As Commission Roger Goodell has asked Michael Vick to stay away from the NFL until the legal picture becomes more clear, the NFL is planning to initiate a PSA series on the ills of dog fighting.
The NFL also is planning a series of public service announcements throughout the football season in which active players will be doing commercials on the very subject. The league has not yet determined which players it will be using, but it is expected to be high-profile ones to help show the league is taking the issue seriously.
This is a wonderful endeavor and is something the NFL probably should have gotten involved in long ago.
However, we believe the NFL is mishandling this.
All this information about the vast brutality of this underground endeavor would never have become a front page story if not for Michael Vick's efforts. Vick is the person that made this story a national concern. Vick is the one who provided PETA with the opportunity to stage demonstrations in NY and gain valuable exposure for this issue.
And now, the NFL is going to run these PSA's in an effort to cultivate its own image. In an effort to show that the league is responsible and caring. Sounds like the right thing to do.
But in its desire to put itself first, the league has selfishly pushed Vick aside; attempting to take the credit for making this issue a household discussion by cutting Vick out of the picture. "Here, take your paycheck and disappear while we become the advocate for animals."
This is just another example of Roger Goodell's insatiable ego making the story about himself and the league. Vick is the one that did the leg work that made this a national topic, and he hasn't so much as held a press conference to put the spotlight on himself. Yet, Goodell issues press releases and takes every opportunity to associate himself and the league with it. Such behavior, in the long run, will have a negative effect on the PSA's.
Fans will see this as a media grab. They will recognize Goodell's desire to market by attaching himself and the NFL to the anti-dog fighting movement. It will be seen as insincere.
If Goodell really wanted positive results (and not just a marketing opportunity) from the PSA's, he would include Vick in them. Not coerce Vick into stepping aside so he can take the credit.
This is just another example of corporate America white washing an important social issue and trying to possess it as their own for self promotion, destroying the grassroots starts of the movement.
And it's all done at the expense of the individual.
The individual that brought the issue to light.
The individual with the passion for dog fighting.
Michael Vick.
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14 comments:
Clearly Mr. Goodell thinks Mr. Vick's work is done, as Vick is now Negro Non Grata.
It is telling that even Mr. Goodell is cognizant of the fact that a suspension would be inappropriate. Sadly, he has resorted to cheap bullying tactics to shove Mr. Vick aside in order to maximize his own camera time.
Someone must stand up to Mr. Goodell before he takes down another young black star on the grounds of "dog enthusiasm." We have spent enough time with appeasement; will we be Neville Chamberlain to Goodell's Hitler, or will we be Winston Churchill?
Sir, perfect analogy.
Let's give Vick his due.
Not to pile on...well, actually, to pile on, PETA isn't exactly helping their credibility either. While they support a noble cause, profiting from it doesn't exactly send the right message->
http://www.cafepress.com/petastore/3337243
"Get yer 'Sack Vick' jerseys...1/2 price mugs for first hundred buyers..."
Michael Vick is incredibly selfless and I am very pleased that you have raised this point, sir.
wow... this is a really bad move... why make ads to address this specifically (and thus be singling Vick out for league-wide condemnation) and not trespasses?
Where's the 'don't beat your wife' PSA that chides Robert Reynolds?
Where's the anti-DUI PSA that's obviously a response to Jared Allen?
Where's the 'leave your piles of drugs and guns at home' ad for Bill Maas?
What Vick and his partners have been accused of is horrible, but so are many of the things players have been busted for. Dog fighting is also not a widespread problem on the scale of DUI's and spousal abuse.
Shouldn't those issues get PSAs first?
"Shouldn't those issues get PSAs first? "
Sir, Ben......welcome.
Your response is most appreciated.
sir NOIS,
as is your candor... A tip of the hat.
The only thing Vic should be doing is accepting responsibility for what he has done.
"The only thing Vic should be doing is accepting responsibility for what he has done"
Sir, how can he when the league has told him to stay away???
Let the man do the PSA's!
Michael Vick made a mistake in who we what to bash to death or drown. If he would have paid a few homeless white guys to fight each other to the death, no one in the media would have cared.
Michael Vick has helped clarify how the political correctness standing in the U.S.
1. homosexuals
2. pets
3. Negros.
4. Hispanics,
5. Asians.
6. whites.
"If he would have paid a few homeless white guys to fight each other "
bumfights rules!
Good Lord, please stop the over-dramatizations.
Dogfighting is a federal offense. If Vick allowed this to happen around him, he's the dumbest man on the planet.
Any entertainment business would be within it's rights to bar a performer from doing his or her job until the matter is settled.
Would you allow an employee to come back to your place of business if he/she were indicted for burglary or larceny? How about manslaughter? Rape? Or would you put them on paid leave of absence pending the outcome?
As far as PETA goes, I'm no great fan. But for goodness sakes, Bad Newz Kennelz set the table for them. Does it surprise you that PETA takes advantage? But at a deeper level, isn't dogfighting a federal offense?
"Good Lord, please stop the over-dramatizations."
Sir, if demanding that a man be granted his right to due process and assumption of innocense is an over dramatization, then we are guilty as charged.
Just because you are more than willing to accept the indictment, levied by a government which has proven time and again to be corrupt, as a declaration of guilt doesn't mean that the rest of us have to.
Some of us enjoy our rights and refuse to give them up freely.
Don't hold us to your personal standards of allowing the media or government to trample your rights.
We aren't Uncle Toms.
If you choose to be, so be it.
But we don't.
"Uncle Tom" Love it.
Let me see, Goodell should have said the following:
"We at the NFL believe in the right of the accused. Therefore we are going to stand with Michael Vick until a jury of his peers finds him innocent or guilty. The league will announce a new security program limiting the ability of non-ticket holders from protesting at NFL venues. They are perfectly free to protest, boycott, etc. for as long as the trial goes on, but not at NFL venues. Fans who feel outrage at the thought one of our stars could have been involved in dogfighting will not be allowed to express their anger at Vick, however accurate it may or may not prove to be. Any ticket holding fan protesting Michael Vick will be removed from the stadium or facility. Any player trying to inflict an extra bit of harm against Vick or allowing harm in some type of misguided retaliation will be suspended for 3 games.
We at the NFL, after a long discussion, feel it's best to use our multi-billions in order to stand with Vick until a jury rules. We feel that despite our recent setbacks with players who end up in legal trouble, it is in our best interest to resist protests, boycotts, and the like to remind everyone that due process is what makes this country great."
Get real. The NFL has done what it needed to in order to distance themselves from Vick.
Dogfighting is a federal offense. There's an easy way to avoid being arrested for it. There are plenty of other stories and persons who actually need defending more than Vick.
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