I’m a big fan of NFL football player Michael Vick. But four years ago, when he was in the dog house (no pun intended) and every sports writer was writing obituaries on his career, I wrote the following – more as one who understands the business of professional sports than as a fan:
Let me hasten to disabuse you of any doubt about Vick’s football career. Because the only question is: which team will offer him the most lucrative contract once he pays his debt to society…?
Therefore, ignore all of the his-career-is-over chatter by sports analysts. And do the same with the politically correct talk by the NFL commissioner about expelling Vick for violating the league’s ‘morals clause’. After all, if the NFL has no moral qualms about employing men (like Larry Johnson of the Kansas City Chiefs) who routinely abuse women, then it should have no qualms at all about employing a ‘reformed’ man (like Vick) who routinely abused dogs.
(Dogfighting fiend Vick cops a plea, The iPINIONS Journal, August 21, 2007)
So clearly it was vindication enough when the Philadelphia Eagles hired him as a third-string quarterback after he served two years in prison (2007-09) and forfeited his $100 million contract with the Atlanta Falcons.
But that vindication was surely complete this summer when the Eagles rewarded (and secured) his spectacular play by offering him a $100 million contract extension. This made Vick the fourth-highest paid player in the League (at $15.9 million per year) – behind Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts ($23 million), Sam Bradford of the St. Louis Rams – whoever he is…($18.4 million), and Tom Brady of the New England Patriots ($18 million).
With that, you’d think Vick would do everything possible to endear himself not just to Eagles fans, but to everyone in America who was justifiably outraged by his barbaric dogfighting hobby.
Yet he stirred up a racially tinged controversy on Sunday with this woe-is-me, teammate-bashing lament (and, yes, it is racially tinged only because Vick is black):
The refs have to do their job and I’m not blaming the referees by any stretch, so let’s not get it twisted here. I’m just saying I think everybody on the field should do their job…
I’m on the ground constantly. All the time. Every time I throw the ball, in all my highlights and just watching film in general, every time I throw the ball, I’m on the ground, getting hit in the head, and I don’t know why I don’t get the 15-yard flags like everybody else does…
I mean, obviously at some point, something catastrophic is going to happen. I broke my hand.
(The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 25, 2011)
Not blaming the referees?! I suppose he meant that he was not just blaming them, but publicly calling out the sorry offensive line that is supposed to protect him from ending up “on the ground constantly” as well.
Of course, this latter point won’t endear him to his teammates either. And we saw hints of this alienation of esprit de corps during Sunday’s game when he was sitting off on his own whenever the defense was on the field.
But calling out his teammates the way he did is not cool; because every player knows that if you have a beef with the way your teammates played, you have it out with them in the locker room, not at a friggin’ one-man press conference.
To be fair, I suspect much of what Vick said stemmed from frustration over leading his team to a second-consecutive loss and a 1-2 start to this season. Because all indications are that he and the Eagles actually bought into the hype by sports analysts about them matching the perfect season Brady and the Patriots had in 2007.
Moreover, given the way he and the Eagles fell apart during the playoffs last season, Vick can be forgiven the onset of anxieties about doing little more for the Eagles than the $100 million quarterback he replaced, Donovan McNabb.
Whatever the case, there he was at his postgame news conference with a broken hand that will probably sideline him for weeks and quite possibly extend their losing streak for just as long. Unfortunately, he didn’t just come across as a sore loser, but as one who was crying racism to assuage his anxieties.
But, frankly, Vick’s racially tinged lament deserves about as much sympathy in the world of sports as Al Sharpton’s racially loaded rants evoke in the world of politics. Not to mention that anyone who knows anything about football knows that any quarterback in the league could make the same lament.
Hell, no less a player than Tom Brady could have done so on Sunday too after leading the Patriots to their first loss in over a decade against the Buffalo Bills. And Tony Romo of “America’s team”, the Dallas Cowboys, took so many shots in week two that he ended up with a fractured rib and a punctured lung. Yet here’s the only lament he offered:
That’s part of playing football. If they’re able to get a clean shot on my ribs consistently throughout the game, then we’re probably not doing that well anyway.
(Tony Romo, ABC Washington, September 23, 2011)
What is particularly instructive here is how Romo not only honored the inherent nature of the game, but also gave his offensive line a little ribbing for not protecting him as well as they should.
In fact, it was clear for all to see on Sunday that the reason Vick was constantly on the ground is that defensive players were constantly running either over or right through his offensive line and knocking him on his ass … fair and square.
That’s football.
Therefore, Vick would do well to issue a public apology to the referees for implying that they have a bias against him. Because there’s simply no evidence to support his assertion that they are refusing to protect him with penalty flags the way they protect “everybody else”.
In the meantime, he should have a serious (locker-room) chat with his offensive linemen. Since the only way to prevent “something catastrophic” from happening is for them to “do their job” of protecting him.
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Dogfighting fiend…