Michael Vick: ESPN's Attempt at Shock Value Feeds Irrelevant Race Discussion

Michael Vick is not white. He is not red and he is not blue. The Philadelphia Eagles' star quarterback is black, and nothing will ever change that.

ESPN tried, tastelessly, to do so today, though. 

Featuring a piece that will be run in the Sept. 5th issue of ESPN the Magazine, the sports empire ran this headline on their website: "What If Michael Vick Were White?"

Accompanying the headline was an abominable picture of a "white-faced" version of Michael Vick. Said picture has since been removed, but you can see it screen-capped here in B/R Associate NFL Editor Michael Schottey's take on the situation. 

The article in question, written by Touré, has nothing to do with the problem at hand. In fact, the article is quite good and is terribly misrepresented by the headline.

The problem is ESPN's foray into an irrelevant and unanswerable race discussion in the world of football.

Many people are put off by talking about race. It makes them uncomfortable, and it brings up feelings that some can't necessarily describe or articulate in the way they want. For fear of being misinterpreted or misunderstood, many simply don't address race at all.

That isn't the case with football—not with football players and not with coaches. In fact, far too often is the question "what if he were white?" brought to the table. There are two colors represented on the gridiron: home colors and road colors. A player or coach's race has absolutely nothing to do with his being on the football field.

Even speculating what a player or coach would be as a different race is foolish. We wouldn't know that person. They wouldn't exist. 

Touré even makes this point in his article writing:

"

Thus when this hypothetical white Michael Vick...wait, I can't even continue that sentence in good faith. I mean, who would this white Vick be? That person is unknowable.

"

The question asked cannot be answered.

There is no point in talking about race in football because the game of football doesn't care about race.

The pigskin is brown with white laces. It doesn't know the difference between a white hand from a black hand, a red glove from a yellow glove or green turf from blue turf. 

This ins't science. We will never know the answer to such a question. But unfortunately, this is the world we live in.

The question was irrelevant to football before this headline and will remain so—regardless of how ESPN tries to use it.