Controversy sells and it makes people rich. Very few things drum up more controversy than an issue involving race. There’s no subject more polarizing in the sportsworld today than Michael Vick and his dogfighting involvement.
The picture of Vick with some dogs in the background gets animal lovers’ blood boiling. ESPN knows this and that’s why they have pictures of dogs throughout their issue which focuses on Vick.
They know Vick is a lightning rod. That’s the reason ESPN The Magazine dedicated an entire issue to him and they made sure to talk about the race issue throughout the numerous articles which focus on everything from his childhood, to his football career as a quarterback, to his involvement in dogfighting, to his nearly two-year stay in a federal penitentiary, to his resurrection as Eagles starting quarterback.
The publication took things to another level when they had one of their artists draw a white version of Vick. It got my attention as I went through the pages of the issue. The fact that I’m writing this article validates the sports company reasons for deciding to do this issue and have this version of Vick created.
Now the publication has removed the picture of a white Michael Vick off of their website. I see this as nothing but another move for attention.
The magazine also has an article in the issue which discusses the fact that certain people will never forgive Vick for his involvement in dogfighting. They highlight the racial tension which was created by Vick’s signing in Philadelphia.
They have articles focusing on Vick playing the quarterback position is an “African-American” way by running with the ball. Most of the time scrambling isn’t designated as an “African-American” thing but it’s something that is part of the image of many black quarterbacks. They’re labeled “athletic quarterbacks”.
This was a controversy which followed Donovan McNabb, who didn’t want to be categorized as a scrambler, who couldn’t read coverages. Vick doesn’t seem to care about being categorized because he knows his ability to use his speed is one of his strengths.
We’ll see how much mileage ESPN will be able to get out of these publicity stunts.
Why is race even a story anymore? Just let it go and move on.
If we want to discuss a divide that really matters and affects us all, we should focus on what’s happening in Washington.
Some idiots are always trying to stir up crap !!!!!!!!!!!!!! I look at it this way , Vick made a big time mistake with the dog fighting ,paid the price by going to prison ,losing millions , going bankrupt ,and humiliating himself . Now Vick is trying to redeem himself the best he can ,doing the speaking about dog fighting is wrong and trying the best he can to be a good figure head . Then you have the iditiots like the Animal rights groups and newspapers ,magazines and media that just won’t let things go and keep things all stirred up for Vick just to make a buck for themselves . Really I think Vick should be able to put a lawsuit against these people for continuing and pro-longing to make his life miserable .
that’s one ridic pic, lol
Race becomes an issue because it is. ESPN is just gettig heat for talking the truth concerning racial issues.
Race is a problem when there’s black people everywhere who know a white person would not serve one day in jail for shooting themselves in the leg.
If white people kill animals it’s sport..But if black people kill animals it’s murder.
(Dogfighting began in Europe – poor Whites in Stafforshire England bred dogs to fight for money) Not one of those ever went to jail for a sport they created.
You become a legend if you have won many games if you’re white like Jim Kelly, but you’re trading if you have won games and through your play, lift a franchise for obscurity like Mcnabb.
You’re a golf legend if you have cheated on your wife like Palmer but you’re the scum of the earth and villified if your name is Tiger.
I can go on and on….But I concede.
Racism really don’t exist.
By the way
Barack Obama is puppet scum.
If you don’t think race is still a big issue in this country then go to youtube and look at the comments left under the Georgetown China basketball brawl.
Computer Courage let’s people say what the really think.
songs, 100% correct, and you forgot the casey anthony trial, but you are wrong, for the most part, when you attribute racism to the way we feel about mcnabb, its not a color thing, talk to bernard hopkins about that one
racism exists, and it is better to get it out and discuss it, and do not trust anyone, white, black, asian, hispanic, who denies a racist thought.
songs, you are correct specifically about the killing animals thing – but you’re missing the point there. People weren’t mad at Vick for killing animals. They were made at Vick for killing their favorite PET. If vick was into cock fighting or any other animal besides a dog or cat, it wouldn’t have been such a big deal (in the public arena… his behavior, the lying and other illegal stuff still might have gotten him arrested). But the stupid PETA/dog lovers etc etc who still have their panties in a bunch (and they are indeed PATHETIC in my opinion) got sour because it was DOGS, not about race. White people would be just as made if a white guy did that to DOGS.
