A Small Note To Gene Upshaw's Critics in Vickgate

Um, just what in blue blazes are you supposed to do when one of your union members goes off the resevation and self-immolates?

Defend him, and get pilloried in public for defending a man who killed dogs with his bare hands. (Read some of the comments in the Vick pieces we've written this week, and see how much fun it is when you just fail to include that Killing Dogs Is Bad.) Stay away from him, and you get people talking about how neutered you are, and how you failed your people and capitulated to the commissioner.

Look, this isn't about a guy who needs help in the face of a drug addiction. It's also not a case where a player let a bad moment get the best of him.

This is a man who ran a criminal operation, engaging in an activity that the vast majority of the country finds extraordinarily repugnant, against a skilled federal prosecution, FOR YEARS. Defend him, for any reason or motivation, to any degree, at your grave PR peril. We love our dogs.

Upshaw has a lot to answer for as NFL union boss; the awful pension plan, the long term health problems, the fact that the vast majority of his members could be crippled and income-free on any given play, at any given moment. But his treatment of Vickgate was a no-win situation in which he didn't lose that much. People who say otherwise, like this guy, are just looking to fill space.