happycats
August 24th, 2007, 07:13 AM
Check out these reports.
This one was in Wednesday paper. the second is from today.
I emailed him to show my support, and that I totally agree with him!
Published August 22, 2007
Vick threw it all away
Before he became the scum of the earth, Michael Vick was the strongest-armed, fastest-running quarterback on earth.
He mesmerized opponents. He could scramble and escape trouble, it seemed, at will. He’d make up things as he went along, think quickly on his feet and spring himself free.
What worked so effectively for him on the field, however, couldn’t help him off the field. Vick couldn’t scramble out of trouble with the law. He made things up as he went along, all right, and lied, but he didn’t spring himself free at all.
He’s going to jail. His associates in a dogfighting ring — yech — spilled the beans to legal authorities about his participation in this nonsense and now he’s been sacked for the worst loss of his life.
He’s lost dignity. He’s lost millions and millions of dollars. He’s lost endorsements. And he’s likely lost his career.
Who’d want to give this sicko another chance?
I’m sure we agree by now that this is the most lamentable, most disgusting sports story of our lifetimes. We thought we saw it all before this — athletes’ careers being derailed by drugs, alcohol, gambling and even murder.
But dogfighting?
This officially is the most astounding, most unfathomable fall from grace in sports history.
At 27, with so much to look forward to, Vick just couldn’t obey the law. He couldn’t be humane. He couldn’t refrain from being a heartless criminal.
Vick is a (pick one of two profanities that rhyme here. Both are applicable).
• David Wells, at 44, has neither eaten nor pitched his way out of baseball just yet. The hefty lefty, released recently by the San Diego Padres, is talking to both the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Colorado Rockies about joining them for the stretch drive ... Rick Ankiel is baseball’s top story these days for working his way back to St. Louis as a power-hitting outfielder after struggling as a pitcher with the Cardinals years ago. Well, Lance Niekro has a similar strategy. After failing in San Francisco as a first baseman/outfielder, Niekro has begun to pitch in the minor leagues and hopes to return to MLB as a knuckleballer, as his father Joe and uncle Phil were ... Jesse Barfield and George Bell were bosom buddies as Blue Jay outfielders in the 1980s, but the two haven’t spoken to each other in more than a decade. “I don’t even know where George is,” Barfield said, sadly.
• And from Denny Creehan, defensive co-ordinator of the Calgary Stampeders, who’ve allowed the most points in the CFL: “We’re so stupid at times, it’s unbelievable.”
marty.york@metronews.ca
Published August 24, 2007
Cult of Vick support a very scary place to be
I abhor ultimate fighting, or whatever it’s called, but I can tolerate it just a trifle more now that I’ve seen dogs fight.
CNN showed dogs fighting so that, as NFL quarterback Michael Vick awaits his jail sentence for participating in this nonsense, us viewers could get a sense of just how inhumane, heartless and grotesque it is.
Ultimate fighting, in my view, is barbaric and I think it should be banned simply because the objective is to beat one’s opponent senseless or to death. At least, however, the participants are human beings who, presumably, know they’re taking crazy risks under the guise of sport.
But dog fighting, folks, is no sport. It’s pure evil. Dogs do what their trainers order them to do and, in this case, that means scratching, clawing, biting and eating their fellow dogs.
Still, a shockingly large number support Vick and deride his deriders.
I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard callers defending Vick on radio. But then, when I checked my e-mail, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I was inundated with messages attacking me for what I wrote about Vick on Wednesday.
“I don’t agree with you calling Vick ‘scum of the earth’ and ‘sicko’ and ‘heartless criminal,’” said an e-mail with the name Colin Pryce attached to it. “If you have done your research you would know, in the south (dogfighting) is common practice. I am not condoning what Vick did. I personally am not an animal-rights person and grew up in the Caribbean where animals are just that — animals. They do not come in the house ... I don’t know who made you judge, jury and executioner, but you are not, and he will play again, and I hope someone gives him another chance...”
And this e-mail with the name Kelechi Chiadi Nwokonta attached to it: “I am yet to read one sports columnist/broadcaster that has even a little good thing to say about Vick, let alone have human empathy for him ... There are people shooting squirrels, hunting all sorts of animals and birds and they are not scorn of the earth. Only Vick is today. I guess the only explanation I have for all this outcry is this society is fueled by a hateful media...”
I cannot explain this to my children.
Must we adore athletes no matter what they do? Is the media overblowing this? Does New York Knicks guard Stephon Marbury speak for a majority when he suggests dogfighting is a sport and that Vick’s “a good human being”?
Am I wrong to consider Vick a disgraceful idiot?
marty.york@metronews.ca
Heres the link http://www.metronews.ca/column.aspx?id=5700
This one was in Wednesday paper. the second is from today.