I love dogs, but I’ll never put them near the level of a human being. Many people blur that though for some sick reason.
schiller great point…People really are missing the point here when it comes to the hate Vick gets from mostly non Eagle fans around the country by thinking its more about race…Killing dogs is just viewed completely different in society than hunting and killing crocs or chickens or some other animal that you see getting killed on tv. If Vick was the croc hunter on tv the fact he he would of never went to jail for it and ppl wouldn’t give a crap either. it is what it is..If I was Vick I wouldn’t do another interview, tv special, or mag article about the whole dog fighting thing.
Btw come on Songs….who in the worlds think Jim Kelly is a LEGEND..whenever I think of of Jim Kelly the first thing that comes to my head is him choking in 4 straight Super Bowls…all i think of is a guy not being good enough to win…definitely not a legend…same feeling when it comes to McNabb
ha pheages – so true on Jim Kelly. He goes down as a very good QB and a pretty classy guy. That’s about it.
And Vick DID NOT GO TO JAIL FOR DOGFIGHTING.
to be honest, I think Espn is just cashing in on the Mike Vick situation…. they are going nuts over there with the Mike Vick stories… its annoying
My perspective on race is that there is racism today and if Mike Vick were white? he would have taken alot of heat for dogfighting and been a controversial figure, but after he came out of Jail (if he even went to jail) the public would have been much more inclined to move on give this guy his chance to redeem himself without all the backlash… 2years he is back in the league and we still have these haters who take hating Mike Vick almost as a religion… I doubt it would be so deep if he was a white guy..
but I think the true disservice is dont to the public as a whole when the race issue is stoked for profit like it appears to be now…
to me, the true problem in america is CLASSISM NOT RACISM.. Racism is a tool used to stir up the ignorant and the emotional…
If Americans re-aligned themselves according to class instead of race? things would change and they would change quickly…
I wont go into politics (or politricks as I call it) here, but I’ll say that I hope Americans of all colors begin to realize who their true allies and enemies are
Vick is making millions playing football and with endorsements and has his life back and Espn is a loser organization that needs a boost. There is racism is all races and anyone who denies it is a liar. I saw a picture of a dog who would not leave the casket and grave of a fallen soldier. Maybe this kind of love and loyalty
is why people love their animals and they also help the sick, the elderly, the blind Etc. Your dog wouldn’t think you were a f’in idiot if you made a bad post on G Cobb or and certainly are not racist.
Interesting perspective Rasheed, and it goes a long way in explaining why a wealthy black man can walk free after killing two people (OJ)
Good and interesting points (although debatable, but everything is anyways).
As a whole, the comments are getting better and the content is turning around with the quickness like some of us have been trying to do.
Glad were getting back to making this a great site, but one day/post at a time…
I won’t partake in this one, but good reads fellas.
Rasheed1 Politicians on both sides want there to be racial tension so the masses can be occupied with each other while they destroy our economy and enrich themselves. Their only goal is being reelected to serve their greed.
BigE- You’re right. But it was the Republican who ruined the economy – with their tax breaks for the rich, unfinanced and unnecessary Iraq war causing the deficit. Plus they deregulated the banking industry to allow for derivative speculation on Wall Street which almost brought us to a world wide financial collapse in 2008. Now they’re doing everything they can to frustrate the economic recovery because a bad economy
will give them a better chance to get the presidency back. The sad part about is that there are too many misinformed Americans who will vote for them again.
I apologize for the rant fellas but I had to tell the truth.
Glad to hear Eagles are making adjustments on the O-line. This will be the key to a successful season for the Eagles (to state the obvious).
deeptrheat – BRAVISSIMO. Perfect post. Big E is correct in saying that the push for reelection MASSIVELY screws our country – but it’s for greed reasons on the Repub side, and more for ‘gotta stay in office to do politics/push liberal policy” and “gotta play the game” factor for the Dems. So in essence, there are 2 culprits – the system and the republicans. And the Dems can also be blamed for being politically inept/weak (save for Clinton).
