Michael Vick Should NOT Be Executed

This is in response to conservative commentator Tucker Carlson's recent "suggestion" that Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick "should be executed".

First off, I love animals as much as the next guy. I'd also like to add that I'm not some "sports buff" who thinks that a professional athlete should be granted leniency because he can throw a football. I really don't care.


As far as I'm concerned, part of Michael Vick's problem was being a professional athlete in the first place. A professional athlete who, like most professional athletes, have been catered to their entire lives. What better way to create a false sense of reality than to constantly "excuse" certain types of behavior in fear of preventing a super star athlete from becoming an icon?

It starts in high school, follows them into college, and by the time these guys become professional athletes, in their minds they can get away with anything.

Even murder.

No, it doesn't make it right.

Nor does it make it right that the answer to the question: "How does a young man like Vick bring himself to abuse dogs? probably lies somewhere in Vick being familiar with dog fighting as a child, thus becoming desensitized to the warm and fuzzy feelings that dogs generate in most people. Just because a man can throw a football doesn't mean he's mentally qualified to be your kids role model.

I hear it all the time, this "role model" bullshit. How many professional athletes need to screw up before you get a better understanding to what Charles Barkley was saying back in 1989? How many?

How many drug possessions, rape charges, assaults, murders, DUI's, and manslaughter charges need to be filed? How many professional athletes have to beat/ cheat on their wives before you, as a parent, come to grips with a media witch hunt in which people like Tucker Carlson seek to destroy the perception of the guy hanging on your child's wall?

Role models? Please. That's weak.

The truth is, whether it sounds like an excuse or not, Michael Vick is a product of the environment in which he was raised. Much like the delusional and rabid dog lover who is constantly making excuses for a vicious pit bull with endless cries of, "It's not the dog, it's how the dog was raised."

The same logic applies to Michael Vick. Vick is a product of his environment.

No, that doesn't make it right either. If Michael Vick's actions should be excused because he comes from a tough environment, certainly he wouldn't have served 23 months at the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, nor would he have incurred financial losses of up to 142 million dollars. That doesn't exactly sound like a fuckin' hall pass.

Not when ex Philadelphia Eagles WR Donte Stallworth is serving 23 days in jail for getting drunk behind the wheel and killing a man. Yeah, lets execute Michael Vick for killing dogs but give his teammate 23 days and a slap on the wrist for killing real people. That makes sense.

It's funny how proactive our political leaders are when it comes to the fate of a professional football player, or a steroid using baseball player, but where is Tucker Carlson when Oakland BART police officer Johannes Meserle executes Oscar Grant?

I dunno. I guess I just don't value the life of a vicious pit bull more than I value the life of a fellow human being. You know it's a shame. You can kill a mother's son, but just don't kill his dog.