I’ve been impressed with Michael Vick since he was released from prison. He’s done a lot of good work promoting the treatment of animals.
Stayed out of trouble. He recently married and is a NFL studio analyst for Fox sports.
Now he’s settled his old bankruptcy case.
He’ll always have the dog fighting conviction to live down. He seems genuinely remorseful and it’s great to see a athlete turn his life around.
A lot has changed since the Michael Vick case.
I could never forgive someone who purposely tortures innocent animals. Sorry.
I have to admit I don’t understand this. What Vick did was certainly wrong. But unforgivable?
I compare Vick to Ray Lewis - a man who almost certainly committed murder. But he was a talented player and he had money for great lawyers so he walked. And people apparently forgave him. He kept on playing, got endorsement deals, won awards, and was honored when he retired. I guess he’s lucky he killed human beings rather than dogs.
Fuck Michael Vick. If the Christians are right, Jesus might forgive him. I ain’t Jesus. Fuck Michael Vick.
Every once in a while, claims of repentance and a quest for atonement are real. It’s fairly rare, but this one looks quite genuine. I salute Vick for taking care of his business, and making real changes.
A fiscally responsible dog killer is still a dog killer.
Fuck him.
Vick was properly punished imho. Prison, bankruptcy, and a greatly diminished career in the NFL afterward.
He did a terrible thing and served his sentence. I don’t have a problem with giving Vick a second chance. So far he’s making the most of it.
Wait - you have come to respect Ray Lewis?
I sure haven’t.
Michael Vick was arrested, convicted in a court of law, and served time in prison (the full sentence, IIRC). He has since expressed what appears to be sincere contrition (I say ‘appears’ because the only person who knows whether or not Michael Vick is really sorry is Michael Vick), and has done all that which could reasonably be expected to show remorse, and that he has been rehabilitated. From my point of view, to paraphrase David Morse’s character from The Green Mile, he paid what he owed; he’s square with the house again.
Full disclosure: I am neither a football fan nor an animal lover, FWIW.
I haven’t either. But I remember the favorable media coverage and public adulation he received.
One of the really good things that Michael Vick has done is expose Tony Dungy as a pretty reprehensible individual. When Vick came back into the league after serving his sentence, Dungy took him on in a mentoring role. Dungy talked far and wide about how he deserved a second chance, how the media distraction, the animal rights protests at every single game Vick played in, etc. weren’t really a big deal, how the team didn’t mind, that it wasn’t a distraction in the locker room - the players were all professionals doing a job.
That’s all fine and good, but the moment Michael Sam wanted to put on an NFL jersey, Dungy couldn’t stop talking about how having a gay man in the locker room was going to be too much of a distraction for those professionals.
Dungy is pure scum. t seems like every time there’s a controversial player, NBC reaches out to Dungy. They treat Dungy like he’s a spiritual version of a Roman Emperor at a gladiator contest. Will Dungy give the player a spiritual thumbs up or thumbs down?
FWIW, it helps that Lewis’ role was ambiguous. To say he “almost certainly committed murder” is an overstatement, though I would say he is almost certainly guilty of crimes greater than the misdemeanor obstruction charge he pled to. Not a good guy, but he’s gifted with plausible deniability.
I forgive him. He owned up to what he did. He paid his debt to society both in enormous fines and jail time. He has earned redemption. It doesn’t make him a hero, but it’s rare enough that we see this happening that it’s worth noting.
Indeed. And it seems that people who seem to realize that how people grew up has a major impact on how folks act forget that when it comes to Vick. He grew up exceedingly poor in a bad neighborhood where dog fighting was something that was done. I don’t think that’s solely on him. After he went to jail, he realized the gravity of what he did (he may have realized rationally that it was wrong beforehand, but since it was something he grew up with he likely minimized it) and took action against it. I feel he has atoned.
It does blow my mind that I expect Ray Lewis to be voted into the Hall of Fame, but Terrell Owens will probably never get in because of his annoying hijinx on the field and in the locker room.
Why did he owe so much money? I only know about the dog fighting.
A lot of people don’t realize he came out of this environment. They also don’t realize that he gave up the legal fight pretty quickly and plead guilty. He had plenty of money and he could have dragged this battle out in court for years and even if convicted never have paid the fines. Nobody is obligated to personally forgive him but he has paid his debt to society.
Two things:
In my view, society is morally obligated to offer forgiveness if the offender admitted his wrongdoing, made amends, and showed some assurance that it won’t happen again. Once the debt to society has been paid, the debt no longer exists, and we no longer have any right to give him crap over it. Good lord, how do you expect anyone to have the motivation to become a better person if there’s no chance of ever welcoming them back? Isn’t this something we should’ve all learned by about grad school?
I eat meat (and various other “proteins”), and nope, forget it, don’t start with me, not interested, claiming that a dog has a special protected status that a pig, bull, sheep, chicken, turkey, or fish doesn’t is just ludicrous. Of course, animal rights is always a thorny issue, but the bottom line is that other than hardcore vegans and the like, it’s always going to bear a certain level of hypocrisy, or at least a biased viewpoint, and that’s a pretty shaky foundation for saying that what Vick did was inherently unforgivable.
Just for the record, I don’t like Ray Lewis, but the ship’s kinda sailed on bringing him to justice. Double jeopardy and all that.
And in my view, I’m not morally obligated to do shit, because if you’re only apologizing because you want people to be nice, and not because, you know, you’re actually sorry, then fuck it.
Last time I checked, we don’t torture the animals we use for meat. Do you know what all dog fighting involves? And it’s not just dogs – look up “bait animals”? I eat meat too, but there’s a big difference between eating meat and dog fighting.
(Oh, and fuck Ray Lewis)