Michael Vick, star quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons, won't be playing for a while.

Michael Vick, star quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons, won't be playing for a while. Vick and three cronies were charged with betting on dogfights, and with torturing to death the dogs that did not fight well. When the cronies pleaded guilty, Vick threw in the towel. This is the latest tale of the celebrity athlete who believed he was a law unto himself. Moralizing over decadence is a tiresome stance, but there is real decadence, even as there is real morality. A century ago, George Santayana, the gay atheist Catholic Spanish philosopher, said the three things he liked best about the United States were football, jazz bands, and kindness. Number one and number three have parted ways.