Michael Vick and Tim Donaghy - A Snitch's Tale
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- Originally posted at jarrett-carter.com
This is the kind of snitching nobody wants. Carmelo knew what he was talking about, and so do many other men and women who have their ideas of loyalty and kinship diluted in criminal bravado. It's one thing to retaliate against those who only want to protect their families and community, but two men in professional sports became intimately connected with the Stop Snitching movement yesterday, and it doesn't look good for either one of them.
Yesterday was the toughest Friday of Michael Vick's life. Tougher than the Friday before the 2000 Sugar Bowl, tougher than the Friday before the NFC championship game he would play in four years later. Yesterday, two men closely associated with the dogfighting and gambling charges facing Vick pled guilty, implicating Michael Vick in the torture and murder of at least eight dogs.
Two snitches.
Yesterday, former NBA referee Tim Donaghy offered to give information on at least 20 NBA referees involved with non-criminal gambling. His offer comes one day after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commite wire fraud and transmitting betting information that possibly affected the outcome of a number of NBA regular season games.
A snitch.
When you see such poignant animosity towards snitching, its because of situations similar to these two. Individuals willing to sacrifice others to save themselves. What's even more disheartening about this brand of survival, is that no one really survives. They become even more entrapped in their own betrayal.
In other words, even the truth can't set you free.
The juxtaposition of Vick and Donaghy cases is almost poetic, really. The rich athlete, who at one time looked to be the new face of the NFL, had subpar play reduce him to being just another face of what's wrong with professional sports. The sad part is that Vick's 'face of the NFL' money was still coming in, and those who benefited from it the most, have now implicated him in acts they all committed. Vick's family did him in, and now it's Vick's real family, the City of Atlanta, and the NFL family's loss.
Donaghy on the other hand lives at the other end of the snitching spectrum, as he now seeks [1] to bring down others after being caught in his own deceptions. One ref, with a compulsion to get rich quick, now has the power to effect 20 families. Sure, gambling of any sort is against NBA referee regulations, but a $25 chip at Let it Ride isn't close to letting fouls ride in an NBA game. It's a sure bet that Donaghy wasn't putting food on any other referee's table, yet he holds the future of 20 men and their families in his hands, and the NBA family holds its breath.
Family.
So when you hear about how individuals are so driven, so passionate against those who deem snitching as an honorable discharge from thievery, you can understand how it reaches that level of emotion. Both Michael Vick and Tim Donaghy should get their just due for thier crimes, but five years from now, stitches won't be able to heal the deep wounds to two leagues and their relative families.
Stitches won't be able to patch the work of a few snitches.
![[1]](http://www.cbc.ca/cp/nba/070815/v081506A.jpg){kind=link}