Vick is only villified more because of who he is. Honestly, the NFL has alot of guys who are worse than Vick. That doesn't say much because Vick is a complete scumbag. People often forget about his Ron Mexico days and how sick that was. The NFL does a great job of steadying the ship through constant horror stories.
A little off topic but just a thought. Young people today worship criminals and bad guys more so than ever before. Some posters here believe that it's a black thing to fight dogs. False. The problem lies with people idolizing the thug life and what they believe gives them street cred. It's not white and black. You have rap stars preaching it, you have sports stars doing it, you have the old time wannabe mafia goofs selling it, and white /black /hispanic youth trying so hard to be it. I have spent alot of time with young adults over the last 8 years and it's getting worse. It doesn't help that positive role models are routinely degraded by the media. They all could recite Scarface but many couldn't tell you who the vice president is.