Functionally ReTodded

There are a couple of different sides to the Michael Vick story, and I don’t think the media is adequately covering a couple of them. Since I have opinions on most things anyway and this in particular, I thought I’d weigh in on several fronts.

First, since the day this story broke on a national level (meaning when the State of Virginia shit the bed and the FBI came in to avoid screwing up the case), all I have heard from people of color in the media and in those man on the streets interviews has been “He hasn’t been convicted of anything,” and “What about his due process?” and “Let’s wait until all the facts are in before you convict him in the court of public opinion.”

Those arguments are made anytime a black man of some fame (or notoriety) is arrested, charged, indicted, or even mentioned in relation to some scandal. Remember OJ’s lawyers and race baiters (Cochran in particular) did the same thing? Did Sharpton and those other race pimps condemn white America for daring to think that The Juice would harm his wife, let alone kill her? (By the way, the subsequent release of 911 calls and photos showing that OJ made a habit of kicking the shit out of his wife was supposed to shock us all I guess).

So we waited. Michael swore up and down that he had nothing to do with this and that he just had some passing associations with some people who did bad things. He told TV cameras everywhere that he was innocent, and I’m sure he had several chances to look his boss in the eye and sweetly say “I swear I’m innocent.”

But this coming Monday, Mr. Vick will accept a plea agreement in exchange for some leniency in sentencing.

The only thing that warrants mentioning here is that very few people enter into plea agreements with the feds that convict them of MORE than they actually did. So you can assume that the very least Michael Vick did was kill dogs (by way of beating on the ground, electrocution, shooting and drowning), participate in dog fighting, up to and including being the ring leader. And I reiterate, this is obviously just the LEAST of what he did. That in itself is disgusting.

The second part of this story that irritates me is everyone talking about what a great lady and mother Mike’s mom is. I have heard a number of Falcon players on the radio since this happened saying how great she is and how much this has hurt her.Well, from where I sit, she can’t be that great a mom if her one son is pleading guilty to felony dog fighting, giving chicks the herp and carrying bottles with secret compartments thru an airport while the other son (Marcus) was only busted for giving 14 year old girls booze and having sex with them, possession of firearms and drugs, stomping on another guys groin on national television, and again, these are only the things they was caught doing.

That does not sound like great parenting occurred along the way.

Next up, what does it say about our society that people are more up in arms about Mike Vick’s dog fighting operation than about babies thrown in dumpsters, old people forced to live in misery without the ability to choose physician assisted suicide, and the true great evil, DUI?

Here’s an example for you. In the late 1990’s, a guy named Leonard Little came out of the University of Tennessee and was drafted by the St. Louis Rams. Now Leonard ran into a little trouble when he got liquored up and killed another driver. The NFL (and animal lovers) didn’t do shit. Leonard still plays in the NFL today.

Now I’m not condoning animal cruelty, but what does it say if our society is more upset and demanding that a person never play in the NFL again for gambling and participating in a disgusting pastime while another has actually taken a human life, the deadliest of all sins, and 90% of the people up in arms about Vick wouldn’t even know the guy by name or recall what he did? And what’s worse, I’m not sure THAT guy missed a month’s worth of pay!

So here we sit in Atlanta, sports fans with a team that has gone from bad to decent to good to decent to shocked to decimated. The player that billionaire owner Arthur Blank pushed around in a wheelchair after Vick broke his ankle has lied to said owner, teammates and fans, and now his time with the Falcons is over. The team traded Matt Schaub, and I’m betting more than a little of that decision was made based on Vick’s assertions that he had nothing to do with this nonsense, has fewer quarterbacks ready to play than I do at home.

The team is stuck with a big salary cap hit and trying to get back SOME of the 22 million dollar signing bonus (if there’s any left), a quarterback that has flamed out of two other NFL teams (Joey Harrington), a 3^rd (now 2^nd) string QB out for the year with an ACL tear in DJ Shockley, and a season ahead that sees opponents putting 10 men in the box and daring the Falcons to do anything BUT run it up the middle, which they most assuredly won’t be able to do.

And here sits a guy in his athletic prime with the whole world at his fingertips, on the verge of being Nike’s number one non-Tiger Woods commodity globally, sitting on a 100+ million dollar contract and nearly equal that in endorsements, yet he was STILL too fucking stupid to stop associating with the dregs of our society and the scourge of humanity, the type of people that don’t have a second thought when ending the life of an animal thru hideously cruel methods, and now he is about to spend somewhere between twelve and sixty months in a FEDERAL PENITENTIARY.

He is a convicted felon for life, meaning he can’t vote (as if I’m sure he gives a shit), he can’t own a firearm or ammunition (which will infringe on his rolling with his homies if he has to go gat-less), and there are certain jobs he can’t hold (LOL).

The biggest thing is, I seriously doubt that any NFL team owner will be willing to take the PR hit it would require to sign Vick after his time in the big house.

So, there will sit a guy, not yet 30 years old, who should be reaping the rewards of his hard work, luck, and God given ability. Instead, he’ll be hanging out with shitbags, with zero motivation to avoid associating with the same folks who rolled over on him in the dog fighting case, and just watching the rest of the money he has left go away.

Could he reform himself and come out a better citizen?

Sure. But I seriously doubt he will. Don’t you?