Commentary

'Be Like Mike'? Don't Think So

The head of the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP, whose last name amusingly is "White," said Wednesday that Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick has "made mistakes," but that they should not cost him his football career with the NFL. Mr. White then further ingratiated himself with the ASPCA by saying he "didn't understand the uproar over dog fighting, when hunting deer and other animals is perfectly acceptable."

We have to assume that the PR director of the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP has subsequently fitted Mr. White with a muzzle (perhaps one of the blood- and canine-flesh-soaked models recovered from the yard where Mr. Vick hanged dogs until their deaths). Meanwhile, we have made a mental note that in trying to minimize Mr. Vick's crime by equating dogs tearing each other to death and a high-speed bullet to the head or heart of a deer or a bear, he would have us assume that, given a choice, were Mr. White to be executed, he'd be okay being tossed into a pit of hyenas versus being dispensed in a nanosecond by a trained marksman.

But let us ponder the rationale of his argument that Mr. Vick should be allowed to resume his chosen profession after he is punished by society. Why? Because he is a highly paid, high-profile black athlete? By using the NAACP as a platform, Mr. White certainly seems to suggest just that. But we suspect Mr. White is really trying to preempt the NFL from banning Mr. Vick for his crimes against man's best friend. A good deal may depend on how long the Commissioner has had his setter and poodle, but since the NFL is not a public trust, but rather a multibillion-dollar entertainment, real estate, food and souvenir conglomerate built around a game, the league CEO is in the awkward position of having to weigh the crimes committed by its players and deciding which are major enough to ban someone temporarily or for life.

It has always amused me that football players are in any way supposed to be role models for America's next generation. For every one of them who maintains a careful balance of legitimate academic achievement, social development, family and success on the field, there are 50 more who are the "supplement"-swallowing, class-cutting, self-centered misogynists who bully the rest of the school and end up pumping gas rather than hanging dogs on their multimillion-dollar Virginia estates. When most pro football players are interviewed on TV, isn't it painfully apparent that they didn't waste a lot of time in classes learning how to enunciate and broaden their vocabularies beyond "smashmouth;" "in the trenches;" and "left it all on the field today"?

At the D-1 level and beyond, football is no longer a sport--it is an industry. It is all-consuming and generally results in the kind of arrested development that manifests itself in off-field hijinks like armed robbery, gambling, substance abuse, rape--and now, killing pets. Show me a 15-year-old kid who can hit a moving target 40 yards down field while escaping the clutches of a guy who can bench-press 350 lbs. on a bad day, and I will show you a kid who will be exempt from the normal trials and tribulations of high school and college, taking away all incentive to develop any part of his brain other than fight or flight. Is it any wonder that after these kids have been hand-carried through adolescence and young adulthood, protected from--rather than held accountable for--their actions, they tend to take those million-dollar signing bonuses and sniff them up their noses or gamble them away?

As long as they are productive cogs in the system, football players are spoon-fed and coddled and encouraged not to grow up, but to "get better." Why should it surprise anyone when they say and do profoundly stupid things? They are kind of like fashion models who everyone exploits until they hit 30, then abandon without so much as an hour of post-runway job skills training. A couple of concussions or a torn ACL later, it all comes crashing down. The NCAA and the NFL wash their hands of them, and it's straight to the nearest car dealership. But we digress.

The issue raised by Mr. White is, should the NFL forgive Mr. Vick? Since I think he is a poster child for football's indifference to the intellectual, social and moral development of its foot soldiers, I say let him back in as a constant reminder of the stupidity underlying those Friday night lights.

Just keep him away from the University of Georgia's mascot.

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