Marbury’s Words of Wisdom?

In last nights piece on Sportscenter about athletes’ reactions to Vick’s situation Stephon Marbury was interviewed. Here are a few quotes from the luminary that is Stephon Marbury, “We don't say anything about people shooting deers and shooting other animals, you know what I mean? From what I hear, dog fighting is a sport. It's just behind closed doors and I think it's tough that we build Michael Vick up and then we break him down ... I think he fell into a bad situation”

Now let’s ignore for a second the fact that Marbury is an idiot. He constantly says and does stupid things that have nothing to do with this situation, but again let’s ignore that for the purposes of this argument. Let’s also ignore the fact that these statements are insensitive. Most everyone knows what Vick did was wrong, and any condoning of his actions is to be deplored. Again however that’s not the point of this article.

The point of this article is that despite the source and the lack of sensitivity displayed I’m not sure Marbury’s comments don’t warrant critical examination. When Marbury said “From what I hear dogfighting is a sport,” I think what he was revealing was that he didn’t really understand the ramifications of what Vick had done. He doesn’t really understand why treating these dogs as brutally as they do is wrong, it’s simply a sport. Now you can Bash Marbury for this if you want or you can ask is this a more widespread problem than just Marbury? When you have guys like Clinton Portis and Roy Jones Jr also sharing similar sentiments I think it is. Perhaps its part of the communities they’ve been brought up in, and maybe there are racial or culture explanations of why these guys don't understand the significance of the dogfighting charges but it’s a problem that needs to be addressed.

Another issue Marbury brought up is that if we can agree that dogfighting and mistreating animals is wrong than why is hunting ok? In fact it is even a well respected sport in many parts of this country. Is it not inhumane to shoot a deer or bird that you’re most likely not going to eat? You could say that they don’t torture the animals, but I would guess most people don’t kill the animals instantly with one shot. These animals probably lay there on the ground having been shot for a significant time in a great deal of pain before they’re “put out of their misery.” The fact that its deer’s or quails should make little difference to how we treat the animals than if they were dogs. Now, admittedly I’ve never been hunting and I don’t know all the facts about it, but unless we’re killing animals for food I’m not sure we should be killing them at all.