Even if you’re an N.W.A. guy and not, say, a KRS-One guy, here’s why Michael Vick‘s re-upped deal with Nike sucks.

In the case of N.W.A. versus the Police Department, prosecuting attorneys are… Oh, wait, sorry, that’s another case for another day.

What’s really got me pissed off this morning is how I’ve been forced to question my “Defend Vick” mindset. Yep, the whole “Nike re-instating his endorsement deal” thing.

What’s particularly gravy about the whole situation is this: Perusing the stories about it this morn, I see they didn’t have the balls to even issue a statement tapping into the “He deserves a second-chance” angle. Which, mind you, I believe he does.

Had they done so, layering endorsement dollars atop reintegration-to-society work dollars for a guy whose actions they once deemed “inhumane and abhorrent” would’ve certainly rubbed me the wrong way, but would not have stoked anger. It takes a lot for me to join the patchouli singer-and-drummer movement, but allow me to say this: Someone’s crying, Lord, kumbaya.

No, Vick shouldn’t be blamed for taking the deal. Hell, he’s already two school-speeches into his rallying-against-dogfighting campaign, right? With the debt from he’s slinging, he’s entitled to all the legal loot he can get his paws on. It’s Nike that’s abhorrent. And inhumane, actually.

Maybe I’ve had a company allergy since writing about a pair of Saint Joe’s grads who spent an Indonesia summer shedding video light on the company’s rancid, exploitative, oppressive sweatshops. (Side note: I wonder if how those Indonesians felt when the 30,000 Vick V’s they made met the plastic-chipper. But I digress.) By redoing the backup QB’s deal without stepping up immediately and saying this is why we did it – Vick’s agent, Wannabe Ari Gold was also mum on specifics – what they’re declaring is, “You’ll buy our shoes even if we don’t man the fuck up. Blow us.”

They probably see silence as a means to avoid the “‘Bad Newz’ Vick gets $10 million Nike deal” headlines; I see it as being corporately courageous as turning pitbulls loose on a elementary-school playground. (I’ve actually written about that happening. The Atlantic City emergency room was crowded that day, my friends.)

So I guess my first sentence was actually on point, now that I’ve had 300-some words to think about the Comptonese lyrics. Back-in-the-day MC Ren, Ice Cube and Eazy “Muthafuckin” E (God rest his soul) might have rocked the latest dog-blood-red Vick kicks on the principalities of the situation. But, I’m all Fuck Nike anyhow.

They ain’t doing this to make a societal “served his crime” statement. They’re doing it for street-cred-associated cash. And I don’t like the greedy.

– Brian Hickey

Want more Brian Hickey? Get it here: hickeyblunt.blogspot.com. And to read earlier editions of As Nasty As I Wanna Be, click here.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 1st, 2009 at 12:00 pm.