How about the fact that multiple current and former players in Vick’s own sport have killed people and either continued to be allowed to play (Leonard Little, probably Donte Stallworth when he gets released from prison), or received far less media coverage and been the subject of far less outrage (Dwayne Goodrich, Rae Carruth). Compared to the furor over Vick, those cases make it pretty clear that mass sports culture exhibits more outrage about the killing of dogs than it does about the killing of people.

what has always bothered me about the michael vick scenario is the discrepancy in the public’s outrage. athlete’s get charged with beating their female partners from time to time yet the public seems to by in large, look the other way. for example, two players in last year’s world series (one on each team–Phillies and Rays) had been previously charged with domestic violence. there was little to no coverage of this. and relative to Vick’s impropriety, no outrage at all.

this suggests a number of things as far as I can tell. we are very likely to blame the victim (unless it is a defenseless animal). many folks care more about dogs than women. and the race of the perpetrator definitely matters–there is much less room for error if you are black or brown than if you are white.