Welcome to "The Gods Are Bored!" When I hear that a dog is "Man's best friend," I wonder how stupid Man can be to choose an animal over a person as a best friend.
Uh oh, another dog blog! Duck and cover!
I moved to New Jersey in 1987 and took up the Philadelphia Eagles football team right away. It wasn't too difficult to shuck my allegiance to the Detroit Lions.
On Friday, the Eagles signed Michael Vick to a short-term contract. Vick is fresh out of prison for torturing dogs and for running a dog fight ring.
First of all, you've just got to question the mental capacity of this individual. He had a $135 million football contract, and he didn't examine his judgment about running roughshod over Rover? Don't you think someone in his family or circle of friends might have said, "Yo, Michael, this is, like, illegal?"
The Eagles management says that Vick has paid his debt to society and should be given a fresh chance. Of course, this is Michael Vick, a top-notch professional football player. If he had been Michael Vick, desperately poor citizen of Camden, New Jersey, trying to make money any way possible, he'd be standing in line at the employment agency ... and coming up empty. No one's gonna hire a dude who electrocuted dogs, unless he's boffo with a pigskin.
Sunday night, Vick appeared on Sixty Minutes to profess his apology and admit that he'd done wrong and that he would fix things with the SPCA by making speeches about pet care.
Did you watch that interview? Please don't think I'm racist, but I saw a man who seemed totally devoid of remorse. He said the right things, but his eyes gave him away. Cold, hard stares, not even a blink when asked challenging questions. I saw a dude who would give all the right answers just to get back into the chips. Not a truly repentant felon. Even the inevitable fallback to his "Lord and savior" seemed forced and unconvincing.
I believe Michael Vick deserves a second chance. The Eagles need a sturdy backup quarterback. It's all about winning in any sport. But as a fan who can't afford the price of tickets to a game anyway, I feel free to take my support elsewhere. I wouldn't do it if I thought the dude was truly sorry. In my opinion, he's not. (Well, maybe he's sorry he got caught.)
Have you ever tried to find a professional sports franchise that is totally devoid of bad-behaving players? The 1968 Baltimore Orioles spring to mind. Otherwise, forget it. Therefore, we at "The Gods Are Bored," in typical "Gods Are Bored" fashion, will choose to support the first team other than the Eagles for which we find a jersey or a t-shirt at the thrift store. Luck of the draw.
I think dogs have their place in the world, and it's not on a pedestal. But anyone who could do vicious things to a dog also has the capacity to lash out at people. That's what has me worried about Michael Vick, and that's why we at "The Gods Are Bored" have withdrawn our allegiance to the Philadelphia Eagles.
8 comments:
May the thrift store pick a good team for you!
When this story broke, I had to google the guy to find out who he was.
I just don't follow professional sports.
From what I do know about a lot of the athletes (particularly the NBA which we in the Seattle-Tacoma area are thankfully without now that we told the Sonics not to let the door hit them on the ass on the way out) is that there is a sense of entitlement and being above the law. In the case of the NBA, I've seen a "thug" mentality.
I see young kids (especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds) thinking that they can get away with not studying/going to school because they're going to make millions shooting hoops.
I see college kids getting scholarships without doing the work to even graduate high school more or less earn a degree and do something with it, because sports are all about money even at the collegiate level.
Of course this guy is saying the right things.
He wants the money and as far as I'm concerned, he's a lying POS. (oh and the contrived and predictable "Lord and Savior" crap just makes me want to hurl)
I personally don't care if he plays ball or not, but I know that others do.
I think the best we can all hope for in this situation is that he actually does some good with his "community/public service" in speaking out against animal cruelty.
I know that this is a hard decision for you as you loved your eagles like I love my Cowboys..but if I quit the Cowboys every time managment(Jerry Jones) did something morally reprehensible I'd never be a Dallas fan...the team you love didn't go out and get him(although the quarterback is good buddies with him and welcomed him like a long lost brother)but managment did...I double if you could find a Cowboy fan tshirt there, but I could send you one..haha...
I like watching pro football and I will watch pro football. I don't really root for any team (even though I live in Denver) because of all the mentioned reasons. I pick a team to root for in a particular game if it looks like a good one. Other than that I don't care.
I do care that no one seems to think it is fair to make any demands on people who make MILLIONS of dollars. Simple demands, like...no felonies.
Being a cohabitor with PitBulls, I have indeed heard the dissenting view on dog fighting.
It goes something like this:
"We bred these dogs to fight, and that's what they love to do. It's going against the dog's nature not to let it fight."
I don't have to tell you that I completely disagree with this rationalisation, but hearing out the opposing point of view never hurt me.
The thing these dog fighters are either forgetting or not wanting to remember, is that the very first thing a loyal canine wants to do is please his owner. So, if pleasing you means getting into that pit and fighting another dog-that's what Rover is going to do.
There are many ways to guage the 'gameness' of a dog, including but not limited to canine agility and strength competitions. For Chrissakes, just getting to know your dog as you would get to know anybody else will tell you about his qualities. You don't have to get him to fight to prove it.
But at the end of the day, all these words fall upon deaf ears, as the man who has rationalised dog fighting will continue to defend it, especially to himself.
No Anne, this dude is probably not sorry, not even a bit.
But I wish I could make him sorry.
Love,
Terri in Joburg
I'm angry because I think he's a despicable human being. My husband's angry because he thought there was a rule within the NFL that nobody with a felony conviction was permitted to play in the NFL. No team would be without the backlash for picking him up. It's frightening to me how many are on the "he served his time/repaid his debt - he deserves a second chance" bandwagon.
This is why I'm a Raiders fan - their reputation is already up front - there is no opportunity for disappointment and when other teams do something rotten, I can just sigh with relief that it wasn't the Raiders! lol
Fortunately, Dog Town (in AZ or NM) took a number of the dogs and rehabilitated them.
Could you watch the sport, enjoy it, and not root for any particular team?
No.
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