The Sports Rumors

My Conclusion on Michael Vick

This is probably the last time I am going to address this situation, but since it has all but reached the final stages, I feel like it is a good time to express my opinions on the matter. Michael Vick went to my alma mater, Virginia Tech. He was the biggest star we ever had step foot on campus. He brought my University into the top tier of football programs and helped bring in all types of positive attention. Because of Michael Vick, my alma mater brought in great college athletes and future pros like Kevin Jones and DeAngelo Hall. Naturally, I was a huge Vick fan in college, and took my allegiance with him by cheering for him as a Falcon. I loved everything about the guy; his style, his demeanor, his new-age hip-hop type of quarterback that was unprecedented. I am still a Michael Vick fan, but a greatly disappointed one.

When the initial Vick news broke, and it got to the point where he was going to be indicted, I did what any true fan of a player would do. I came to his defense. I gave him the benefit of the doubt, I tried to find some way that I could defend him, some way that I could prove that he wasn’t involved and was oblivious to the whole dog fighting ring. I wanted to find out from some source that he was just a naïve athlete who got taken advantage of by his thug friends from childhood. I knew all along that it was a far fetched scenario, but I held on to it as long as I could. As time passed however, I read more and more about the details of what he was being accused of. I saw more and more corroborating evidence against him that took that glimmer of hope I had of his innocence, and put it out. I don’t think I even thought about the severity and the cruelty of his actions because I was so caught up in trying to make myself believe he was innocent.

I took my two year old lab for a walk and going along a main road near my house here in Virginia, a truck driven by some idiot came awfully close to jumping the curb and without a doubt, striking and probably killing my dog. After that moment of immense anger at the truck driver, I gathered my thoughts. It was then that I realized how innocent and like a child a dog is. That led me to think about the dogs that were executed by Vick and his posse. That’s when the magnitude of his actions really hit me.

Now lets not get it twisted, I’m not PETA activist or animals rights guy. I’ve run over plenty of possums and squirrels in my lifetime so I won’t sit here and preach to you about animals. But what I am saying is the animals that were so brutally executed were innocent creatures who had been starved, caged, and then fought till death for a couple of thousand dollars at a time. How anyone can have the mentality and see the joy in doing something like that is beyond my range of comprehension. It’s the same way I’ll never understand how a man can rape a woman, how someone can strap a bomb to their chest and blowup innocent people in Iraq, or how a crazed college student can go shoot up 32 kids who were in class learning at Virginia Tech. I can’t understand any of that. But I can’t defend someone who has participated in those acts, even if he was one of my favorite athletes of all time. If you still can’t get a sense of the cruelty involved, take a look at this picture, which is graphic. After you get past the initial “ew” phase, look at the dog’s eyes and then look at your own dog’s eyes. Think about it for a minute.

I do feel that Michael Vick deserves jail time after initially thinking he didn’t. I feel that he should spend eight to twelve months in prison, thinking about his actions and thinking about the senseless fun he had. I feel that amount of time would be sufficient for him to reflect, and for his own good and for society’s, he could come out a better human being. Now the exact time he should go is up for debate, depending on who you are. I realize that drug dealers sometimes get 6 months and murders get off the hook with nothing. But we live in a country where the sentences depend on the state, the county, and the judge so there is no real precedent for a situation like this. I feel eight to twelve months is long enough to make a point and teach someone a lesson about something like dog fighting.

All of this considered, I do feel sad for Michael Vick. I don’t feel bad that he’s going to jail because he should. I feel sad for the tragedy that he has made into his life. He came from the gutter; from the ghettoes of Hampton, Virginia. He worked his butt off to become a star and he did at Virginia Tech and Atlanta. He had it all, from the houses, the cars, the fans, everything was in his pocket. He was the true rags to riches story. What’s tragic about this story is that he let it all go down the drain over something as stupid as dog fighting. Now he’s back where a lot of young men from the ghettoes of Hampton, Virginia end up; in jail. That to me is sad. To have so much for which you’ve worked so hard for, and blow it away just like that.

I hope Michael Vick emerges from prison twelve or eighteen months from now a better man; a changed man. I hope that dog fighting, however big of a problem it is (because I don’t know), is eliminated from our society. Most of all, I hope people can learn from this, especially young folks like myself. Appreciate what you have, make wise decisions, and avoid putting yourself in a situation that can hurt yourself and your family. I can guarantee you that’s what Vick will be thinking about in jail.