But the greed is really on the Republican side. Democrats wanting higher taxes, more regulation on industries etc… and social welfare – that’s not greed, that’s the opposite.
Add President Clinton to the long list of people who deserve a share of the blame for the housing bubble and bust. A recently re-exposed document shows that his administration went to ridiculous lengths to increase the national homeownership rate. It promoted paper-thin downpayments and pushed for ways to get lenders to give mortgage loans to first-time buyers with shaky financing and incomes. It’s clear now that the erosion of lending standards pushed prices up by increasing demand, and later led to waves of defaults by people who never should have bought a home in the first place.
President Bush continued the practices because they dovetailed with his Ownership Society goals, and of course Congress was strongly behind the push. But Clinton and his administration must shoulder some of the blame.
Please note when Bush Expressed concern over this policy Barney Frank and Dodd implied he was racist. Also note that congress was controlled by Democrats during this period. Geitner went along with the bailout of AIG which was 25% owned by Goldman Sachs.Also note thatn the head iof GE
is investing billions in China and is moving aircraft and imaging businessed to China. Aircraft that will compete with Boeing. The Dems are not as different as you think.
The head of GE is head of Jobs creation for Obama.
The MoveOn.org Political Action ad blames a banking deregulation bill sponsored by former Sen. Phil Gramm, a friend and one-time adviser to McCain’s campaign. It claims the bill “stripped safeguards that would have protected us.”
That claim is bunk. When we contacted MoveOn.org spokesman Trevor Fitzgibbons to ask just what “safeguards” the ad was talking about, he came up with not one single example. The only support offered for the ad’s claim is one line in one newspaper article that reported the bill “is now being blamed” for the crisis, without saying who is doing the blaming or on what grounds.
The bill in question is the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which was passed in 1999 and repealed portions of the Glass-Steagall Act, a piece of legislation from the era of the Great Depression that imposed a number of regulations on financial institutions. It’s true that Gramm authored the act, but what became law was a widely accepted bipartisan compromise. The measure passed the House 362 – 57, with 155 Democrats voting for the bill. The Senate passed the bill by a vote of 90 – 8. Among the Democrats voting for the bill: Obama’s running mate, Joe Biden. The bill was signed into law by President Clinton, a Democrat. If this bill really had “stripped the safeguards that would have protected us,” then both parties share the blame, not just “John McCain’s friend.”
Big E, fair enough. I’m not trying to imply that the dems or clinton were/are perfect. And Clinton was notorious for ‘traingulation’ which this could have totally been a part of.
BigE – You’re right about Glass-Steagall- the purpose of the law was to prevent what happened during the Great Depression from ever Halle if again. The law was written to keep commercial banks in the lending business and out of the investment business(simply stated). It also required that banks keep a certain percentage of liquidity. However when Glass-Steagall was repealed commercial banks were able to do what investment banks did. Commercial banks got in trouble by bundlleling mortgages as mortgage backed securities and selling them on the stock market. Sub-prime (bad credit) mortgages were the most lucrative because they provided a higher return on investment Derivities are are difficult to explain. Basically a system of controlling stocks without buying or selling but by in essence betting on it
one thing to keep in mind about the Housing/Mortage Crises too..
Many people are too blame just like the Lendors,banks, Real Estate Agents and the Gove’t.. Bottom line, You as an induvisual should be responsible for your financial decisions, and you have to do your homework but you have to believe that many people just bought way more than they needed or what they could afford and to me, that’s their own fault and they need to take responsibility too
Sorry I texting on an I phone and posted before I meant to. This is a complicated subject. Briefly and simply. Because the banks were dealing with subprime mortgage backed securities. They needed insurance against default. AIG provided this service by way of another dirivitive called – credit default swaps. Bottom line is Glass-Steagall protected consumers from greedy corporations by keeping commercial banks out of the investment bank business.
