Another week, another talented Quarterback who's status is up in the air to talk about.
Michael Vick, jailed for his part in a Dogfighting ring in December 2007, will be released from prison this week, and the media frenzy is already starting. Will Vick return to the NFL? The answer is out of his hands, but if Roger Goodell approves his reinstatement before the 2009 season begins, could Vick land on a roster? I believe that Vick has two problems, so I'll address them separately.
Should Mike Vick be reinstated to the NFL?
Vick's release is merely the first step on his path to redemption. Of course, he will first and foremost concentrate on getting his personal life in order, the time will come in the next few months where Vick appeals to commissioner Roger Goodell in an effort to seek employment in the National Football league once more.
There are those who believe that Vick is not deserving of reinstatement, that his callous cruelty to animals and premeditated approach to the execution of those dogs unfit to fight shows a character that is not capable of being reformed. As a dog owner, I can relate to that point of view, but I also think it shows rank hypocrisy. We all make mistakes. Some are worse than others, and some reveal parts of our character that people will not forget in a hurry. Michael Vick will live with the stigma of his actions for the rest of his life. There will likely not be a Ray Lewis-esque Superbowl victory that somehow erases people's feeling towards him. He is guilty, and there can be no argument that what Michael Vick did showed a worrying side to a player who was a role model to millions.
Unfortunately, there are many questions regarding the wider issue of giving a criminal a second chance that I really don't intend to delve into here. Every case is different, and there is no right answer that will somehow uniformly cover all eventualities.
But Michael Vick deserves his chance, and here's why: For starters, he has served his time. He committed a crime and was punished heavily for it. He has lost his entire fortune, his freedom, and ultimately it could have cost him the chance to maintain his way of life. Is that not ample punishment? Murderers have got away with less, and whilst I would never condone or justify Vick's actions, we need to put this into perspective and realise that Vick deserves contempt, but also he needs our help to overcome this.
The partisan nature of football means that many of us were quietly satisfied with Vick's fall from grace. Watching a sportsman lose his personal wealth is engrossing, but when the dust settles, there is another human being under the uniform. What good would it do society in general, to hang Vick out to dry and deny him the chance to earn a living? We're talking about a guy who doesn't have anything else to fall back on, and if anything, I'd say that treating him as a pariah is more likely to send him back toward the people who instigated his downfall. Far better, I think, to give him the chance to repay his creditors, to get his life back on track. He will never get another $130m contract, and indeed, as I'm about to point out, his problems off the field may not be his only issue as regards his personal income.
But that comes with the territory of playing in the NFL. Vick knows what he has done wrong. Even if he doesn't believe what he did was wrong (there is no way of quantifying remorse, you know), he is now fully aware that wider society will not tolerate dogfighting, and I'd class him as 'highly unlikely' to get involved in anything that will jeopardise his NFL career again.
So my appeal to Roger Goodell would be 'Give Mike Vick another chance'. If we turn our back on Vick, we will merely be doing it out of misplaced moral righteousness, and if he were then to go back to his old ways, it would be us who were to blame as much as Vick.
