Two More Michael Vick Issues to Think About

Dog fighting is hundreds of years old and on matters of history regarding gambling I turn to David Schwartz fine tome Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling. Schwartz mentions dog fighting twice - first on page 141:

Blood sports like bearbaiting, dogfighting, and cockfighting, long popular in England, never become widespread in New England, where colonists generally shunned violent sports.

Then on page 261:

Gambling was so common throughout the mining frontier, from California to Montana, that dogfights, bearfights, and bearbaiting were rampant. One man even proclaimed his "killer duck" an interspecies champion and pitted it against all canine challengers.

The two points I want to make here are first - dog fighting was historically only popular on the edges of society were other entertainment options did not exist. This is not the time of Henry II or the old west of Deadwood - Michael Vick had plenty of other entertainment options available to him. That he voluntarily chose to be involved in such a cruel and felonious gambling activity speaks volumes about the character of Michael Vick.

The second point is much more important. Two things go hand in hand when it comes to dog fighting - cruelty and gambling. Everyone seems to be focusing on the cruelty involved (and given the shocking ways some of the dogs were murdered - it is understandable). However, it should not be lost on the NLF and Federal authorities that these dog fights were part of a high stakes gambling ring. Gambling seems to be a forgotten factor here.

Imagine that it was not dogfighting but some other felonious high-stakes gambling operation that was being operated on Michael Vick's property. If gambling was the focus of this investigation then I have to wonder if the NFL would be so willing to let the Falcons handle this in-house as they apparently so willing to do.

I have to ask - isn't a player who would risk staging such felonious gambling activities at his own house the exact type of player organized crime would try to get their hooks into to shave points? Michael Vick has been known as an up and down player. Great one week and inconsistent the next. Maybe there was a consistency to Vick's below expectations performances. These questions have to be asked. A person who would engage in dog fighting is capable of anything. Michael Vick does not get the benefit of a doubt.