The NFL and Moral Depravity

By now most people have heard about the legal troubles of Atlanta Falcons quarterback, Michael Vick, who was charged with organizing, participating in, etc. illegal dog fighting. Apparently he's in some really serious, potentially career-damaging trouble, and he's been a punching bag for a lot of public commentators. The brutality of dog fighting is apparently one of the most intolerable sins known to pop culture (maybe because it's one which most people would never be tempted to commit).

But what really strikes me is the disparity between the Vick scandal and a recent news story about another famous NFL quarterback, Tom Brady, three-time Superbowl champion for the New England Patriots. Brady's story, which is apparently anything but scandalous to those reporting it, is that he got his girlfriend, Bridget Moynahan, pregnant, but then the couple broke up. As it turns out, 9 months was plenty of time for Brady to find a new girlfriend, which he now has while the old one is giving birth to his first child. I'm not really up on the decorum of the lifestyles of millionaire athletes, but if any of us talk to Brady or write articles on our blogs about him, in referring to the women in his life I guess we can make the distinction between the woman he's now seeing and his "baby's mama."

Here's the link to the Brady's story in the Boston Globe: http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2007/08/23/its_a_boy_for_bridget_moynahan_and_tom_brady/

Sure what Michael Vick did is bad, but if there is any such thing as chastity--if any standard of sexual decency toward which we should at least give a virtuous nod, then what Brady did is worse. Come on! What's worse, raising dogs to fight each other or exemplifying their sexual ethics?

MM