Body ABCs San Diego Sports with uncle Orie

    I wanted to write and speak my opinion about Mike Vick and the sentence he has just received for being involved in the entire gruesome process of fighting dogs.  It brings up a lot of questions and opinions from all walks of life.  Until recently the northern and western parts of the United States really didn’t have any idea what dogfighting really was about and just what the reasons behind doing it would be.  The horrible part about this whole trial is that we got to find out just exactly what was going on in these type of lifestyles.  Apparently dogfighting is almost normal to a lot of cultures in the south.  The size and ferocity of your dog is a status symbol, kind of like a new car would be for a kid in high school.  It shows how well respected you are or should be.  It’s a crazy world to take a glimpse at.  From their training to the extermination of the dog, the entire process is almost unbelievable.

Once you begin to learn about this kind of sport and gambling arena I think the true magnitude of what kind of people can do this becomes evident, and Mike Vick is someone who could do this.  He was able to watch, fund, plan, organize, house, and fully participate in all aspects of this gruesome activity.  On December 10th he was given 23 months in prison for his actions.  The biggest question that comes from all of this is do you agree with the actions the court, the media, and us as a general society have taken.

The first big question being asked is “why does this seem to a be a much bigger deal that he killed dogs than if someone were to kill a human being? “  I think that is explainable.  Most importantly the general society in America looks at dogs almost like little kids.  They don’t have a reason to be killed.  They aren’t “thugs”, they have no defense.  They are looked at as innocent beings with no intention of hurting us, which is far from people’s view on a regular human being.  Millions of homes have dogs, how many homes have the type of people who are usually gunned down in unsavory activities dwelling within?  The regular person just can’t relate to the average type of person who is killed in a homicide, but everyone knows at least one dog that they have had a personable relationship with.  As odd as that may sound, it’s true, people feel more sorry for dogs than people.

The media has also dealt with this issue in a way that has been very swift and intense.  Mike Vick is gone from the face of the NFL, and was so in a matter of minutes.  He lost every dollar of marketing money he had before he could blink his eyes.  His contract was gone, his signing bonus in jeopardy, everything that had his name on it was thrown into the fire.  I can totally understand this in this situation, but it’s funny how we react to things of this nature and not accordingly in others.  When Leonard Little killed a woman in an accident while drunk he was still playing.  Again I’m not saying that the response to Vick is wrong, cause Lord knows if I had anything to do with any of his endorsements he would be canned faster than soup at Campbells, I’m just saying that we react differently to different things and Little’s case was the oddest of them.

Overall I think everything that has come to Vick is fair.  Sadly what out-trumps my disgust of what he did to those dogs is how frustrated I am towards his decisions.  How can you think that fighting dogs is worth 130 million dollars in potential salary?  It blows my mind.  How can he not have one trustworthy person around him to simply stop him and say “Hey Mike, you really think this is that great of an idea?  Do you think this is worth it?  You do know that if you get caught doing this that this luxurious lifestyle is all over, right?  You do know that this all goes away as soon as anyone finds out?  Oh, and wearing a hat that represents your dog fighting kennel is probably the stupidest idea I’ve personally ever heard of in my entire life!”.  It’s sad that he lived a life with no one there to help him do what’s best for him, his family, and even those unbelievably dumb friends of his.