Michael Vick case: Can it be debated?

Vick pleads guilty, seeks forgiveness

Michael Vick admitted hanging and drowning dogs. But before Vick pleaded guilty, some pleaded for the public to give him another chance.

Supporters say he has been pilloried and that what he did was no different than deer hunting.

But it is different, said Harry Edwards, a sports sociologist. He is a professor emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley who advises the NFL's San Francisco 49ers on dealing with being a pro football player.

To change some minds, you have to get to dogfighting's roots, Edwards said in a phone interview last week.

"If you're serious about this dogfighting, you eventually have to get down to the culture that has now invaded sports."

Dogfighting traces its roots to Roman times, but urban dogfighting grew from the drug-and-gang culture, in which pit bulls protect their masters' turf, such as drug houses, he said. It's only the latest adaptation of drug-and-gang culture by some professional athletes.

The dogs have become an extension of a man's masculinity. In today's warrior-athlete culture, it shouldn't be a surprise that football players own them, he said.

Edwards pointed to two violent incidents involving dogs and high-profile athletes: Last year, a pit bull and a mastiff belonging to then-Pittsburgh Steeler Joey Porter escaped from Porter's home and killed a miniature horse. And in 1994, the 4-year-old daughter of former NBA star Latrell Sprewell had her ear bitten off when one of his four pit bulls attacked her.

People often own fighting dogs for the status they think it gives them, said Teresa Landon, director of the Ohio Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. "They have an animal to brag about."

Edwards said he has recently talked to three college football teams -- he wouldn't identify them -- about the pitfalls of owning pit bulls. At each school, 10 to 15 players said they owned pit bulls or dogs of that ilk.

Owning dogs associated with dogfighting, gangs and the drug culture is a bad idea, he told them.

"Do you value your college career, your NFL prospects … or your street cred and image from walking around with these dogs?"

Ohio State University football coach Jim Tressel hasn't talked to his players specifically about owning pit bulls or dogfighting. But he is always discussing current events with them and preaches responsibility and character, said Shelly Poe, an Ohio State University athletic department spokeswoman. Americans have pitted dogs against one another since the 1800s.

And pit bulls are keeping animal wardens busy. Last year in Franklin County, they picked up 2,016 pit bulls for improper confinement or for running loose, or because the owners had been arrested and no one could care for the dogs. That compares with 1,650 the year before, said Craig Turk, Franklin County Animal Care and Control assistant director.

The U.S. has an estimated 40,000 professional dogfighters, plus hundreds of thousands of street-level fighters. Despite their prevalence, their sport appalls most Americans, said Nancy Spencer, a Bowling Green State University sports sociologist and president of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport.

"Because of their valued place in our society, that makes a difference," Spencer said, noting that dogs are often part of the family and more than pets.

Dogfighting is illegal in every state, and a felony everywhere but in Idaho and Wyoming.

R.L. White, the president of the Atlanta chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, defended the Atlanta Falcons quarterback.

White doesn't support dogfighting, he said last week, but he equated it with hunting.

"Michael Vick has received more negative press than if he had killed a human being," said White, whose chapter has asked the NFL to let Vick play after he serves his sentence.

Washington Redskins running back Clinton Portis had said, "It's his property. It's his dog. If that's what he wants to do, do it."

And New York Knicks point guard Stephon Marbury said last week, "You know, from what I understand, dogfighting is just a sport. It's just behind closed doors.

"We don't say anything about people who shoot deer or shoot other animals."

Vick should be punished, Marbury said, then given a second chance.

Besides the law, there's a big difference between dogfighting and hunting, Edwards said.

"You don't lynch all the deer who don't have antlers to qualify as trophies," he said. The dogs killed in Vick's case were viewed as underperformers.

Edwards said he expects the topic to be an issue next year at the NFL combine, where prospective players work out for teams before the draft and are asked about things such as their character.

"If you think Michael Vick's the only one, you're in sad shape," he said.

mferenchik@dispatch.com

"I accept responsibility for my actions ... now I have to pay the consequences. "

Michael Vick