a rare whiff...

by shaun powell, imo. i generally love his stuff, but blaming vick's upbringing -- single mom with 4 kids by 21, bad friends, too much money from nfl -- doesn't move me. i know of too many similar stories which don't result in dog murder. thoughts? ??? ??? ???

http://www.newsday.com/sports/ny-sppow0821,0,2385361.column

 

I was just talking with my SE about how you can look at athletes in trouble, trace back their history and it is almost verbatim "single mother, drug abuse, poor neighborhood." I think it can definitely be said that this is a bad start that can lead to terrible things, especially not having a father figure. In my opinion, that is something every young male needs. Kids can mature and be normal without one, but it makes it SO much more difficult.

The biggest problem I have with this piece is putting the blame on Vick's associates and off of Vick. He chose to hang with those guys. You are directly responsible for the company you keep. In no way is his guilt decreased because of that.

 

It's hard to feel sympathy for someone who (allegedly) profited from the torture of dogs.

 

That's the problem with our business -- we treat these guys as special when they do something good and we treat them as special when they do something bad.

Lots of kids who grew up without many material possessions, and no dad, didn't grow up to torture and kill dogs -- even though they didn't have millions in the bank to distance them from such a life.

Lots of kids have parents or siblings who die of cancer and don't get stadiums full of people breaking out the hankies because some sportswriter goes for the hanging-curveball poignancy. And on and on.

When are we going to stop imbuing people who are athletic and coordinated with all sorts of character virtues that might or might not exist? And when things go wrong, why do we have to trace the cause back to someone or something else, beyond their fault?

OK, I'm painting with broad strokes here. But we devote an entire section of major newspapers to aggrandizing, what, hand-eye coordination feats?

Sorry, long day, a little cranky...

 

The lousy start to his life certainly didn't help, but you know, the man is making his own decisions, and has been for some time now. Wasn't too long ago he was being touted as a mentor to his troubled younger brother.

 

Dunno if it's been brought up on SportsJournalists.com elsewhere, but what about Leonard Little?

He drove drunk and killed a woman with his car in 1998, and he did 90 days in jail.

I know the Vick thing is bad, but Leonard Little caused the death of a woman and pretty much skated after that, and the backlash was nothing compared with the Vick situation.

Have at it.

 

I've posted here at least three or four times how despicable I find Little to be. Don't forget that not only did he kill a woman with his car, he later was arrested for another DUI.

 

leonard little was fortunate that tagliabue was the commish then. goodell would've hit him much harder.

biggest difference: little's was a tragic accident. vick was six years of premeditated horror.

 

Intent has a lot to do with it, in my view. If you had asked Leonard Little, privately, whether he planned to go out, get drunk and then slam into and kill a woman, he would have said no f---ing way. But if you had asked Michael Vick, privately, if he planned to pit dogs against each other, have them fight to the death and then brutally execute various losing mutts, while wagering on it, he would have said, sure. He did it over and over and over, he did it sober and he went back for more -- and there wasn't a damn thing those dogs could do to stop him. To me, that's a level of depravity that wasn't at work in Little's crime.

And just typing that, I have to mention that Little should have spent a lot, lot, lot, lot, lot longer time in stir, in my opinion.

Just think that's the reason for the dramatically different public reaction. That and the rarity of a millionaire dog killer vs. a drunk driver.

 

Here's the real fall-out from the Little case. The quotes from the woman's widowed husband say it all, and that was before he beat the rap on the second DUI.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04123/309759.stm

 

again, for all the praise tagliabue gets for making his bosses even richer, he whiffed badly when it came to policing his players. roger goodell obviously agrees, although he'll never criticize his predecessor. his actions speak volumes on the subject.

 

There is no way Little should still be in the league. He should be in jail... DWI vehicular homicide should have gotten him at least 10 years in the can.