Michael Vick may be a scumbag, but there's a larger issue that no one's discussing.

Everybody wants to talk about Michael Vick. Well, actually, they want to talk about Tim Donaghy, the NBA ref who betted on games, and perhaps affected the outcome of games he refereed in order to cover spreads and whatnot. Then they want to talk about Michael Vick and his dog fighting ring. Then they want to talk about Barry Bonds’ imminent overtake of Hammerin’ Hank Aaron’s home run record. Then perhaps they’ll throw in a word about how Gary Bettman, the commissioner of the NHL, is looking pretty good compared to some of his peers right now. Then, if they get around to it, because it’s professional cycling, and it’s not like anyone in this country cares, especially now that Lance Armstrong has retired, they want to talk about the apparently rampant doping and widespread malfeasance going down at the Tour de France.

Being a sports fan can be a bit of a drag during the late summer doldrums. Football doesn’t start until September (yeah, the preseason is in August, but whatever, it’s not like those games matter), the NBA finished up a month ago, and the European soccer season is over. MLS is going strong, so that keeps one occupied, assuming you are among the minority of American sports fans that are into soccer. Baseball is fun, of course, but the season is sooooo long that I really have a hard time caring until pennant races start in earnest towards the end of August. (This is especially true since my hometown team is God-awful, largely thanks to the shady bastards at MLB headquarters.) So in a way it’s a good thing that all this shit has hit the proverbial fan in several different sports all at once. This gives sports fans something to read about and subsequently discuss. It also provides mad material for the juvenile meatheads who expend the airtime of AM radio mouthing off on “sports talk” shows.

I’d like to talk about Michael Vick, who may turn out to be just as much of a scumbag as his younger brother. I don’t think he’s stupid, but he does seem to have spectacularly poor judgment. He should have known better than to employ an absurd alias whilst getting tested at a VD clinic, for example, or flipping the bird to his own fans during a game in the ATL. The NFL, as America’s number one sports league, zealously guards its public image. Furthermore, I suspect that Roger Goodell, in his first full season as commissioner, feels particularly obliged to make sure that people respect his authoritay. This is why he’s suspended Adam “Pacman” Jones of the Titans (who I don’t believe has actually been convicted of a crime) and Chris Henry of the Bengals for the 2007 season. We don’t yet know what the outcome of the dog fighting imbroglio will be, but even in the unlikely event that Michael Vick is completely exonerated, I imagine the commish is going to make a big example of him.

There is a larger issue here, and it’s one that no one in the NFL is going to touch. If you play football, and you’re really good at it, it is made clear to you, in no uncertain terms, that the rules do not apply to you. Cats with Vick-level talent stand out in youth leagues, and they really stand out once they get into high school. This is the point at which they are implicitly informed that they are held to a different standard. They can skip class. They can get other people to take their tests for them. They can start fights and bully other students with impunity. Here is a perfect example: Brian “The Boz” Bosworth was at the University of Oklahoma back in the late eighties, it was arguably the dirtiest D-1 football program in America. In his scintillating biography, The Boz, he details what happened when he was pulled over for speeding (which apparently happened a lot): once the officer got up to the car and saw who was driving, he would simply wish the Boz luck on his upcoming game and send him on his way. On the rare occasions when he actually received a ticket, he simply called a booster at the traffic court clerk’s office, and the ticket would simply go away. (I use this example despite the fact that the Boz spends a large portion of the book insisting he’s never used steroids, an assertion so fanciful that it calls into question the veracity of the rest of the book.) If you want some other examples of what I’m talking about, watch Dazed & Confused or read Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger’s superb chronicle of Texas high school football.

This double standard is most likely especially pronounced in smaller towns in places like Florida and Texas, where high school football occupies a near-mythical role in the local consciousness. And this double standard is not cool. But it’s also not cool to inform young men throughout their adolescence that the rules don’t apply to them, and then all of sudden hold them to a higher standard than everyone else. Which is precisely what is going on. If I was arrested several times, but wasn’t convicted of anything, I certainly wouldn’t be suspended from my job. I’m not saying that Pacman Jones isn’t a thug, or that Michael Vick isn’t a scumbag. But there is a larger problem beyond the NFL brass’ concern that their players come off as a bunch of hooligans. Until that larger problem is addressed, rather than ignored, high-profile college and professional athletes will continue to act as if the rules don’t apply to them. Because most of the time, they don’t.