Poor Michael Vick; the guy runs one incredibly vicious, violent and maybe murderous dogfighting ring, and now everybody hates him. The Philadelphia Eagles quarterback had planned to go on a Barnes & Noble book tour this month to promote his autobiography, Finally Free, but apparently store employees received so many threats regarding the tour that the whole thing has been canceled.
Vick, who most recently got flack last week for taking his dog (yes, he has his own dog) to training classes, was scheduled to make appearances at Barnes and Nobles in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Atlanta, in addition to an independent bookstore in Northvale, NJ, starting March 26th. But his publisher says the tour has made the bookstores targets of potentially violent threats, and they're no longer comfortable welcoming Vick. "While we stand by Michael Vick's right to free speech and the retailers' right to free commerce, we cannot knowingly put anyone in harm's way, and therefore we must announce the cancellation of Mr. Vick's book-signing appearances," Worthy Publishing president Byron Williamson said in a statement. "We've been assured these threats of violence, which have been reported to the police, are being taken very seriously by local authorities."
If you're wondering what kind of fighting words have warranted a full-on tour cancellation, Phillymag.com's got a few choice quotes off the Barnes and Noble Facebook page and Vick's fan page, including, "I would go there to slit your throat knowing how you treat animals," "hope your kids don’t fall in a pool with a battery," and "I would snap your neck if I met you, your [sic] a piece of trash.” And while a lot of the really violent stuff seems to have been removed, there's still plenty of vitriol on both pages to go around.
