The jury trial of Michael Vick is set for November 26th, so don’t expect dogfighting stories to go away anytime soon. And let’s hope the shame stays in the public eye until the Feds can put an end to this horrific activity.

Since the Vick indictment, only a handful of Vick fans have come to his defense … and most of them only ask for the process to take its course. I can deal with their legal logic. However, I cannot deal with those who admit to attending dogfighting – and blow it off as being less offensive than those who create the activity. That’s nonsensical since, like any event, without patrons, the activity can’t occur. Watching dogfighting is also appalling. Period.

I’m the first to admit that I’ve done some dumb things in my life – especially during my college days. Most of us have skeletons in our closets. However, watching dogfighting is hideous to me because it goes beyond simply being young and stupid. Stupidity is a matter involving the organ above your neck. Watching dogfighting is a matter of the organ between your waist and neck. It’s a matter of the heart.

While recently listening to Boston’s leading sports talk-radio station WEEI, fill-in co-host Steve DeOssie admitted to attending a dogfighting event. DeOssie, a former NFL player with the Giants, Jets, and Patriots, told listeners he was 22-years old when he attended the dogfight. He wrote it off as being young and stupid and said that he regretted attending. However, he also admitted that he didn’t leave until 11 dogfights were done.

DeOssie’s radio schtick is being an NFL tough-guy… and since sports talk-radio is entertainment (not sports journalism), schtick is what it’s all about. To be fair, Steve’s analysis of pro football gets good reviews. However, sadly, I will now always think of DeOssie as a dogfighting attendee.

DeOssie and others can write it off as being young and stupid all they want, but how do they answer to themselves and, more importantly, their loved-ones. Personally, I would have a difficult time relating to a friend or family member who attended dogfighting…at any age. But that’s just me.

Less than three months ago on April 24, 2007, Michael Vick was on Capital Hill asking lawmakers to increase federal funding for after school programs. His visit included being honored with a “Breakfast of Champions” for his work in Georgia and Virginia with his foundation’s support of “Afterschool Programs.”

How quickly times change.

Vick’s next trip north from Atlanta will not be for an honor but, more likely, to visit the national courthouse in Richmond, Virginia to face federal charges of “Conspiracy” and violations of the “Travel Act” in connection with competitive dogfighting, procuring and training dogs for fighting and conducting the enterprise across state lines.

Time will tell if Vick is guilty or not - and based on the Richmond courthouse’s reputation of justice prevailing in a timely manner (they’re known as the “rocket docket” courthouse), we should find out sooner than later.

I’m no lawyer, nor am I here to provide any legal discourse. However, I offer this … Michael, what the hell were you thinking? As a professional athlete - and one of the highest paid athletes in the world, how does one even get close to sniffing potential problems like this? Aren’t there better ways to spend your spare time and money?

To be young and wealthy isn’t a position for which I am expert, so I don’t know how I would “play” if I fit that M.O. However, I am a dog-lover, so I find it completely repulsive for one to even think of dogfighting - let alone attending, betting, or breeding in this highly inhumane activity.

If Michael Vick is indeed convicted of this hideous crime, he needs to go to jail for a very long time and never again have the privilege to play football in the NFL.

This could be a sad ending to one of America’s truly great athletes - but far less sad than what happens to those poor dogs.

For years baseball’s “Midsummer Classic” was one of the premier events in sport. Of all the major sports in America the event was the one All-Star game that intrigued most. Unfortunately, times change.

While many blame interleague play – and that certainly adds to its lack of luster –it goes beyond that. The visibility of players via today’s multimedia outlets makes seeing these stars less intriguing. We see these guys everyday.

Sadly, while the game means less to current participants (many prefer taking the time off than attending), the Classic is also affected by the lack of multiple “true stars” of the game. As you peruse the 2007 All-Star rosters, how many can you safely say today will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame? At a quick glance, I noted eight: Barry Bonds, Ken Griffey Jr., Trevor Hoffman, Derek Jeter, Albert Pujols, Manny Ramirez, Alex Rodriguez, and John Smoltz. And, of those, how many are a lock?

Compare this year’s rosters to the list of all-time greats at the 1971 All-Star game played at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. The roster was a “Who’s Who” of baseball legends; Rod Carew, Al Kaline, Reggie Jackson, Harmon Killebrew, Jim Palmer, Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson, Carl Yaztrzemski, Hank Aaron, Johnny Bench, Lou Brock, Steve Carlton, Roberto Clemente, Fergie Jenkins, Juan Marichal, Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Pete Rose, Tom Seaver, and Willie Stargell.

Certainly the game has changed. For better or worse is for a future Blog. Call me a fossil if you choose, but today’s Midsummer Classic simply lacks the star power of days gone by. Maybe that comment comes with age, but Hall of Famers are Hall of Famers – and that list of All-Stars in 1971 speaks for itself.

Take nothing away from today’s future Baseball Hall of Famers. I just wish I could be watching more of them.

It was just a tad more than four years ago when I had the journalistic version of a “Texas Steel Cage” match with World Wrestling Entertainment chief Vince McMahon. On a set inside WWE headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, I sparred hard with McMahon about the alarming number of deaths of pro wrestlers around the world since 1997 - more than 60 age 45 and under - from drug overdoses, heart attacks, car accidents, suicides, and everything in between…a rate 400 percent higher than normal.

Now in the wake of the shocking murder-suicide saga of Chris Benoit, the mainstream media have, for the most part, taken a predictable path. The yabber-dabber in print and television focused on “‘roid rage,” whether or not Benoit was under the influence of steroids when he killed his wife and seven-year-old son before hanging himself. The inevitable answer for this unspeakable tragedy, I dare say, will eventually fall much closer to “The Life.”

Beyond my smack down with McMahon (or up as the case was with Vince and my interview notes) the piece Tim Walker, Andrew Bennett and I put together for Real Sports in June of 2003 was far more about the lifestyle wrestlers must endure to insure they stay on top — an endless cycle of travel, steroids, pain, pills and, along the way, virtually non-stop partying.

By the time Del Wilkes ended his 11-year run as the All-American superhero “The Patriot” in 1998, he told me he’d spent the last six years of his career “jacked up on pills, if not coke,” taking as many as hundred pain pills a day.

“At the time,” Wilkes said, “I thought it was perfectly normal because everyone else around me was doing it.”

“How many guys are we talking about?” I said.

“If there were ten guys sitting in a dressing room, I would say seven or eight were probably living the same way.”

Living the same Life.

It’s easy to point fingers in the direction of McMahon and his multi-billion entertainment goliath and say he bears some responsibility. Especially given the fact that at the time we did our story at least 15 of the 60 some wrestlers who died worked at one time or another for his organization - either as bona fide stars or talent under development, a charge Vince firmly and rather angrily denied, then and now. But there is no question the lines pro wrestlers must cross to get BIG, stay BIG, dull the PAIN, go to sleep, wake up, work out, get up, come down, play a pivotal part.

Chris Benoit may have killed himself (and others). But no matter the official cause of death, in the end he was just one more victim of “The Life.”