The Federal Trade Commission determined that over 80%of the fraud during the housing crisis was committed by mortgage brokers or the banks. Who got bailed out? And who owns the foreclosed property? Don’t look now fellas’ but the corporate guys have taken over. Last time I checked of the hundred largest economic entities in the world 49 were countries and 51 were corporations. Walmart is bigger than Denmark, Sweden and 26 other countries.
You guys are blaming Clinton? Are you nuts? When he left office, although he was far from perfect, there was a multitrillion $$$ Surplus! After 8 years of Bush & the evil one (Chaney), there was a multitrillion $$$ deficit! It’s the Republicans, who don’t want to tax the rich. I’m not an Obama apologist, but he was f^@#ed from day 1! You guys make yourselves sound stupid & misinformed when you post dumb comments, like that!
guys 3 spots left in the fantasy football league. For an invite shoot me an email astuckey05 at gmail. com
This whole racism thing is bunk. Mike Vick went to jail because of what he did, not who he is. This race card stuff gets throw around so much, it has no value anymore.
How about these flash mobs attacks? Dozens of young black men attack a single white person, sometimes a white women and beat them senseless. Yet no one is talkiing about the possible racism nexus. I know one thing for 100% absolute certain. If a black woman or man were walking down the street and were abruptly surrounded and badly beaten by dozens of only white males, every flipping Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and every saber rattling politican would be running their mouths about the whole hate crimes going on. The media would play it non stop. However, a few white people get beaten senseless by a group of black man for no apparent reason and all you hear is crickets. Kudos to Nutter for having the balls to speak up because he knows no one else in the white or black community will say anything.
I agree 100% with your statement Songs; people are always trying to sugarcoat this crap. The only thing you forgot to mention is the book deals on “why they did it and for what reason (if they were white) and “by golly gee whiz what were you thinking”; they would be the poster child for rehabilitation, forgiveness and a role model for “kids” everywhere as to how you can turn your life around for the better. Look at the comments on the local news blogs when a black man is arrested, you see the most racial “look at the thug/baby daddy/ section 8 thug”; when its a white guy you see the “where did he go wrong in his life, he had a great wife and kids, how could he when he had everything going for himself” comments. It’s alive and well. When something offends Black people, the first comments that comes out of Non blacks are “let the race thing go, racism is over” etc. Yeah right, it’s alive and well, look at the comments about our President and his wife. No one ever talked about W’s wife like that nor said anything about him getting us into this mess, but everybody blames our current head chief. It’s ridiculous. Things are turning around though and the minority are minority no more – The majority tide is a risin dude; “dude you got the best barrels ever dude, you just pull up and you get spit right outta them, spit right outta them “just ride the barrels and get pitted so pitted Wapaah!!!!!
Kobe vs Favre vs Vick vs Roethlisberger, take a lucky guess as to which 2 would get more negative media coverage. David Letterman vs Tiger woods? Every country in the middle East is “war torn” after we enter it, cause destruction and leave it a mess, our current president was the only one who didn’t vote for the war which is costing us taxpayers millions per day and billions per year, our economy is in shambles because of the mortgage crisis etc that was left by the previous administration, and yet our president is to blame for this mess? Crap…It’s alive and well.
The sick flash mob attacks caused quite a few people to write letters to the Daily News and Inquirer about 1) the papers don’t identify who comprised the flash mobs and 2) the failure of parents of flash mobbers to know where their kids were and to give them any guidance at all and 3) point out the racial nature of the attacks yet a failure of authorities to prosecute these as hate crimes. As a result, 1) many such letters were removed from Philly.com and 2) a series of articles, editorials, and letters in these papers saying that a) there have always been flash mobs and we are only now focusing on them because of the color of the violent rioters and b) articles claiming that this animal-like violence wouldn’t happen if we contributed more money to recreational facilities and pumped more money and jobs into minority communities. Sick!
