[Purple]

The idea of a referee fixing NBA games is disturbing, but dogfighting is downright revolting

By RICK TELANDER

If we can't trust the outcome of games, we have a problem that far transcends sports.

If veteran NBA referee Tim Donaghy did, in fact, bet on games he worked from 2005 to 2007 and altered outcomes because of it, as has been alleged in an FBI investigation, then many things crumble to the ground, including the very purpose of the NBA and, by extension, every pro league at every level everywhere.

Forget that Donaghy reffed the notorious ''Malice at the Palace'' brawl between the Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons on Nov. 19, 2004, or that he called a technical foul on then-Portland Trail Blazers forward Rasheed Wallace that ended up costing 'Sheed $1.6 million in salary.

The reason for sports is to get honest results from competition between participants according to agreed-upon rules and fair play, which referees are there to enforce.

Any deviation from this model gives us something that is not competition at all but buffoonery, acting, cheating, fiction.

When competition is not real -- when it is ''fixed'' in any way by athletes, referees, judges, equipment -- then the grand alternate reality known as sport becomes a nightmare instead.

Regardless of what league officials always tell us, it isn't hard to rig a contest. For a referee such as Donaghy, it would be as simple as calling a charge a block.

My point is that Donaghy's alleged cheating doesn't just affect gamblers.

Games are nothing without trust. The players become clowns. The fans become dupes. Fraud reigns. Cynicism and chaos rule.

It's not too big a leap to say that if we can't trust referees, we probably can't trust anybody in anything.

• • MICHAEL VICK and this dogfighting thing make me sick.

Here's an excerpt from the federal indictment against him and two others:

''At some point in or about 2001, Quanis Phillips, also known as 'Q'; Tony Taylor, also known as 'T'; and Michael Vick, also known as 'Ookie,' decided to start a venture aimed at sponsoring American pit-bull terriers in dogfighting competition.''

Competition, right.

Some dogs were killed in the fights; others (the losers) allegedly were killed by Vick and his crew by methods such as shooting, drowning, strangling or wetting down and electrocuting.

Donaghy might have felt right at home at Vick's backyard butcheries.

The thing about dogfighting is that it is not just gruesome and cruel, it is essentially violence porn.

Dogs, as the saying goes, are man's best friends. To betray them is like betraying children.

It is stunning to think that someone could enjoy the brain-dead immorality of watching two beautiful mammals rip each other to shreds and be the leader of an NFL team.

Vick, an occasional Pro Bowl player with a $100 million contract with the Atlanta Falcons, has taken the concept of quarterbacking to a new low.

And he makes us think about the things we can do to other living creatures if we have no ethics.

Pit bulls were bred centuries ago to torment bulls, again for man's pleasure. And though they can be vicious fighting machines, they also can be wonderful pets when treated properly.

The old RCA Victor ads, for instance, used a pit bull as the company logo, with the animal seated in front of a phonograph listening to ''his master's voice.''

But Vick and his pals at ''Bad Newz Kennels'' tortured their dogs with training techniques to make them mean, unsocialized and terrifying.

I had a friend, Jim Carey, down in Florida a few years ago, and he owned two pit bulls named Fish and Minnow. They were lazy, docile pets who spent most of their time under his porch, in the dust, sleeping.

One day, though, Carey wanted to show me something. He got a two-by-four and told me to hold one end while he held the other.

He called out to Fish and told the dog to bite the board. After some prompting, the blank-faced Fish did just that, chomping down on the wood so hard that it crackled.

''OK, now lift,'' my friend said to me.

We hoisted the board to shoulder height, and the 40- or 50-pound dog simply hung there like a barnacle, virtually motionless.

The dents and punctures in the board were visible near the dog's mouth, and I occasionally would here faint splintering.

We eventually put the dog down, and Fish released his bite and went back under the porch.

Again, to use these animals for fighting simply because they can be made to do it is obscene.

It is well-documented that many criminals and sociopaths got their starts torturing animals.

Even the brutality of the NFL, where players sometimes seem willing to do anything to their opponents -- such as head-stomping, biting, spiking, blindsiding and the like -- doesn't add up to cruelty involving dogs.

At least the humans have a choice.

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/telan...rick22.article

[Miakoda]

He got a two-by-four and told me to hold one end while he held the other. He called out to Fish and told the dog to bite the board. After some prompting, the blank-faced Fish did just that, chomping down on the wood so hard that it crackled. ''OK, now lift,'' my friend said to me. We hoisted the board to shoulder height, and the 40- or 50-pound dog simply hung there like a barnacle

And I've got some ocean front property in Arizona..............

[buddysmom]

Originally Posted by Miakoda And I've got some ocean front property in Arizona..............

A pit bull can't hang from a board by it's jaw?

We had a Lab-GSD mix that sure could! My brother and I would each take an end of a hige stick he'd be fixed on, lift it up and "walk" him around the yard for at least a whole minute; dog just hanging there by his jaw.

[dana morgan]

Purple your right HUMANS DO HAVE CHOICES-ANIMALS DON"T!!!!

[CoolHandJean]

Even the brutality of the NFL, where players sometimes seem willing to do anything to their opponents -- such as head-stomping, biting, spiking, blindsiding and the like -- doesn't add up to cruelty involving dogs.

How is brutally hurting a human less cruel than hurting a dog? Am I reading this sentence wrong? I must be, because it doesn't make much sense to me.

[dana morgan]

Hurting any living creature is wrong. People kill people everyday. It's sad and cruel but thats the world we live in. People make those choices. Dogs really don't have choices like kids can't pick their parents, dogs can't either. Wrong is wrong. No animal should suffer or no human. Unless they(humans) deserve it. Which some people do!!!