Why align yourself in public with a dog-fight organizer?

Speaking of uniforms: Three times in the last few weeks I’ve seen guys wearing Michael Vick jerseys. What’s that about? What’s the signal being sent by aligning yourself with Vick after he’s admitted to various unsavory and criminal acts related to dog-fighting? My understanding is that Vick jerseys have been pulled from stores and the NFL Shop etc., so clearly the league recognizes that the time for being pro-Vick has ended. Why haven’t these fans got the message?

I live in Georgia, and it’s pretty hard to overstate what a huge deal Vick was for the Falcons, so one theory is that it’s just residual football fandom. Basically: “Okay, dog-fighting is bad — but what a great athlete!”

Another theory is that, in addition to the above, Vick seems vaguely cooler now (to these people), for outlaw reasons.

Another theory is that these guys are, in addition to being fans of Vick, actually fans of dogfighting. Far-fetched perhaps, but somebody is a dog-fighting fan, or it wouldn’t exist.

Another theory is that it’s calculated provocation. Before Vick’s guilty plea, at least, a few voices suggested that there was some racial bias involved in going after him in particular. (Two of the three guys I’ve seen in Vick jerseys were black; all three were young to young-ish, between late teens and early 30s.) So possibly there’s some residual Vick-got-a-raw-deal sentiment. Or more abstractly, the provocation may have no particular connection to Vick, just provocation for its own sake, like Sid Vicious wearing a Swastika T-shirt: Basically, “I’m wearing this solely to piss you off.”

[Quasi-related: T-shirts saying “Vick Em” were briefly sold by a Texas Tech frat, showing a representation of Vick hanging a Texas Aggie dog mascot. These were promptly banned.]

Finally, there’s the cluelessness/indifference theory: It’s the only clean shirt on laundry day, and the guys wearing it just don’t think about or don’t really care how others around them react to Vick’s name.

Possibly there’s another explanation I’m missing. In all cases, I think it’s a weird decision.