Norfolk State should’ve seen Michael Vick hate coming

NORFOLK STATE ATHLETICS

Norfolk State and new football coach Michael Vick have been criticized over the former NFL quarterback's dogfighting conviction.

It’s been hard getting into a basketball routine with football still hogging all the limelight.

Barely four weeks into the new year and three HBCU football vacancies still exist: Central State, Lane and Fort Valley State. According to HBCU Premier Sports & More, another former NFL player has interviewed with two of the schools.

Before last week’s hiring of Terrell Buckley, Mississippi Valley State had a vacancy, too. Jerry Rice’s alma mater hasn’t had a winning season since 2006’s 6-5 record. Pride prevents the football program from dropping to Division II, but being the laughingstock of HBCU football is OK?

Push the button

The ridiculous furor over Michael Vick’s hiring as Norfolk State head coach got so bad, North Carolina Central alumni went on social media asking Eagles to make “positive” comments on NSU’s website to combat the hatred.

First question: didn’t they see this coming? It took administrators long enough to confirm Vick’s hiring to prepare the campus for the onslaught. Remember when he was giving interviews and telling social media he was hired while NSU was on radio silence?

I can almost understand being caught off guard. The man went to jail for dogfighting in 2007 and served 23 months in prison. Yet animal rights activists won’t leave him alone.

Before Norfolk State hired him, Vick was an analyst on Fox Sports for seven years. How many nasty phone calls, emails and comments did Fox get? If it got any, nobody cared. And neither does the green and gold!

Ignorant white people just don’t get it; the more you threaten and try to intimidate us, the harder we’re going to fight. Folks who may not have cared about Vick’s hiring one way or the other have jumped on board, so thank you for that.

Second question: where’s the mute button? Most websites have ways to turn off comments. And even if campus policy says no to that, hire a couple of students to monitor the site and delete those jerks.
Hate begats hate and the sooner you nip it in the bud, the quicker it’ll slither off to find its next victim.

Norfolk State should have had protocols in place as soon as Vick said yes. It doesn’t take a genius to see where this world is heading. Get your heads out of the sand and battle up!

What about us?

It IS basketball season. And the talk of the CIAA is first-year Lincoln (Pa.) men’s basketball coach Julius Hodge.

Despite being an ACC star at North Carolina State, Hodge had some big shoes to fill with the departure of Jason Armstrong, who guided the Lions to their first CIAA tournament title since 1915 – before the conference was officially formed. Plus, you know how veteran coaches hate to see a rookie come in and make waves right away.

Well, Hodge has done just that. Lincoln and Virginia State – which appears to be back in championship form under coach Lonnie Blow – were the only undefeated teams in the conference and had two of the three best overall records. Both teams were on seven-game winning streaks before Lincoln (14-5, 8-0) beat VSU (12-6, 7-2) 70-65 in their first showdown Jan. 26 at Lincoln.

Uh oh, I’m starting to feel the basketball jones coming on.

Bonitta Best is sports editor at The Triangle Tribune in Durham.

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