Michael Vick Will Play Football Again

Michael Vick has signed a contract to play football for the Philadelphia Eagles.  Some dog lovers are angry saying that Vick should not be allowed to play professional football ever again.  (I think some of them want him executed)  It is true that Vick did a very bad thing.  At his trial it was shown that dogs, (that Vick was breeding and training) which lacked the proper fighting spirit were drowned, hanged or bludgeoned to death. Again according to the testimony, Vick witnessed the drowning and the hanging and the bludgeoning. This is considered SOP in the dog-fighting racket. If a fighting dog in a match effectively gives up, the dog is often killed the next day. So what was done on Vick's property is basically traditional, among the breeder of fighting dogs.

Nevertheless, I do not want to seem to excuse this behavior.  What Vick and his comrades did was wrong and cruel in the extreme.  Vick, however, has paid his debt to society, shown a level of sincere remorse and now wants to get on with his life.  People should let him do so. 

I heard a person interviewed saying that if Vick plays again, the message will be to every child who can throw a football or hit a baseball that they don’t have to play by the rules all the rest of us must observe.  Gifted young athletes often learn that the rules are for others.  They are given passes in school absences, forgiven for bad behavior, and allowed to pass college courses when they have not done the work.  But, this is not what happened to Vick.  He spent 18 months in prison.  He lost a starting position with the Atlanta Falcons and millions of dollars in salary he would have had coming.  He has been adequately punished for his crime. 

Now I’m supporting Vick’s attempt to get back into professional football, but I saw an op-ed (August 8^th New York Times) in which, Jesse Jackson compared Vick’s attempt to get back into football with Jackie Robinson’s effort to break into major-league baseball.  As I said, I wish Vick well, but Jackson has gone completely over the top on this one.  Robinson’s effort at integrating major-league baseball, changed the sport and helped to change the nation.  Vick’s getting back into football is simply another athlete with bad behavior, paying his debt and being given second chance. 

No doubt Vick will play again.  He may even work his way into a starting position and when he takes the field, some people may see visions of puppies swinging in the wind or being drowned in a pond.  What we will know when we watch him play is not that he paid his debt or was remorseful, but that he can still throw that tight spiral and hit the receiver as he crosses over the middle.