We are sports fans long past mad.
Time to get even.
Hanging in closets of homes across America, there is a Michael Vick replica jersey, red with shame, with no place to go. Where could you wear it? Certainly not to walk the dog.
Watching Barry Bonds stalk No. 756 has become a royal pain in the asterisk. The Tour de France is pedaling as fast as the disgraced race can, praying at least one cyclist who has not been busted for doping will make it to the finish line.
After discovering the NBA might be as real as pro rasslin’, commissioner David Stern said he felt betrayed.
So imagine how we feel, after acts of betrayal by the sports we love best.
“Where’s your Michael Vick jersey?” I asked my son on Wednesday.
“Why?” he replied.
Somebody wants us to burn it in protest.
We are sports fans who love too much. And how have we been rewarded for our blind faith? With pain too deep to just sit in front of our 42-inch televisions and take any more.
There are folks who are going to burn Michael Vick jerseys for a good cause in California.
Maybe they are crazy.
Or maybe they are on to something.
It’s being called “Michael Vick Animal Awareness Day.”
This is a promotion being sponsored by a minor-league baseball team.
Here’s the deal. Any fan who shows up Sunday at the ballpark of the Long Beach Armada can trade in a Vick T-shirt or jersey for a free ticket. Donations will be collected for an animal shelter. Pets are invited to attend the game.
Then all men, women and their best four-legged friends in attendance will watch as the Vick jerseys go up in the smoke of a bonfire.
“Players, coaches and staff spend every day working in the professional sports world, and many of us are also devoted dog owners,” team executive Steve Bash said in a statement announcing the festivities. “We feel as sports professionals, it is necessary to bring awareness to animal abuse.”
Sure, this is a politically incorrect stunt from a ballclub that with tongue firmly planted in cheek refers to itself as the Long Beach Armada of Los Angeles of California of the United States of North America including Barrow, Alaska.
And this is the same crazy franchise already planning a promotion for Rock, Paper, Scissors Night, in which spectators will do battle in the classic kid’s game, later this summer.
But, in one of the more depressing week of sports news in recent memory, maybe “Michael Vick Animal Awareness Day” strikes a nerve with U.S. fans who want sports heroes turned zeroes to stop dragging our hearts around.
Devoted followers of the NFL might be outnumbered by only one group in America.
Dog-lovers.
Which explains why the allegations of Vick’s involvement in canine abuse is such an indictment of false sports idols, even if the Atlanta Falcons quarterback is far from being convicted of this crime.
Vick always was a better football player in video games than he is in real life.
But, as much as you cling to the ideal of innocent until proven guilty, it’s hard for any father to let his kid wear a Vick jersey these days, which might be as good an explanation as any why commissioner Roger Goodell had to ban the quarterback from reporting to the Falcons’ training camp.
For his 10th birthday, what my son wanted most was to attend his first game at an NFL stadium. Why? His fondest desire was to be an eyewitness to Vick’s magic.
While Goodell was sickened by reading the charges against Vick and baseball commissioner Bud Selig glumly watches Bonds’ pursuit of the home run record like a man handcuffed to his chair, the disappointment of those grown men is nothing compared to the betrayal a child feels when discovering how emotionally dangerous it can be to embrace a football hero.
Now, burning Vick’s jersey in public as folks cheer might only fuel anger that is not especially good for anyone’s soul.
Instead, I might suggest using that red No. 7 as a cover for the doggy bed where your four- legged best friend rests its tail.
But a group howl against the insanity gripping the games we love might be good therapy.
Call it the revenge of us sports nerds.
Put down that box of matches
Editor’s note: The “Michael Vick Animal Awareness Day” promotion mentioned in Mark Kiszla’s July 26th column since pooped out. Plans have changed since publication. Below, Mark updates the situation.
Dog lovers have been offered a better use for an unwanted Michael Vick jersey than to burn it.
Sports fans and their four-legged friends are invited to protest cruelty to animals on Sunday, during a minor-league baseball game in California.
Free tickets will be given spectators in exchange for jerseys or T-shirts of the embattled Atlanta Falcons quarterback, who faces federal allegations of being involved with dog-fighting.
But the Long Beach Armada baseball team has cooled on its original idea of taking a match to Vick jerseys within the friendly confines of its home ballpark.
“It looks like we are going to cancel the bonfire aspect of Michael Vick Awareness Day,” team executive Steve Bush said in an email sent Wednesday night to The Denver Post. “There were some problems logistically and practically with costs, fire permits, etc., for such an event at Blair Field.”
The team, however, remains committed to making a stink with Falcons jerseys emblazoned with a scarlet No. 7.
“We will still collect Vick jerseys for fans looking to trade them in for free tickets, and allow fans to use the jerseys as pooper-scoopers for their dogs,” Bush wrote.
“We do not want this promotion to take away from the fact Mike Vick has due process rights and is innocent until proven guilty. Our intention all along is to have some fun with this promotion and to raise awareness of animal abuse.”
Staff writer Mark Kiszla can be reached at 303-954-1053 or mkiszla@denverpost.com.
