Because You Asked: Captain Backstage's Take on the Michael Vick Case
Written by Captain Backstage
It is no secret that I am "big" on visual aids in articles; editorials especially. For a bit of perspective on this subject, I submit to you the following video; heralded online for being the most technical street fight ever.
At least, on the internet, that is. Competitors from "The Ultimate Fighter" lock horns in a brawl that gets them both kicked off the show. Kicked off for fighting, on the show about fighting, where fighters fight to get a contract to fight some more. Enjoy the fight, but pay close attention also to White's side of the story about how they're athletes, and this is a sport, not just fighting, so what they did was totally wrong.
Yeah. It's only a sport, you see, when there's a venue; a controlled environment within which the competitors do combat. Problem with that, however, is that's the exact same excuse people gave when Michael Vick was sending dogs to fight one another: They're only fighting in a controlled environment, so it's a sport. What's really the difference here -- that these "dogs" can talk? Sure, you can tell me all about how you can't call it a sport when animals are being abused, but go interview a few horses and let me know how many of them enjoyed Preakness.
Oh? What's that? They don't like being whipped incessantly, while tiring their legs out from having to gallop at full speed, with a tiny man atop them? Who'd have fuckin' guessed that one? Face it folks: the difference between sports/entertainment and exploitation/abuse is a couple of lawyers, a man in a striped shirt, and a handful of old people making some big, fat paychecks for controlling the entire situation from a skyscraper. That is irrespective of the species doing battle - be it animal, vegetable, fungi; you name it.
What does that mean? It means that as long as I'm a writer for Backstage Powers, a fan of fights both real and staged, and an enthusiast (and ex-participant) of basically any activity that involves two or more people beating the living shit out of one another, I find more of a crisis of conscience grandstanding with the rest of those who write on this subject than I do defending it. Sure, it's brutal shit; particularly the ending of the lives of those dogs who couldn't cut the mustard. As an animal lover whose pet recently died after being a part of my family since I started high school, I cringe along with the rest of you when I hear tales of dogs spiked like footballs to their deaths.
But, with that being said, I also can't just pretend like this isn't Backstage Powers, and that I don't enjoy watching people do fucked up shit. I also can't pretend as if these people engaging in dangerous sports all made the choice to do this stuff; as if they could all have been stock brokers and motivational speakers otherwise. For some people, it's either fight and have some money, or die homeless or in prison. And the people who run the various promotions, companies, leagues and commissions know that, and exploit those poor souls because of it. Again, I feel as if I need to make very clear that I'm not speaking about the total population of the sports and sports entertainment industries; but I'm not pretending as if there aren't some desperate folks fighting to eat, either.
Still, despite this, I cheer on. I chant at shows. I buy the merch. Hell, I even founded a web site dedicated to these industries. Maybe that makes me a little fucked up. But I believe that as a writer, it is imperative that I be honest with you, and honestly, I think that maybe my condoning, much less my enjoyment for watching humans tear one another to shreds makes me too fucked up to have any right to judge Michael Vick for having any other species tear each other to shreds. And I'm certain that I'm not the only one who has no right to demonize him, even if I'm the only one man enough to admit it.
