What everyone who's camping out at the theatre to wait for the premiere of Underdog might have missed....
- Michael Vick, indicted for his alleged role in a dogfight ring, is a thug, sure, but please take a second to look past that "dogfighting, what an idiot!" spin and think about the big picture. Guys out of places such as Newport News, Virginia (aka "Badnews") such as Vick and Allen Iverson get it 10 times worse from the media than they should since they're straight up about not giving a damn about what is expected from common-sense white guys.
Bottom line, Vick came up through a place that isn't exactly Rosedale, a place that's a punchline to suburbanites. He was put through a failed public education system, then a failed athletics-over-academics college system. Then people get PO'd when he isn't Tiger Woods. You like sports so much, learn to like the crazy bastards who are wired to play 'em. - On the same day, Daunte Culpepper (pictured) gets released by the Dolphins. How pathetic is it for a Vikings fan (namely, this one) to wonder if there would be any way they would give a second chance to a QB who has completed 64% of his passes as a NFL starter? Frankly, how about Daunte as a backup to Tom Brady in New England?
- Do yourself a favour, visit Raptor Land, a newish blog dedicated to our favourite hoops team.
- Eric Gagné is close to his old self in Texas, writes Yahoo! Sports' Tim Brown. It's just not so noticeable when he's pitching for a last-place team in football country.
- Daily Norseman has a take on Detroit Lions president Matt Millen's latest ill-conceived personnel move that's really funny if you believe those Bud Light "Real Men of Genius" radio spots are the highest form of comedy.
That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.
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9 comments:
Neate, I hear what you are saying regarding the cultural differences between these athletes and the fans who follow them, but dog fighting? That's not a black or white issue, or even suburbs vs. ghetto. I don't get myself worked up about the bling, the corn rows, the music, or other elements of the culture that I know I don't "get" as a middle aged white guy. All of that is fine. But dog fighting? I draw the line there.
It looks bad... but imagine what the spin would be if it was Brett Favre.
Perfect example... the other day I overhear a bunch of guys start going on about how "every black guy in the NBA and NFL" has numerous out-of-wedlock children. You think they said anything about Matt Leinart and Tom Brady?
But yeah, alleged dog-fighting, bad, but to an extent Vick is a straw man here, just like Paris Hilton is a straw woman for every misogynist (which is why I rarely bother with her. What's the point?).
sorry, neate, but i just can't agree with you with respect to vick.
you can certainly argue that an indictment is a far step from a conviction, as grand jury hearings typically favour the government due to lower standards of cause and different rights granted to the defendant. accordingly, you can easily advance the principle that vick is innocent until proven guilty. if you said any of that, i wouldn't disagree with you.
moreover, i understand you are pushing for all of us to use a little critical thinking to dissect the angle and bias associated with the reporting of this story; however, to advance the idea that, because of his upbringing and environment, Vick is a "crazy bastard" who should be expected to act in the ways alleged is flat out wrong. in fact, by inferring such a result, you seem to be advancing the very bias you are drawing attention to.
finally, i don't think any of the angles that are being reported have anything to do with the colour of vick's skin. these are crimes against animals, which typically raise issues of morality and innocence, and overcome racial barriers. vick's own checkered past is almost a footnote to these new incidents. simply the nature of these charges reflects that and the grotesque content of the various court documents seem to be the focus of the articles i have read. i would expect the same coverage whether the indicted player was Michael Vick, Brett Favre or Trent Green.
(as per leinart and brady skating on the criticism about having babies out of wedlock, i believe Deadspin and related blogs provided more than adequate coverage of their lives and criticism of their choices.)
i'm a lions fan and stopped finding humour in matt millen's activities years ago. matt millen negotiated against himself to reward an above average DT with the highest salary in the league? awesome. cory redding provides further justification on why i'm glad i gave up my season's tickets.
Deadspin is the greatest thing since Al Gore invented the Internet, but it's hardly on the scale ESPN, CNN, Fox News and every major daily playing the Vick story big. He is a thug, sure, but it didn't happen in isolation.
Fair points on Leinart and Brady, Neate, but I don't recall the media giving Steve Garvey an easy ride when he was found to have fathered multiple children out of wedlock. I just think you've picked the wrong issue on which to take this particular stand. Animal cruelty simply isn't a cultural issue in North America.
