The emails and texts starting coming in around the time we were watching our first preseason games. I was visiting my folks up north and hanging with my niece so I didn't hear the news at first and I haven't been plugged in to the inter-web the past couple days so I'm just catching up with what the local and national perspective is,,, but the reaction to everyone I know has been interesting. An array of different opinions from a lot of different people I know. With all this, I felt like I should make a statement...so here is my press release.
It's kind of uncharted territory in some ways and there are a number of different issues at play here. Should Vick have been reinstated back into the NFL is the biggest? Either you think he should or he shouldn't. Once your opinion on that has been established you can sift through the rest of the questions, many of which aren't any easier to answer.
First of all, I don't know if Vick should have been reinstated, but it doesn't surprise me a bit. If you are a superstar athlete apparently you have to do something worse than run a dog killing ring to be banished from your sport. It's hard to say that once someone has served time in prison and lost all their money that they couldn't go back to their job once the time has been served. The difference here is that unlike most occupations, this is high profile and your base salary is a couple million dollars and that is very hard for any normal working person to grasp or accept.
I think it's safe to say I'm a dog person and come from a dog family. Nearly all of our friends have dogs and treat them as part of the family. I like many dogs more than a majority of humans. I understand them more and am often more comfortable in their company. I have seen other dog cultures though and have been chased by a pack of dogs in Mexico, fighting them off with rocks. I was also scared to death of the dogs in Africa. Some of my African friends would laugh when they saw pictures from home of dogs in the car or getting a bath. When I used to duck out of the hut to take a piss at night I'd stare wide-eyed out into the dark hoping that some wild dog didn't bite my pecker off. Dog fighting, however, is something I never saw or even knew existed before Michael Vick. Can't even imagine it really. Maybe my dog Claudius could have been a contender in his prime, but I see Frank more as the dog carrying the ring placard in between rounds. It's not funny and shouldn't be joked about, but that's how far away it is from something I know or have experienced.
I thought a lot about the dog fighting when all of this first went down. It's a damn shame and disgusting, but I thought even then that it was, to a certain degree, an unfortunate case of ignorance and cultural demographics. This was and probably still is something that is considered acceptable behavior and sport in some parts of our country.
This ignorance kind of struck me not so much from anything Vick said because once the charges were brought against him he didn't have much to say. I remember Clinton Portis coming out and kind of laughing at the reaction from Vick's actions. He couldn't believe how people were reacting to how dogs were treated. I wondered how many more players (or people in general) thought that it wasn't a big deal.
So, I guess my point is,,,I don't know if Vick is rehabilitated. I don't if he is a better person now and probably never will. I don't know if he deserves a second chance. I know he doesn't deserve one with a couple million dollars attached to it. I do know that Vick is probably a smarter person now. Despite whatever 4 year degrees they hand out to some of these dudes before they enter the NFL, they are not the sharpest cleats on the turf out there. They are sometimes expected to make intelligent social and moral decisions when they just aren't that smart. Not all players of course, but I think it's safe to say that some programs just push you through the system. I think Michael Vick is smarter now. I think those two years in prison have educated him on this particular subject.
I'm disappointed that the Eagles picked up Michael Vick. I wish my team wasn't the test tube for this experiment. As a football move, I don't agree with it either. I didn't think that Vick was a great QB in his prime. He was a fun athlete to watch, but I don't know if what he'll bring the Eagles could possibly outweigh the general negative backlash that will be felt by a lot of fans. Also, with the precarious relationship that Eagles fans already have with Donovan McNabb, this could end up back-firing if Donovan gets hurt and Vick has success. It's not the first time that I thought the Eagles ownership/GM made a bad move and it won't be the last. We lost a high character individual in Brian Dawkins this year and brought in Michael Vick.
The majority of the rumors had Vick going to the Steelers because it's a solid organization and well run and would have given him a good chance to re-establish his playing career and his reputation in general. I was kind of indifferent when reading about the Steelers rumors, but figured he was going to end up somewhere and a team like that might have made sense. Instead it's the Eagles and you have to examine it a little more thoroughly when it's your own team. I'm not going to burn my jersey and foam finger. I, like a lot of people will take a wait and see approach and even if it's not the best move for everyone involved, hopefully it won't be the worst move for everyone involved. Not much else to do.
Sorry if the Birds disappointed some of you. If this is indeed the final roster adjustment the Eagles needed to make and Vick is carried off the field a Super Bowl hero, we'll all have some soul searching to do.
