At first, I saw him at an arts store. Mid-50s, black guy. Wearing a Michael Vick Philadelphia Eagles jersey. I felt disgust, but let it slide.
Then I saw the exact same black guy at Home Depot down the road, just minutes later, and then I felt like it was a sign that I had to write about it.
Simply put, the headline says it all; I will never understand how Michael Vick still has fans. The guy brutalized and essentially murdered dogs. How can anyone be a fan of that?
Since it’s me writing, of course it’s going to escalate into a racial issue. But it goes without much saying that the vast majority of people who still like Michael Vick are African-American. I can understand when black people like black athletes for no other reason than that they are black, but given the circumstances of Michael Vick, I can’t possibly understand how he still has the seemingly unyielding loyalty and support of the black community.
Yes, Michael Vick lit a fire in the city of Atlanta, and for at least two times, made the Falcons into playoff contenders, and sold a ton of tickets and merchandise, and made a lot of people a lot of money for his ability to run around and make spontaneous football happen in lieu of actually being a halfway decent quarterback. But that’s still not much reason to absolve a guy of animal cruelty, even it if was all activity done in his spare time in the off-season. Forget about the sports aspect for a change, and just look at the fact that the guy was a scumbag that knowingly raised, trained, and abused dogs in order for them to participate in organized death fights for underground gambling.
Yet many in the black community still worship this guy, and I have absolutely no idea why. Is it because he’s some kind of black martyr? Because everyone dog-piled onto him when he was caught red-handed, and they feel like it was a racial issue? Is it because they’re all gangstas deep down, and they want to support their fellow gangsta? I just don’t get it. Color of skin aside, Michael Vick is a rotten human being, and personally, I wouldn’t really care if he spontaneously died, let alone deserve any fans.
If Albert Pujols or Greg Maddux were ever caught raising dogs to fight to the death, I wouldn’t think twice about never supporting them ever again. Chris Benoit was easily my favorite wrestler to watch, but when he went postal, killed his wife and kid, before committing suicide, sure, I was as shocked as everyone who knew who he was, but in the end, I’m glad that he was dead, because he certainly didn’t deserve to live.
But for the life of me, I just can’t understand why Michael Vick still has so many fans to this day. Maybe these people just aren’t sympathetic towards animals like I am. Maybe these people didn’t like the way the rest of the world treated him when he was caught and prosecuted. Or maybe these people just support him because he’s black. But off the top of my head, I can think of quite a good bit of black professional athletes who are more deserving of good fans than Michael Vick: Warrick Dunn, Tiki Barber, Jerry Rice, Jerome Bettis, Reggie White. But then again, I hear there is something to resent about black athletes like the aforementioned five, probably for being too classy, and too good, because that obviously makes them too Uncle Toms.