I have never seen as many ignorant, closed minded, foolish, childish, thought processes, than i’ve seen on this website! Stop blaming everything & everyone else for the way people act. The Government blows, that’s a given. But they don’t force you to do or sell drugs, they don’t force you to rob, rape, kill, steal & commit crimes. Lack of recreation doesn’t cause these punks to riot & flash mob! It’s the @$$hole people themselves that do it! Stop with the coddling & excuse making & do something to better your community. There is something wrong with the world & society, when someone is celebrated when they are released from prison & the hard working & well schooled black man, is frowned upon & labled an Uncle Tom. There is right & wrong, period!!! Grow up! We all need to look in the mirror & stop the evil. ASAP!!!
I think bottomline is that people need to aligned according to their economic interests… That would fix are problems…
Poor blacks and poor whites need to work together because they have a common goal.. stop letting politicians drive a wedge between you with racial nonsense (flash mob hype, tea party hype, GoP racism against Obama hype) and keep your eyes on what matters…
sooner we stop fighting each other? the sooner we can get together fight together for what we believe in…
sheed – you are right but the problem is that the GOP/tea party specificaly strategize (and expertly at that) to brainwash the poor into thinking that their economic interests are aligned with GOP policy – which is actually the exact opposite.
Look guys…let’s stop this left/right futile discussion..Democrats and republicans are on the same team.
While one argue kill babies and promote homosexuality the other argue save babies while pushing legislation to kill babies in other countries.
You think if Bush had another term things would be different?
There’s an agenda in spite of the puppets they’ll stick in front of you to make you think things will be dandy, while your jobs get cut, your home forclosed ship on, with your industry is outsourced so the political criminals can make money with being taxed. Wake up already.
The Left/Right argument is for hamsters on wheels.
Stop of the wheel and look at those who are controlling the shekels.
“those who are controlling the shekels” = the republicans
I agree schiller… But I also agree ultimately with Songs.. Democrats and Republicans are simply 2 sides of the same coin.
People need to get together and choose a political leader WITHOUT the help of the television and the media.
the people need a leader who is beholden to them instead of the corporations and all the other interests that obviously supersede the interests of the American Public
rasheed I agree. But the same goes again – the repubs are AMAZING at keeping corporate interests in the forefront of influence. They shoot down any Democratic – or otherwise – efforts to change that.
Let me make a distinction here – for the PEOPLE – yes two sides of the same coin. For the politicians – nope – the repubs are hellbent on and highly successful at keeping it the way it is (if not making it worse).
As my grandmother always said “poli-tics”: Poli = Many Tics = Bloodsucking creatures
so many bloodsucking creatures
Schiller, I’m disappointed in you. You are usually the voice of reason. The Democratic party has just as many parasites, racists, pickpockets and liars as the Republican party. People vote for these people election after election. Here’s my advice: stop whining, work hard, teach your children well. Stop hating and stop blaming and making excuses.
About 30% of Dems are corrupt (Blue Dogs), while about 95% of the Republicans are. They vote in a monolithic kick step cadence directed by their corporate bosses who finance their election campaigns.
FanSince – I hear you, but the kind of politician that comprises the party is one thing – what they do 95% of the time with their policies is another. The Republicans work to keep the rich rich and left alone regardless of the state of the rest of the country. The Democrats do not. That’s the bottom line. Obama has to triangulate to get things done sometimes, and a bit too often these days. But overall, the repubs work to keep the rich rich and the dems work to balance out the wealth distribution.
They (Politicans) are all a bunch ot Turkeys and should be ashamed of themselves.. It’s amazaing that Country and Peoples Daily lives go on in spite of their ineptitude..
Schiller, I hear what you are saying, but as the voice of reason on this site you should know that a lot of Democratic positions are not in this country’s best interests. Just like the Republicans. I refuse to make one party “better” or more honorable than the other because it is absolutely only about the politicians self interests. Paulman, I like what you had to say!
Fan, that’s fair, but without getting into specifics, I can’t really agree with you because those were some sweeping generalizations (understandably). If you’re suggesting I have some balance to my perspective, that’s probably true. But I cannot say that I believe the problems with Democrat policy recently come anywhere NEAR the detrimental impact of the republican agenda on the country and the world. BIG TIME.