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By Tim Keown
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Updated: July 31, 2007, 10:50 AM ET

First, Nike and the NFL have every right to attempt to purge the world of Michael Vick and everything Vick-related. They can stop selling his jerseys and his shoes and his trading cards. They can -- and did -- tell esteemed columnist Deion Sanders that he can't publish a column in a Florida newspaper attempting to explain his earlier semidefense of Vick.


Vick's legacy is certainly up in the air right now.
Hey, it's a free market, which means you really aren't free to do much of anything -- even put words on paper -- if the people who employ you decide they don't like what you have to say.

The NFL can decide that it believes Vick is guilty, and therefore prohibit him from doing his job. The Atlanta Falcons can say they would have done the same if the NFL hadn't won the race of the righteous. Nike and Reebok and the cardmakers can pull every shred of Vick from the shelves. Innocent until proven guilty only holds in a court of law, not in the world of commerce.

Nike issued a statement proclaiming the obvious -- Vick is presumed innocent -- and then called off its association with him. Fine. No problem.

But isn't this rush to evaporate Vick a little creepy? Does he cease to exist if his jersey isn't in the store and his shoes never leave the warehouse?

Of course, here is the moment when the following must be said: If the allegations against Vick are true, he needs to be punished. Fullest extent of the law and all that. Nobody can read the indictment without tasting a little bile. Nobody can successfully defend the practice of dogfighting, not even someone as crafty with words as Deion.

But still, the rush to purge Vick is strange, even a little perverse. The same people who base entire marketing campaigns on the edginess of athletes such as Vick -- hello, Nike -- scurry to distance themselves when edgy turns into something as abhorrent as Bad Newz Kennels.

When the pressure's on and a group with the clout of America's dog owners stands up to be heard, there's only one way to turn -- away.

So the forced evaporation begins.

Michael Vick? Didn't he play in the NFL once?

I twice at the mention of Sanders being an esteemed columnist and a crafty writer.

There's this little thing called a pattern of behavior. And added that Mike's baby brother also has this pattern of behavior,...giving booze to 15 year old girls and having some gongolamonga with them and stomping a player during a game,...eh, no big deal. Shooting birds at people, eh, no big deal.

This writer calls this all "creepy."

What's creepy is a quiet guy that has a dark side to him that we may never know about,...mistrial.