Be sure to read all of the article. Some are making this a race issue.
Hokies absorb the news
By David Harrison
981-3349
The Roanoke Times
Nothing, it seems, gets sports fans more excited than a good controversy.
And Southwest Virginia gave the country much to chew on Friday night with the news that the troubled-yet-talented quarterback Marcus Vick would not don Virginia Tech's orange and maroon next season.
Here in Hokie Nation, however, the news cut more deeply. This wasn't just another sports scandal. ThiAdvertisement
s was the star player, brother of a legend, on whom many boosters had pinned their hopes to deliver a national championship.
But along with glory, Vick seems to have also brought Tech fans some heartburn. First, in 2004, when he was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor then later with reckless driving and possession of marijuana; then, during the Gator Bowl game Monday when he seemed to intentionally dig his spikes into the back of an opposing player's knee; now, with the most recent revelation that he had been charged by Hampton police Dec. 17 with speeding and driving on a suspended license.
That was the last straw for the university, which issued a statement late Friday afternoon saying that Vick had been "permanently dismissed" from the team. Many fans seemed to approve.
"That was actually a real good decision because it cannot be tolerated," said 26-year-old Calvin Valentine, who was eating dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings at Valley View Mall. "He's a very excellent player; he just had a whole lot of issues."
But Valentine isn't worried. Someone will "step up" for the Hokies, he said, a prediction that many fans shared.
"There's a lot of talent on the team," he said confidently as he glanced at the restaurant's big-screen televisions, which were promoting this weekend's NFL playoffs.
Over in Blacksburg, fans argued that no matter how good a player may be, the first priority is not to embarrass the team.
"We have a reputation to uphold," said Catherine Fletcher, a recent Tech graduate who spent Friday evening at the Hokie House.
Brandon Lockwood, a Tech senior, heard the news at Beamer's Restaurant in Christiansburg, which is partly owned by Tech coach Frank Beamer. "He's had that many chances and he still can't get his act straight?" he asked. "It's about like a slap in the face to the school."
Still, a few die-hards were in a forgiving mood.
"They gave Clinton another chance, didn't they?" asked Michael Charles, a Myrtle Beach, S.C., resident who was visiting friends at Schooners on Williamson Road in Roanoke. "Everybody can make mistakes."
"People in Virginia got to learn how to forgive and forget," said Darrell Shelton of Roanoke, who was nursing a drink at the bar of Buffalo Wild Wings.
Shelton, a Tech fan since the early 1980s, has a soft spot in his heart for Michael Vick, Marcus Vick's older brother who led the Hokies to the national championship game in 2000 and now quarterbacks the Atlanta Falcons. But before the Vicks there were Bruce Smith and Jim Druckenmiller and soon there will be other greats to cheer, Shelton said.
What bugs him, though, is how the 21-year-old Marcus Vick was treated.
"They ought to congratulate him for taking them to the Gator Bowl," he said. Vick should have apologized for the stomping incident but at the same time, he noted, "football's a contact sport." As for the off-the-field indiscretions: "The judges are going to handle that."
To Shelton, a 1968 graduate of Fieldale's George Washington Carver High School, then a segregated school, Vick's fall from grace leaves a bitter aftertaste.
"I think race is playing a big role in it," he said.
Shelton rode on a Valley Metro bus Friday afternoon that was buzzing with the news of Vick's dismissal. "Everybody feels on the bus that he's been mistreated," he said.
Staff writer Greg Esposito contributed to this report.
Ouch.
The Clinton Legacy just keeps on paying dividends, doesn't it?
"I think race is playing a big role in it," he said.
Whoop, there it is!