Jemele Hill on the Vick situation

I'll play Wednesday Morning Quarterback:

-- So because not enough adults, maybe, said "no" to Michael Vick over various self-indulgences from his mid-teens on, it's their fault, not his, that he tortured and killed, for pleasure and payback, a bunch of defenseless animals?

-- Others who have done worse got wrist-slaps, so Vick shouldn't be punished harshly?

-- Has even Rush Limbaugh invoked the "first African-American QB to be drafted first overall" identification for Michael Vick and justification for charging him? No one has targeted him for that reason. Also: Maybe there are reasons you don't hear of white athletes from upper-class families torturing and killing dogs that have nothing to do with their race. Like, maybe, their families' values.

-- Wrong. The scandal of this summer is Barry Bonds passing Henry Aaron. The next scandal is Tim Donaghy. Vick had plenty of headline cover, but his evil activities still manage to surpass what those bums did, in terms of public outrage.

-- Lying about what you did is worse than what you did? No, I think killing dogs is worse than lying about it. O.J. lied about what he did, but slicing and dicing two people was worse than the lies. Kenneth Lay lied, too, but defrauding Enron employees out of their life savings was worse. Don't confuse a public office holder, where ongoing trust matters, with a basic criminal. Michael Vick ain't Nixon.

-- A multi-millionaire who can afford the best legal team in the country is getting bad advice? Hey, maybe there is a God after all!

-- Vick should have been advised to make a tearful apology? Thanks for reminding us that those sort of tears are phony. "Here, Mike, look like you feel bad. Pretend to cry." Sure, that would have earned Vick's way back into our good graces.

-- NFL players get cut from their jobs, so it's OK to torture and murder dogs? Some soldiers in a volunteer military get killed in battle, so it's OK to torture and murder dogs? Other people do assorted bad things, so it's OK to do the bad thing that I've pled guilty to? I don't think the writer exactly bowls me over with persuasion here.

-- This is the clincher: "Society wants to scapegoat Vick to avoid contemplating its own routine, systematic killing of animals." And people accuse the PETA folks of being shrill and hysterical?

 

Well, time served is low because the incarceration rates are so high. Gotta create cell room for the newbies.

 

With regard to Hill's column, she makes some salient points, but she lost me when she said Pacman Jones was guilty of "nothing more than stupidity." Last I checked, one of his boys damn near killed a guy.

 

Wow TSP....one long compilation of all the bullshit excuses people have tried to make for Vick. AWFUL.

Maybe he identified with the dogs because NFL players get cut when their skills fade? Are you fucking kidding me? NFL players aren't starved and tortured to make them into NFL players. They are paid millions of dollars. And being waived by the team is slightly more humane behavior than being electrocuted to death.

If he identified with the dogs...maybe he shouldn't have tortured them, dammit.

I have some issues with Ms. Hill's column, but it puts that crap you just posted to shame.

 

No she's right. One of his boys damn near killed a guy. Now did Pacman give the orders to shoot the guy? We'll find out later.
I think the reason she said stupidity was because of the makin' it rain/goin' to the club the day after he told Goodell he would stop stuff.

 

Glad to see Al Jolson checking in.

 

The whole column points out why it's dangerous to write about sports from your bedroom instead of actually, you know, being around the game.
Has anybody ever told Vick no?
What an absolute, steaming joke that is.
Anyone who ever has been around a football practice will understand Vick was told no lots of times. He was yelled at. He was griped at. He was prodded. He probably was humiliated once or twice. It happens to nearly every football player, every athlete in team sports.
If Vick chose to listen only to those who said, "yes," that's on him.
It's also a joke because it runs counter to the fact that hundreds of current football became stars at a young age and yet somehow managed to develop the character that allows them to show up at practice on time, play their games the right way and obey this country's laws: Peyton Manning, Troy Polamalu, Willie Anderson, countless others.

 

He's right. It is hypocrisy in some way.

I wish I had the guts to become a vegetarian. This is a bit of an internal conflict for me. I know that animals are mistreated, but I still eat meat. I just think it would be too hard to completely cut out meat from my diet. What would I have for lunch every day? If I ever win the lottery and able to afford my own personal chef, I would go vegetarian. But I just can't. Or at least I don't think so.

And then there's the money factor. I've had a boca burger before. Not bad. But it's way more expensive than buying a pound of ground beef.

Sigh...Maybe I should read a book about vegetarianism.

 

Flipper... way to go old school.

 

Personal accountability. Does an adult, regardless of star status, really need to be "told" no? C'mon people.

 

But the society allows the killing of some animals in certain ways, while making the mistreatment of other animals a felony. Therefore, dog fighters are felons while hunters aren't. If you're caught with a cat on a BBQ, you're a sick bastard; but salmon is OK.

How hard is that to understand? Every society splits hairs when it comes to laws and rules. Why can a 21-year-old drink alcohol legally while a 20-year-and-360-day-old can't? Why does this Vick make people forget that?

 

One of his boys shot a guy, likely with the understanding that he had Pacman's back. And if Pacman had a shred of integrity about him, he would have turned the guy in when he got back to the hotel and found out what happened. You think he didn't know minutes later, even though he wasn't there at the actual time of the shooting?