Whether or not you’ve wanted follow the Michael Vick saga it has been hard to miss. Basically, the star quarterback for the Atalanta Falcons has been accused of holding brutal dog fights on his property in Virginia. Allegedly some of the dogs were tortured and killed. It is now being reported that Vick will plead guilty to a conspiracy charge later this month. People are now wondering whether he will ever play in the NFL again.

Rick Morrissey has written an insightful column in this morning’s Tribune about the public response to the allegations against Vick.

So when I read and heard about some of the dogfighting atrocities Michael Vick is associated with, it turned my stomach. But the convulsive reaction to the Vick case has made it obvious we’ve lost our sense of proportion.

Dogs are defenseless, and we humans are quick to protect the defenseless. It is one of our better qualities. But a woman in the hands of a 230-pound elite athlete is more or less defenseless, too, and I can’t remember any case of domestic abuse, sexual assault or murder involving an NFL player that sparked this kind of public outrage.

No doubt Vick needs to spend some time behind bars, and no doubt he shouldn’t play football for a while. He’s the face of what’s wrong with the NFL. What he did was vile.

Let’s be clear: It’s not that the response to Vick’s alleged crimes is overboard; it’s that the response to athletes’ crimes against women is underwhelming. We might want to ask ourselves why that is. A little perspective, please—especially the next time a player attacks a woman. Another incident should be happening any day now.

I appreciate Morrissey’s angle on this story. It is cause for consideration when our media devotes this amount of attention to this (decidedly tragic) story, while overlooking plenty of others that involve brutality against other humans. Is this simply a case of celebrity infatuation- People Magazine moves to the sports pages- or are we more concerned with our animals than our neighbors?