News-Record.com

There's no cataclysmic moment today, but somewhere on the drive home from dropping the kiddies off at pre-school, it hit me.

NFL: Dealing with Michael Vick and the dog-fighting mess.
NBA: Ref Tim Donaghy and allegations he bet on games he reffed.
MLB: Barry Bonds' continued chase for Hank Aaron's record and the upcoming awkward moment when people try to figure out whether they should laugh or cry when Bonds hits No. 756.
Cycling: Michael Rasmussen, the current yellow jersey wearer in the Tour de France, got into trouble earlier this year for not being available for a random drug test. He's been booted off the Danish national team, which means that the Tour, already up to its handlebars in drug cheating scandals, faces the very real possibility that it's next winner could be a guy who's banned from competing in the 2008 Olympics.

Lovely.

As for Vick, there are endless stories out there in cyberspace to sift through if you either a) have no job or b) happen to have blogging as part of your job description.

Here are just two from the Atlanta Journal Constitution that caught my eye.

The first is a blog item by AJC columnist Terrence Moore. Given Moore's takes on various issues in the past I wouldn't have been surprised if he'd given Vick a little support and urged everyone to withhold judgement. Instead, Moore went the exact opposite direction, saying that Vick should never play again for the Falcons. Wow. If Moore is any barometer for public opinion in the ATL, then Vick really is toast.

The second story, about PETA protests outside the NFL's offices in New York (a similar demonstration was held at the Falcon's training camp in Flowery Branch, Ga.) just makes my head hurt. Actually, it brings back memories of the infamous pot-banging protests outside the Duke lacrosse house, and that makes my head hurt.

What, exactly is the point here? To urge the Falcons to suspend Vick? If these PETA folks hadn't noticed, the NFL has put Vick on leave and is looking into the matter further. If it finds facts that show that Vick broke the league's conduct policy, he'll get suspended. So that avenue is already being explored. No need to protest for that.

Is it to have Vick thrown in jail? The federal government is already working hard on that. So need to protest that either.

Really then, there's no need to protest at all, unless you're just hungry for cheap publicity for your cause.

Look, I'm a huge dog lover and I find dogfighting to be a disgusting activity. I'm also in favor of protecting women from sexual assault. Feel free to stand up in public and vocally support either cause.

But I'm also in favor of finding out all the facts before deciding whether to punish someone. I thought we'd been given a stern reminder of that with the Duke lacrosse case. But apparently, some folks just weren't listening.