Michael Vick Injury: Why Is Eagles QB Bullied When Tom Brady Is Coddled?

This one's all about equality.

Yes, that novel idea of equal treatment under the law, or in this case, NFL rules and regulations.

Let's preface it all with the one glaring tenet. As far as NFL referees are concerned:

It's not nice to touch Tom Brady.

There will be no touching, knocking, hitting or any bodily harm whatsoever inflicted on No. 12 up there in New England or anywhere else he plays.

Banging on Brady is strictly verboten.

As far as the rest of you NFL quarterbacks go, well, you're on your own.

Get hit outside the realm of what the NFL considers legal, and you may or may not get a flag.

Michael Vick didn't get one when he got whacked hard enough to knock him to the ground, where that soft Lincoln Field turf caused him to fracture his non-throwing hand.

Uh, sorry, Mike; we missed that one.

Josh Freeman took a nasty hit in the Buccaneer game with Atlanta after the ball was gone.

No flag; sorry, Josh.

In the same game, Buccaneer defensive tackle Gerald McCoy bumped into Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan. Ryan started to teeter, but by gosh, McCoy held him up so he wouldn't fall. No harm.

You can just imagine some official, perhaps thinking to himself: "Geez, Atlanta president Rich McKay is on the competition committee, I think, oops, better give that one a flag. Wait a minute, he's the chairman of the competition committee; that settles it!"

Out came the flag. Ryan didn't even go down for goodness sakes.

You see what we're getting at.

If you watch a lot of football, and let's go out on a limb for a moment and guess that most who visit these pages do exactly that, well, think about it for a moment.

Unless you're totally in need of cataract surgery for both eyes, you KNOW that there's no equality when it comes to penalties for roughing up quarterbacks.

Now granted, Vick tends to take off quite a bit, which makes him a target, but the hits that have damaged him the most the past two weeks have come behind the line of scrimmage.

Vick talked about it, and he's right. That one should have been called.

On the other end of the spectrum, it's as if officials treat Brady like he's someone's grandmother.

Do not harm a hair on that head or else!

You'll hear NFL coaches constantly bringing up the word "consistentcy" when they talk about the key things they strive for week-in and week-out.

There's a novel idea for NFL officiating.

How about a little consistency?