Vick's Virginia Home Burglarized

Atlanta Falcons' quarterback Michael Vick's Virginia home is in the news again, as prosecutor Poindexter remarked that the home was burglarized somewhere in early to mid-May and a couch and some plasma televisions were taken. But, he commented, nothing pertinent to the case was stolen.

After reading this article on ESPN.com, I foolishly browsed users' comments and at a ratio of approximately 3:1, they were Vick-basher commentary, about how he (Vick) must've gotten some of his "people" to go and steal some accessories that may have proved troubling to him in court had they been found by those affiliated with the prosecution. Others exlaimed that Vick should serve a life-sentence in jail. Some said he should be kicked out of the league permanently. Yet, others decided to go on tangents not relevant to the case at all, giving their opinions that Vick is a worthless quarterback and that Joey Harrington is the best in existence.

I get a little tired of the ignorant making such remarks to prove their lack of intelligence and credibility. What do we know about the case? Biases aside, what do we truly know about the case? Not much of anything. According to these same people, Kobe Bryant was guilty of rape, O.J. was guilty of murder, even though one case was dropped and the other resulted in a not guilty verdict in a criminal court of law. Mike Tyson was convicted. There was hard enough evidence against him and he served time in prison. Michael Vick has yet to be indicted or even to have been interviewed by the proper authorities regarding the case. How can those not involved with the case exclaim with the utmost confidence about what we know nothing about?

As we saw with the Duke Lacrosse ordeal, the media loves to latch onto these kind of stories and sadly, based on what the media tells us (one-sided or not), the majority of people base their opinions on this infotainment, the biases they project often times, and pure speculation. As it was discovered, the Duke Lacrosse players did not rape the women who pressed charges, but what did the majority of the country think and believe regarding the case? How did the media project it? What was the final outcome? How affected will those young men be for the rest of their lives because of the case and all the hoopla that surrounded it?

Could Vick be guilty? Yes, of course. But, I firmly believe in the court's motto, which is, "One is innocent until proven guilty" and that there must be "guilt beyond a reasonable doubt" to refute that. Where is the hard evidence that has been found thus far to prove Vick's guilt? There is none. No video tapes have been found, audio tapes, or anything of the sort. There have been no signed papers by Vick himself to associate him with the dog fighting. The only "evidence" that the prosecution currently holds over the quarterback is a guy who claims that Vick bet $10-$40,000 on a dog fight back in 2000, when he was still a college student-athlete at Virginia Tech. Is this possible? Again, sure, it's possible. But, I have a question. Unless Vick received improper benefits from Virginia Tech, how in the world could he have $10-$40,000 to bet in the first place? If this is found to be accurate information, the University is going to be under investigation.

All the talk regarding this case reminds me of high school, when many rumors started swirling about the rock band Marilyn Manson. He killed animals on stage. He had his ribs removed so he could perform fellatio on himself. He performed Satanic rituals at concerts. It was like a silly old game of telephone and someone down the line decided to alter what was originally said to an extreme level and others fed off this until something ridiculous was muttered at the end by the final person in the circle. A radio talk show host in Tampa Bay stated on the air that ex-Falcon cornerback Ray Buchanan told him Vick was heavily involved in dogfighting. The day after, Buchanan angrily snarled back that he never said that and actually stated that Vick loves dogs. The talk show host then admitted he never heard Buchanan say that. Colin Cowherd, talk show host of The Herd, has stated that he knows Vick did it, even though he knows nothing of the sort. Dallas sportswriter Tim Cowlishaw has written a speculatory column about if Vick is guilty.

What's the point of any of this? Cowherd doesn't know (even though he believes to know everything). Cowlishaw doesn't know. The user commentators at ESPN.com don't know. I don't know. All we know is what we don't know. If we were involved with the case, this wouldn't be (maybe), but that's not the scenario. I'm rather tired of people laying down their biases based on what they don't know. If they truly want to know before the others, then they should attend law school or get involved with ACTUAL journalism.