It's an industry that scours the poorest corners of the earth for talent from the villages of the Dominican Republic to the Ninth Ward of New Orleans. From the outer edges of Serbia to the basketball camps in China. It's a lifeline for so many, a one in a million lottery. That's why Vick -- and countless other players - - surround themselves with friends from their youth. The star athlete becomes the safety net everyone clings to, assuming he will be a life preserver instead of an anchor. The stakes for success have gotten to be too high and the price of failure too profound. Every risk becomes explicitly or implicitly appropriate, as long as you aren't caught. There are no grey areas. No one is paid to be pure.

Of course, it's always been about the bottom line. Damon Runyon wrote almost a century ago, "The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that's the way to bet."

Some of us were taught as kids that how you play the game matters above all else. The great Joe Paterno, who started coaching before the invention of dirt, once said, "What counts in sports is not the victory, but the magnificence of the struggle." If only that were so today.

If we are going to get beyond the summer of sludge then there needs to be a far more collective desire to demand change. We need to amplify the actions of athletes that don't fit the norm. People should know that NBA players Etan Thomas and Ron Artest just returned from Africa where they worked with HIV-infected kids and dropped off several tons of food. It's not pit bull fighting, but hearing about their journey is chicken soup, instead of hemlock, for the sporting soul.

We also need to channel our disgust onto far greater sporting crimes. It's a crime that the bridge in Minneapolis fell away two days before the groundbreaking on a $500 million dollar stadium. It's a crime that the good people of the Twin Cities were subsidizing the dreams for Twins owner Carl Pohlad, the richest owner in baseball.

It's a crime that football players are being diagnosed with Alzheimer's in their 30s.

It's a crime that a family of five needs to take out a second mortgage to go to a game.

It's a crime that any college coach worth anything needs to know who the best 12-year-old is in their region.

And lastly, it's a crime that despite all the billions produced by sports, physical education programs are being cut from public schools around the country. To paraphrase Mamet, everyone loves play. That's why they call it play. It's time to take the play back. Rewind and watch the joy with which the Mountaineers of Appalachian State played last Saturday. It's a joy that should be the rule, not the exception, when we speak of sports.