Michael Vick. The New O.J.??

I have tried not to write about this story. Yet I have been inundated with it for what seems like months. Maybe it has been months. I can't watch Sports Center without hearing about it for at least 15 minutes of the show. It agitates me. I've never been a Michael Vick fan. I don't think he's a good quarterback. And now it would appear, he is not a very good person either.

There are a couple of things about this case that bother me. The first was touched on by by Jamie Spencer today. His apology. While I certainly commend his attorneys for being able to get him well-rehearsed for the apology yesterday (he didn't use notes, and he seemed to actually have a purpose in his speech), I have to quibble with the statement that he made a mistake. Spencer is right. You can make a mistake when you decide to lift that purse from the Coach store. You make a mistake when you have 13 shots of Wild Turkey and decide to drive home. You might make a mistake by trying to shoot J.R. But when you systematically kill under-performing dogs in such a heinous nature over the span of at least six years while gambling on which dog lives or dies, I think the idea that it was a "mistake" is a bigger stretch than the idea that Vick is a good quarterback. (I won't even get into the thought I had about how it's a good thing the Falcons didn't use the same kind of punishment for their poor-performing players, especially since as the quarterback, Vick couldn't hit water if he fell out of a boat.)

The other thing that has irritated me about this case is the seemingly constant comparison to the O.J. case. This is madness. ("This is Sparta!") But I digress. This case is more akin to Paris Hilton than O.J. Maybe it's my youth, but O.J. was one of those events that you remember where you were when it happened. (For the record, I was in my Jurisprudence class as an undergrad at Texas Tech, and my buddy had a handheld TV that we watched the verdict come in on.) Maybe it's just because when it happened, I already knew I was going to be a criminal lawyer. But the O.J. verdict was similar to the Challenger disaster or the Kennedy Assassination (I guess. I certainly wasn't there, but I've been told.)

First of all, Michael Vick is not O.J. I've met O.J., and you sir...., well you get it. Vick doesn't transcend the racial, socio-economic, and professional lines like O.J. did. I mean O.J. was in commercials, he was in movies, he did color commentary for NBC for football games. Oh yeah, and he was a much better football player than Vick. Michael Vick is an excellent athlete that has been in the league for something like six years. O.J. Simpson was a household name. (Obviously he still is, but for other reasons.)

Secondly, the shock of the O.J. case was far greater than with Vick. At the time of O.J., it was crazy to think someone we all knew could be charged with a crime such as that. It simply hadn't happened yet. At least not with the glare of the media as it was. But with Vick, it's hardly a rare occurrence to see an NFL player in trouble with the law. Just this year we've been fortunate enough to hear about Tank Johnson of the Bears and Pacman Jones of the Titans with enough regularity that I'm considering getting rid of cable. Vick's charge is bad, but it's hardly something new.

Finally, Vick's case is just not a big event. There will be no trial. There will be no months of testimony with a sequestered jury with constant media attention. I would imagine the T.V. trucks have left Richmond as I type this. It's just not that big of an event. Now don't get me wrong. Michael Vick's actions are disgusting. Dogfighting is heinous. (Oh yeah, stop calling it a sport. I will conceded NASCAR is a sport if people will just stop calling dogfighting a sport.) I am a dog guy myself, so the idea of hurting and killing dogs is simply repulsive to me. But at the same time, let's not equate dogfighting, as heinous as it is, with a double homicide. It's not the same, and to compare the two is ridiculous.

Michael Vick will likely go to federal prison for about 18 months, and then he will come back to try to play in the NFL again. It's a big story now. But six months after he gets sentenced, he won't be talked about again except in terms of wasted opportunity and wasted talent. Tragic. But this is not O.J. The O.J. case changed the way criminal cases are handled by the media. It made the T.V. watching public the 13th juror. It changed the legal landscape forever.

Comments

[Jamie]

13 shots of Wild Turkey? Thirteen is a mistake?

Must be nice practicing in Fort Worth... in Austin, you make a mistake by drinking one (and driving home).

Sounds like maybe you North Texans still have the ole "he didn't drive the car into a ditch, now did he?" defense :)