Are they going to make an example out of Vick? You bet, but it won't necessarily be about the colour of his skin. Vick is screwed because he is a high profile person involved in dog fighting, and this is a perfect chance for the authorities to FINALLY go make an example out of someone for engaging in this barbaric practice. Typically, the penalties for animal cruelty are laughably light. (This is true of both the U.S. and Canada.) With a high profile athlete in their sights, though, you can bet the District Attorney will be swinging for the fence in a bid to "send a message". Vick has no one but himself to blame here -- he has been doing this (allegedly) for five years, hardly an isolated incident. Some of the stuff he was doing, if proven true, was truly depraved.
Speaking only for myself, I've never thought of dog fighting as being a "black" thing. My stereotypical dog fighting afficionado has always been a white rural redneck.
Well, it's complicated, to say the least... this happens to spin off on another Michael Moore-ish tangent, so I apologize in advance.
Present company excepted, there are probably some sports radio listeners who have never dedicated a waking moment to contemplating the horrors of what was done to human beings at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and the other U.S. secret prisons. Yet they're disturbed out of shape over dogs being electrocuted, having their heads held under water, being deprived food and sleep -- exactly what's alleged to have gone on.
I'm not going to market Free Michael Vick T-shorts. I'm not asking for the criminal justice system to not make an example of him if they can prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and want to get tough on animal torture, which is terrible.
It's just that some people seem very selective over what they get outraged over. I'm probably the worst offender in North America.
Anyway, tonight Bob McCown had a San Diego columnist who's done the numbers on NFL player arrests on tonight and they touched on a point that perhaps should have occurred to me last night... it's not black or white, it's the prison culture seeping into the American mainstream. The Americans have created a system where having a certain percentage of the population behind bars is part of the economy. I don't know if there's a cause-and-effect between that and how much appeal the yob culture has.
you're right that Deadspin and the like cover only a small segment of the media coverage; however, aside from the occasional bill simmons article, the "black athletes have children out of wedlock" joke isn't that pervasive either.
i caught that clip on prime time sports. the prison culture argument has made jason whitlock a mainstay on the post-imus talk show circuit. check out his trilogy on aol sports.
i think this case does raise issues on how the media can frame an issue. whereas i see this as a animal rights and interstate commerce issue, others see this as a black culture issue, and still others see this as a nfl player gone bad issue. cumulatively, i guess this story draws on all of this, and it is up to us to realize what agenda is being advanced with each mentioning of the story.
(so when is someone going to mention the biggest issue - how does this impact fantasy football? i kid. i think.)
I've been following this story for weeks, as the rest of you probably have, and I was convinced it was gonna be a big, big, big story. Well, now that we have the indictments, it is a BIG story.
Even before the Vick story, the NFL had recently starting behaving as if they think they have a significant problem on their hands with off the field problems of their employees. Witness the 1 yr. suspension of Pac Man Jones & whatever Chris Henry got, plus the Bears walked away from a very talented player in Tank Johnson. The severity of these punishments marks a noticable change in the reactions of the NFL towards this problem. The Vick story will take this problem to "another level". The sordid details of this story, rape stands, killing dogs in all sorts of manner, electrocution, gun shot, beating, hanging etc. are so shocking that it won't just have the attention of sports fans. Vick will certainly be made an example of and quickly.
I have noticed a recent trend of dog abuse by pro athletes, make that African American pro athletes. Vick's teammate Jonathan Babineaux ( sic? ) beat his girlfriends pit bull to death with a bat. Ron Artest has been in trouble for having emaciated dogs on his property. ( Hungry, very hungry, dogs is part of the Vick story as well. Really hungry dogs evidently have more blood lust ). I couldn't figure this trend out, but post Vick I read that dog fighting has moved out of it's traditional southern white trash cracker environment and is now part of at least some African American gang culture. Guess what? Gangbangers play pro sports. ( Well, football and basketball, baseball to an increasingly lesser degree ).
It's easy to be a smug Canadian and feel superior, but we have urban ghettos full of visible minorities ( did Michael Moore take his crew to Jane & Finch at 1 AM on a Friday nite? ) and an aboriginal population that we destroyed. Nonetheless I will be a smug Canadian and say that the communities that the Vicks and Iversons are raised in are so unrelentingly violent and oppressive as to be unimaginable to a white, middle aged, middle class Cdn guy.
Having said all that I won't feel sorry for Vick when he loses it all, and he will.
Well said, Pete... no one should feel sorry for Vick... as Rosco said, it's all in how the media frames the story.
Anyways, not to make this all about me, but in 1999 my 2 favourite quarterbacks were Michael Vick and Daunte Culpepper.... oh well, I was 22 and now I'm 30, time to grow up and love Tom Brady.
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