SportsGirl

Well, it’s been a day since Michael Vick formally entered his guilty plea to the federal dog fighting charges he was facing. He then issued a statement to the press and to his fans expressing his regret at his actions and vowing to change his ways. Yesterday, I nearly wrote about my reaction to this statement but like the rest of the circumstances surrounding the Michael Vick circus, I needed a day to gain more perspective at my own feelings.

Initially, I was ready to rip Vick for the apology. It started with his repeated use of the word “immature”. Vick, let’s get one thing straight; what you did was not immature. Immature is when you show up at your buddy’s house asking to crash there because you got evicted from your third apartment in a month for failing to pay your rent. Immature is having a belching contest with your friends in your local bar… when you’re 35 years old. Immature is not bankrolling an operation whose sole purpose is to breed vicious dogs that are programmed to kill one another. Immature is not when you participate in the execution of said dogs when they don’t perform to your liking. Those actions fall under the category of reprehensible, almost inhuman actions. Sorry, but you should have picked a different word.

And then, to make matters worse, he had to drop the J-word: Jesus. He’s found Jesus through this whole ordeal. Now, if that’s true, then that’s great. If you’ve found something that you can turn to if you ever find yourself slipping back to your old behavior, I’m all for it. But I cannot stand when someone drops the religion card as if by confessing that you once were lost but now are found, the public will instantly forgive you. “Oh, I get it now. See before, when he was breeding those dogs to fight, he didn’t have Jesus in his life. Now, 10 days later, he’s found Jesus. I guess what he did wasn’t so bad after all.” Not exactly a conversation I’d be having.

Ok, that was my initial reaction. Having thought about it for a day, I realize that he should get some amount of credit for not reading a prepared statement off a piece of paper that someone else wrote for him. I have to admit he did at least look sincere. The cynic in me says he’s only sincerely regretful that he was caught. But, you know, sometimes the optimist in me crushes those cynical tendencies so I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Also, he’s right when he says that this might be a teaching example for the youth of today that you always have the opportunity to make good choices in your life, even if it’s later rather than sooner. I genuinely hope that Vick will start some type of foundation or program to teach children how to make the right choices and how to stay on a path that will lead somewhere positive.

So, Vick, yet again you manage to make me second guess how I feel about this whole fiasco. The one thing I do feel strongly about is that I do not believe he should be banned for life from the NFL. That’s not to say that I think he should have his spot on the Falcons waiting for him when he’s out of prison. Quite the contrary. I hope that Joey Harrington develops into a good enough quarterback that the Falcons find more consistent success without Vick than they had with him. But when Vick is eventually released from prison, I don’t see why he should be denied the ability to try out again for the NFL. I’ve heard it said on a myriad of talk shows that playing in the NFL is a privilege not a right and that you have to prove yourself to be worthy of a roster spot. And I agree…you have to prove yourself on the field and show that you can be an elite caliber of athlete before you’re awarded a locker. But I don’t believe that your off-the-field activities should preclude you from being given the opportunity to try out for a spot on the team. Having said that, let me also state that I would support any owner who felt like adding Vick to his team would represent too great a risk. Those are the breaks, right?

I maintain that the only thing we can do now is to see how long he’s sentenced for and to see exactly how contrite he is when he serves that sentence. He’s got a long road ahead of him and will have lots of time to ponder just how he wants to make his comeback.