Mike, On Five Worse Than Vick (general)

Let me start by saying I despise Michael Vick. I never thought he was a good quarterback, just a good athlete who happened to take the ball from the center when it was snapped. He was always better suited for a running back or a wide receiver, but for some reason, the Falcons insisted on using him as their franchise QB, as well as the face of their organization. Now, owner Arthur Blank and the rest of the front office and coaching staff have to deal with a huge PR nightmare because of their despicable star committing some despicable acts. I won’t go into them - you know what they are.

However, the slant of this column might surprise you. Despite my deep dislike for Vick, I have listened to news and sports columnists, reporters, talk show hosts, and pundits condemn Vick and rant and rave about his actions. As I said, yes, they were horrible. But honestly, there have been worse acts committed by athletes and people involved in sports over the years. And so, without further ado, here’s one man’s list of 5 people currently involved in sports than are more despicable than Michael Vick:

5. Kobe Bryant
Never has there been a more destructive athlete to team morale than Kobe Bryant. Look at the track record. He forced one of the ten best players ever out of town and broke up a dynasty so he could try to win a championship all by himself and not have to share the glory. Next, he ushers his coach out the door, only to pout and moan and whine and complain until his coach was hired back. Then, to top it all off, he doesn’t even run his coach’s offense and instead jacks up a hundred shots a game and continues to complain, saying he has no help. The final straw this offseason was his demand that the Lakers get him more help or trade him, a statement he still hasn’t entirely taken back. What kind of role model is Kobe being with all this me-first thinking? He’s really taking sports down a bad road. What would happen if every athlete thought only of himself first?

4. Joe Paterno
So a couple of your players get in a fight and are arrested. Does that mean you make the entire team clean a stadium that seats over 100,000 people after every home game? Of course not. In fact, even making the accused clean the stadium would be callous and cold hearted. What kind of man is this, punishing everyone for the sins of the few? It almost seems like Paterno is trying to teach teamwork and show his players that no one man is bigger than the team. Joe’s still stuck on the whole, “There’s no ‘I’ in team,” mantra, but someone needs to tell Joe that there is, in fact, a “me.”

3. LeBron James
Here’s a guy that needs a scandal. Sure, he does the Sprite commercials, and yes, he has major endorsements with Nike. But LeBron’s rap sheet is squeaky clean. Not even a speeding ticket or traffic citation. With the current climate of athletics, how can LeBron expect to stay in the mainstream spotlight and continue to garner any air time on ESPN if he doesn’t commit some kind of crime? He needs to at least do steroids or something – sure, people will hate him, but maybe then Dave O’Brien and Rick Sutcliffe will have something to do and ESPN2 will have programming people will actually watch. Come on, LBJ – the NBA Finals is cool and all, but really, you’re only hurting yourself if you don’t get yourself on a police blotter soon.

2. Alex Rodriguez
Who yells “boo” at a third baseman trying to catch a popup? If you’re looking for a real villain, this is it. First, he sabotages an entire franchise by signing a 10-year, $250 million contract, then orchestrates a trade to the sports’ most prestigious franchise, the one with more championships than any other major professional sports franchise, and in the span of four years, the team completes the biggest collapse in the history of baseball, loses in the first round of the playoffs for the first time in the new century, and is now poised to fail to win the division for the first time in more than a decade. And some people still have the gall, after one decent year, to ask if A-Rod is a true Yankee? I think not.

1. Tiger Woods
If there’s one person in all of sports to hate more than Michael Vick, it has to be Tiger Woods. The list is remarkable. A supermodel wife. 13 major championships. Yelling at the crowd to be quiet. Failing to do anything of significance for his country in international play. Skipping out on Barclays Championship, the first tournament ever of the FedEx Cup. A clean rap sheet. More endorsements than any human should ever have. There’s just so much to dislike about this guy. And he’s way too good for his competition. It’s simply unfair, and what’s worse than an unfair playing field?

Oh, yeah, that’s right – dog fighting.