Vox

Musings, rants, rambling, general nonsense

Something To Chew On

Posted on | August 14, 2009 | No Comments

Tony Dungy has once again written in support of Michael Vick and his return to the NFL I am once again inspired to disagree.
Here are all the reasons I have seen offered for why we should accept Vick back in the NFL, and my reasons to disagree.
I may come back and update this list as I think about it more
He has shown repentance

Michael Vick may be repentant now, but he didn’t choose to repent because he saw the error of his ways, he was forced to repent because he saw the erosion of his paycheck
When the dog fighting ring was discovered, he chose to continue lying and denying rather than face up to his mistake – that isn’t repentance.
Vick seems willing to sign off on press releases & photo ops that show his manufactured remorse, but he has yet to show anything close to real regret over his actions – just over his being caught

He deserves forgiveness
Not my place, or yours, to ‘forgive. The only ones who can do that are those he wronged; his family, friends, teammates, business associates…. Unfortunately, the dogs don’t get a say – even the ones that survived.
Whether or not he is ‘forgiven’ has no bearing on whether or not he should be back in the spotlight of the most popular sport in the country.
One of Dungy’s (and his commenters) arguments is that by bringing him back into the NFL, we are showing our kids that if they make a mistake, they will be punished but will be forgiven. Or perhaps we are showing people that if you are famous and/or rich, it doesn’t matter how badly you screw up, you get to keep being famous & rich.

He paid his debt
Really? He did his time, but so what? I would posit that the damage he did to society was far greater than 18 months ‘away from his family’ (as Tony Dungy described it)
If he had slaughtered his family and served his sentence, would you suggest that, since he “paid his debt to society”, there is no reason to keep him out of the NFL?
The fact that he served his time is not relevant, the fact that he is an especially evil man is.

He has a right to make a living
I am not suggesting he has no right to make a living, but that is a far cry from saying he has a right to be in the spotlight making millions. There are many other jobs he should be able to do with the skills, or lack thereof, that he has. Go make a living somewhere else.

He deserves a second chance
1) Why?
2) He’s had that, and a third, and….he was trouble before the dog fighting came to light. He has proven himself to be more drama than he is worth time & again. But he should get another chance this time because he screwed up in such a heinous & public way? No. A transgression of this magnitude deserves to eliminate all future chances from the table.

Sports stars shouldn’t be role models for your kids anyway
Perhaps they shouldn’t – but they are. Every time you sit down to watch a game with your kids, you are saying that there is something special about those athletes. Every time they screw up, be it poor sportsmanship or drugs, the way you handle it, the way they are treated, and the consequences they face send a very clear message to your children.
The depth to which Vick has sunk is a depth we shouldn’t have to explain to our kids.

It’s not like he killed anyone
No, it isn’t. What he did shows such a special level of depravity it should sicken you just to contemplate it.
He didn’t “make a mistake”, he didn’t “show poor judgement”. He, over the course of many years, chose to actively participate in a ‘sport’ whose sole purpose is the brutal, violent, grotesquely gruesome death of one or more of the ‘contestants’ The training is equally cruel and depraved. The fact that under performing dog are sacrificed would be bad enough, but the methods used to put the dogs down also showed how sick and twisted are the minds of those involved – beating, burning, electrocution…but drawn out, so they died slowly and learned their lesson and served as a motivation to the other dogs. Because there was actually some belief that the other dogs were watching and thinking, “gosh, I better fight harder so that doesn’t happen to me”? No, because the humans involved were watching it and getting some sick satisfaction. You have to have unbelievable evil in your heart to find enjoyment in such a sport, particularly when you’re involved so deeply in the operation.
This wasn’t a crime of passion or a short-term misstep, this was a pattern of behavior exposed by the length and heinousness of the offense.

Donte Stallworth
When I first heard of Stallworth killing a pedestrian, I was up in arms and calling for his head. Then I heard the details.
As I understand it, he:
* Was drinking the night before, knew he was impaired & got a ride home.
* Got up the next morning & got a ride back to his car, assuming he had slept it off.
* Struck a pedestrian who stepped in front of his vehicle and who, according to police reports, was at fault and probably would have been hit if Stallworth was stone cold sober.
* Stopped his car, called the police & waited till they arrived.
* Cooperated completely from the get go, accepted responsibility and agreed to a settlement with the courts & the family.
* Served his time, therefore “paying his debt to society”
* Has lost his ability to drive, forever.
* Has lost his ability “to make a living” in the NFL for at least the next year.
Donte Stallworth is an example of actually making a mistake. And, when he made his mistake, he didn’t try to cover up or lie his way out. He manned up.

Michael Vick may know a lot about being a warped, cliched version of telenovela macho, but he has no clue about true masculinity or being a real man.

I was disgusted enough when Goodell approved his return, but I had hoped that the teams would have more sense than he (something I keep hoping for with the NBA and Stern) Unfortunately, the Eagles have proven me wrong, and some of the players & coaches I used to respect have come forward to say they agree with that decision. It has been hard to embrace the NFL for years, knowing how they embrace thugs in their midst, but I loved the game enough to grit my teeth and keep following. This seems to be the last straw for me – and, judging from Twitter, many others as well.



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Category: Sports

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