Michael Vick and Tim Donaghy: The Snitches' Tales

Carmelo Anthony knew what he was talking about—and so do many other men and women who've had their sense of loyalty warped by criminal bravado.
 

Two men in professional sports became intimately connected with the Stop Snitching movement this week, and it doesn't look good for either one of them.

This Friday was the toughest of Michael Vick's life—tougher than the Friday before the 2000 Sugar Bowl, tougher than the Friday before the NFC Championship Game in January 2005.

 

This Friday, two men closely associated with Vick's alleged dogfighting ring pled guilty, implicating the Falcons QB in the torture and murder of at least eight dogs.

Two snitches.

 

And they weren't the only ones. 

 

Friday also saw former NBA referee Tim Donaghy offer to give information on at least 20 NBA referees involved in non-criminal gambling activity. The offer came one day after Donaghy pled guilty to charges that he transmitted betting information which possibly affected the outcome of a number of NBA regular season games.

In other words, Donaghy snitched.

 

Poignant animosity towards snitching exists because of situations like these two—individuals willing to sacrifice others to save themselves. And what's most disheartening is that no one really survives.

 

The snitchers become all the more entrapped in their own betrayal. Even the truth can't set you free.

 

The juxtaposition of Vick and Donaghy is almost poetic, really. On the one hand, there's the rich athlete—the one-time "face of the NFL"—who was done in by the family he supported. On the other, there's the get-rich-quick ref—the mob stooge—whose schemes have landed 20 other families in dire straits.

 
Family. Honor. Loyalty.

Sometimes snitching is a way out of a life of crime. More often it isn't. Michael Vick and Tim Donaghy should both get their just due—but five years from now, the wounds opened this week will still exist.

Stitches, you might say, won't be able to mend the work of a few bad snitches.

 

This piece was originally posted at jarrett-carter.com.