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Michael Vick is just one of many criminal football players. Why are we surprised?

The Michael Vick soap opera appears to be at an end.

The Atlanta quarterback has pled guilty to conspiracy in a dogfighting operation, though avoiding many of the more serious charges involving direct operation.

Vick won’t be sentenced until December, but he won’t be playing football while he waits. The NFL suspended him indefinitely, and salary cap issues are likely the only reason the Falcons haven’t cut him yet.

The bigger question is, will this finally make people stand up and be outraged at the behavior of football players? Probably not.

Here’s the truth: As horrible as Vick’s actions were, he’s still not alone in NFL criminal activity. More than sixty NFL players have been arrested since last year alone and more than three hundred since 2000. The charges range from assault to burglary to drug possession.

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Vick hasn’t even committed the worst offense of the last ten years. Remember, Rae Carruth is serving a 20-year sentence for killing his pregnant girlfriend.

If you haven’t seen these numbers, you’re probably shocked. But why?

Why are we surprised that people who play a sport like football act in such a manner?

Football is legalized brutality. The object of the game is to beat up your opponent as badly as possible. And we glorify its abusive violence to the ultimate degree.

The guys who hit the hardest get the biggest cheers. Yet we’re surprised that they find other ways to take out those vicious desires for the remaining 349 days of the year.

The NFL is supposedly implementing a code of conduct policy to crack down on this behavior. Why didn’t they try something when four players faced charges of killing people in the 1990s?

Carruth’s in jail. Ray Lewis avoided a murder sentence by throwing others under the bus. Leonard Little was convicted of drunk driving manslaughter and STILL allowed to play again. And then there’s – no, I’m not giving that guy any more publicity.

Such is the behavior we should expect from the culture we created. We expect these players on the field to be monsters who would beat a child to a bloody pulp. Then we just expect them to turn that off like a light switch when the game ends?

The NFL, sadly, doesn’t need to do anything to stop its players’ actions. Its gate receipts and TV ratings won’t be hurt at all because this is exactly what the fans want. They want a sport where people are as inhumane as possible – and that’s just what they get.

They’ll continue to support the NFL while Michael Vick sits in prison – and watches many of his fellow players join him.