I emailed him to show my support, and that I totally agree with him!
Published August 22, 2007
Vick threw it all away
Before he became the scum of the earth, Michael Vick was the strongest-armed, fastest-running quarterback on earth.
He mesmerized opponents. He could scramble and escape trouble, it seemed, at will. He’d make up things as he went along, think quickly on his feet and spring himself free.
What worked so effectively for him on the field, however, couldn’t help him off the field. Vick couldn’t scramble out of trouble with the law. He made things up as he went along, all right, and lied, but he didn’t spring himself free at all.
He’s going to jail. His associates in a dogfighting ring — yech — spilled the beans to legal authorities about his participation in this nonsense and now he’s been sacked for the worst loss of his life.
He’s lost dignity. He’s lost millions and millions of dollars. He’s lost endorsements. And he’s likely lost his career.
Who’d want to give this sicko another chance?
I’m sure we agree by now that this is the most lamentable, most disgusting sports story of our lifetimes. We thought we saw it all before this — athletes’ careers being derailed by drugs, alcohol, gambling and even murder.
But dogfighting?
This officially is the most astounding, most unfathomable fall from grace in sports history.
At 27, with so much to look forward to, Vick just couldn’t obey the law. He couldn’t be humane. He couldn’t refrain from being a heartless criminal.
Vick is a (pick one of two profanities that rhyme here. Both are applicable).
• David Wells, at 44, has neither eaten nor pitched his way out of baseball just yet. The hefty lefty, released recently by the San Diego Padres, is talking to both the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Colorado Rockies about joining them for the stretch drive ... Rick Ankiel is baseball’s top story these days for working his way back to St. Louis as a power-hitting outfielder after struggling as a pitcher with the Cardinals years ago. Well, Lance Niekro has a similar strategy. After failing in San Francisco as a first baseman/outfielder, Niekro has begun to pitch in the minor leagues and hopes to return to MLB as a knuckleballer, as his father Joe and uncle Phil were ... Jesse Barfield and George Bell were bosom buddies as Blue Jay outfielders in the 1980s, but the two haven’t spoken to each other in more than a decade. “I don’t even know where George is,” Barfield said, sadly.
• And from Denny Creehan, defensive co-ordinator of the Calgary Stampeders, who’ve allowed the most points in the CFL: “We’re so stupid at times, it’s unbelievable.”
marty.york@metronews.ca
Published August 24, 2007
Cult of Vick support a very scary place to be
I abhor ultimate fighting, or whatever it’s called, but I can tolerate it just a trifle more now that I’ve seen dogs fight.
CNN showed dogs fighting so that, as NFL quarterback Michael Vick awaits his jail sentence for participating in this nonsense, us viewers could get a sense of just how inhumane, heartless and grotesque it is.
Ultimate fighting, in my view, is barbaric and I think it should be banned simply because the objective is to beat one’s opponent senseless or to death. At least, however, the participants are human beings who, presumably, know they’re taking crazy risks under the guise of sport.
But dog fighting, folks, is no sport. It’s pure evil. Dogs do what their trainers order them to do and, in this case, that means scratching, clawing, biting and eating their fellow dogs.
Still, a shockingly large number support Vick and deride his deriders.
I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard callers defending Vick on radio. But then, when I checked my e-mail, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I was inundated with messages attacking me for what I wrote about Vick on Wednesday.
“I don’t agree with you calling Vick ‘scum of the earth’ and ‘sicko’ and ‘heartless criminal,’” said an e-mail with the name Colin Pryce attached to it. “If you have done your research you would know, in the south (dogfighting) is common practice. I am not condoning what Vick did. I personally am not an animal-rights person and grew up in the Caribbean where animals are just that — animals. They do not come in the house ... I don’t know who made you judge, jury and executioner, but you are not, and he will play again, and I hope someone gives him another chance...”
And this e-mail with the name Kelechi Chiadi Nwokonta attached to it: “I am yet to read one sports columnist/broadcaster that has even a little good thing to say about Vick, let alone have human empathy for him ... There are people shooting squirrels, hunting all sorts of animals and birds and they are not scorn of the earth. Only Vick is today. I guess the only explanation I have for all this outcry is this society is fueled by a hateful media...”
I cannot explain this to my children.
Must we adore athletes no matter what they do? Is the media overblowing this? Does New York Knicks guard Stephon Marbury speak for a majority when he suggests dogfighting is a sport and that Vick’s “a good human being”?
Am I wrong to consider Vick a disgraceful idiot?
marty.york@metronews.ca
Heres the link http://www.metronews.ca/column.aspx?id=5700