I am not much of a football fan, and I have even less regard for baseball.

But I've always been a fan of certain players of both games, because of their athletic ability, their off-the-field demeanor, their overall character and/or their contributions to their communities.

And oh, yes, sometimes I unashamedly have been a fan because of their race.

There was no way that anyone raised in my parents' Texas home wasn't a Dodgers fan, whether the team was in Brooklyn or Los Angeles. The Dodgers had the good sense (business, social and otherwise) to bring Jackie Robinson on as the first "Negro" player in the major leagues.

Joe Louis always was a hero in our house, although Muhammad Ali had to grow on some family members. With Ali, that "black Muslim thang" was a little too much for some of the older relatives.

But even with family members divided by the Cassius Clay-versus-Ali name debate, every time that a new "great white hope" entered the ring, they were united in wanting Cassius or Muhammad to knock him out, just as others before had wished the same for Louis and the world's first black heavyweight champion, Jack Johnson.

Recently, I promised to address two questions: Is quarterback Michael Vick America's new O.J. Simpson? Is baseball slugger Barry Bonds another Johnson?

Frankly, I don't want to deal with the accusations of breaking the laws or the rules of sports in either case.

I certainly don't condone dogfighting, the charge on which Vick has been indicted and which could mean an end or serious interruption to his otherwise stellar career.

Neither would I ever support the use of banned drugs, the allegation that often has been hurled at Bonds and has ignited the debate about how the official records should regard his feat of hitting more than 755 home runs. Many argue that an asterisk should be placed by his name when noting his 756th homer — the one that broke Hank Aaron's long-standing record.

As for Vick, let the law run its course. If he is convicted, either by jury or on a guilty plea, let him take his punishment, and let's move on. If he's found not guilty, let him resume his life and his career.

I still don't know why — since the age-old "sport" of dogfighting is outlawed in every state — Vick's alleged offense became a federal crime.

Oh, I understand that the "crossing-state-lines-to-commit-a-crime" bit gives the feds authority to get involved in almost anything, but it remains curious why local Virginia officials didn't take the lead on the investigation and criminal charges.

In Bonds' case, if Major League Baseball officials have proof that he broke the rules, formally present the charges and sanction him. If not, shut up and let's move on.

More so than with the accusations against these two men, I'm intrigued by the discussion about them — which, if you listen carefully, has broken down (as most often happens in America) along racial lines, just as debates about sports have for decades.

So, yes, Vick clearly is in the role of O.J. — not in the severity of the alleged crime but in the way that black and white Americans are reacting.

Bonds, although not exactly causing race riots, as Johnson's knockout of Jim Jeffries produced in 1910, has created a firestorm of argument, with the lines again drawn clearly along race.

(Special note: Johnson eventually was charged with a crime. It was another one of those "crossing-state-lines" things, and in his case it was crossing those lines with a white woman.)

Through sports columns and talk shows, the most condemning comments from the professionals and the public about Vick and Bonds are made by Anglos. The most sympathetic and supportive have come from black people.

I've heard discussions by whites as to why blacks are so forgiving of "their bad-acting brothers" in sports. Blacks retort, "Why don't you condemn more of your white brothers who do wrong?"

Whites ask, "How can you black people be so complacent about the cruel sport of dogfighting?"

Blacks respond: "It was white people who brought that sport to this country. And besides, when will white people start caring as much about the way people are treated in this country as they do dogs?"

When Anglos suggest that blacks ought to be outraged about Bonds breaking the record — allegedly with the help of steroids — of a terrific role model like Hank Aaron, black people say: "Heck, some of the same white people upset about Bonds breaking Aaron's record were upset about Aaron breaking the legendary Babe Ruth's record."

A reader of a Dallas newspaper, whose race I don't know, suggested that if the record books place an asterisk by Bonds' name, they should have an asterisk by Ruth's, noting that he never played the game against some of the great ballplayers of all time who happened to be black.

In America, it seems, the racial discussions will never end — including (and maybe especially) in sports, where we claim there is "an equal playing field."

Bob Ray Sanders is a columnist for the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram.