’s talking head on the planet.  That tells me a few things:

 1)     The news is old.  Sports news is usually kept in the confines of the aforementioned sports news and talk shows.  By the time the major media starts talking about it those that follow sports could tell you the who’s, what’s, when’s, where’s and how’s of the whole shebang.  They can tell you where to buy your very own replica white Bronco or Michael Vick chew toy.

2)    The news is big.  Because most sports news stays in the sports world, it is usually not big news.  Some athlete, somewhere on some team took some performance enhancing drug, went bankrupt or had his yacht repossessed.  This is not major news, it happens everyday.  But when a big star (i.e. Vick, O.J.) does something of this magnitude the rest of the public wants to know about it, not just those that listen to sports talk or watch ESPN. 

3)    The news is polarizing.  There are rarely more than two sides taken when a popular athlete is in the news.  You have side A, usually correct about most things, possibly militant about how badly this athlete has wronged their respective sport, their fans and their self.  Then you have side B, usually very militant about defending said athlete, blindly suggesting we are all out to get him/her, stating that there ain’t nothing wrong with what happened or they compare the situation to Jesus on the cross (never a good analogy).   

I have seen or heard about several athletes commenting on Vick’s “situation”.  As nice of a person Mr. Vick may be, which I doubt, there has to be something seriously wrong with someone that will starve and fight dogs and then brutally kill them if they don’t perform well in the pit.  This is not a mistake.  The first time maybe.  Placing buildings on one’s property and painting them black so they can’t be seen from the road is a systematic approach to malicious and twisted behavior that needs attention, specifically Jesus.   

There is no excuse for this abhorrent behavior.  Every rich, superstar athlete can rush to Mr. Vick’s defense if (s)he wants to.  Protest to the powers that be that we shouldn’t take his career away.  We didn’t.  The owners didn’t.  The NFL didn’t.  Michael Vick forfeited his career.  If you want to be absolutely fair as to whether or not Vick should be allowed back into the NFL, poll those that pay his salary.  That is me, and my neighbors, and you and anyone that watches a football game at home, at a restaurant or at the stadium.  I want to know what you think.