Michael Vick will probably piss off a lot of people in this GQ article
A. Isaac 
Portions of Michael Vick’s article with GQ leaked to Deadspin last night, and judging from some of the comments on Twitter, it’s making a lot of people hate the NFL star again.
In the article, former Deadspin editor Will Leitch asks Vick about dog fighting and his time in prison. Suffice it to say, he doesn’t feel his dog fighting days were as bad as the media portrayed it.
“They are writing as if everyone feels that way and has the same opinions they do. But when I go out in public, it’s all positive, so that’s obviously not true.” The media, Vick implies, still act as though he used to sneak into suburban yards, steal golden retrievers, and set them on fire. As if he were a lone actor, a single rampaging menace, a canine serial killer with no context, motivation, or backstory. As if he is the only person in America associated with dogfighting.
“Yeah, you got the family dog and the white picket fence, and you just think that’s all there is. Some of us had to grow up in poverty-stricken urban neighborhoods, and we just had to adapt to our environment. I know that it’s wrong. But people act like it’s some crazy thing they never heard of. They don’t know.”
Frankly, I can’t say I disagree with Vick on the media’s portrayal of him. More than a handful of times I saw articles where Vick was displayed as a Lee Harvey Oswald of sorts–a lone assassin if you will. I can’t say I blame reporters for that opinion as many were naive to how common dog fighting was in the south and urban areas, but the fact remains that many just didn’t do their homework before authoring pieces.
And of course, I’m not condoning what Vick did, but as for his candidness in the piece, I, for one, respect him for that.
GQ’s Michael Vick Story Will Just Make White People Angry Again [Deadspin]
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