There’s a great feature article on Cincinnati Bengals star Chad Johnson in GQ magazine. Unlike a lot of celebrity interviews this one doesn’t sugar coat anything and it doesn’t make the subject (in this case “The Chad”) come off as some kind of super hero. (Although Johnson says he can outrun a horse and beat LeBron James at basketball.) It’s straightforward and honest and in a way — kinda funny.

Not so funny, however, is Johnson’s sincere empathy towards Michael Vick, who earlier today was sentenced to 23 months for his part in a series of dog fights. Here’s what Chad had to say:

“God, there’s a microscope on your life,” Johnson exclaims. “There’s no more privacy. You can’t do the things you did before you got here. You can’t. The media is killing Vick. I know he messed up, but everybody loved Vick the football player. Now that he’s in trouble, I ain’t heard anybody say anything good. Nothing! He shouldn’t have been doing it, but everybody’s not perfect. It’s bullshit, man. I love dogs to death, I don’t condone dog fighting, but they are killing the man in the media. Like murder! They doing him worse than O.J.; they doing him worse than Michael Jackson. It’s like they’re out to get him. Like, ‘We got one!’ “

Read the entire GQ article on Chad Johnson here.