Perhaps he was referring to the fact that Vick only got caught once.
Yes, thank heavens it wasn’t the Bills, now I can go back to grumbling about Terrell Owens … who was recently spouting off about how the League was treating Vicks so unfairly, it was like beating a dead horse.
Gee, are you sure “abused animal” is the imagery you want to go with?
The NFL gets a lot of subsidy from public funds for a “private” corporation.
It’s okay in one way though; their decision about what outweighs what in this case is very informative.
I think it’s an odd signing…but a good one nonetheless.
I don’t think anyone is expecting him to work wonders, or do anything, at first; but we will have to see.
As for being let in the first place: Everyone deserves a second chance. I am as big a fan of dogs/animals as you will ever see, and what he did was beyond wrong…but he did his time, he served his sentence, he lost pretty much everything via bankruptcy, and will forever be hated by a whole lotta people. He deserves a chance to do whatever he can to get his life back, and that includes returning to football.
Terrell Owens is incapable of NOT saying something stupid or offensive. Might as well complain about the tide ;).
I don’t think the NFL does, though I could be wrong. Individual teams get subsidies to build stadiums, but I am not aware of the league being publically financed.
My complaint is about the false equivalency. “I’d lose my security clearance so I would lost my job” - well, for whatever reason, a security clearance is considered a prerequisite for that job. And for whatever reason, a felony conviction is considered to be incompatible with holding security clearance.
The difference is, whether you torture dogs or not is absolutely irrelevant to your abilities as a football player. It’s illegal, so you pay a legal penalty. After that legal penalty is done with, then a private employer needs to make the choice of whether the negative consequences of hiring you outweigh the benefits. The Eagles clearly made the choice that the benefits outweighed the costs. I’m not sure they are right, mainly because I think Vick is the most overrated QB I have seen. But they probably know what they are doing better than me.
Being a felon shouldn’t deprive you of the right to make a living. The only jobs I can see excluding a person from are the ones that are connected with that crime. I don’t think a convicted child abuser should be working in a kindergarten, for example. But there’s nothing about the crimes Vick was convicted of that impacts his ability to play professional football.
True. “Terrell Owens stupidly runs his mouth, film at 11… and 11:15… and 11:30… and every 15 minutes for the next 24 hours. You’re watching ESPN, the worldwide leader in sport stories you got tired of last year.”
Vick has every right to make a living. The question is whether he should be able to make that living playing professional football for millions of dollars a year, and if he should be able to do it immediately. If he got out of jail and proved he was capable of acting like a decent human being for a while, I think I would be okay with him returning to football. But that hasn’t happened yet. His home confinement ended less than a month ago, so to this point, all I know is that he’s figured out how to avoid violating his parole for after serving two years in jail, and that he knows how to say he’s sorry when he is forced to do so. I think he has every right to run a football camp, be an assistant coach with a high school team, or flip burgers while he tries to earn another shot. I don’t think - as Terrell Owens naturally does - that he deserves instant forgiveness.
Dammit, why couldn’t the Eagles just hire the drunk drivers, shooters, rapists, and aggravated assaulters like the other teams!
1 year deal with an option for the 2nd year. This means either Vick or McNabb will be out of there after this season.
The Bengals and Raiders got 'em first. Actually, I’m surprised Vick isn’t in Oakland.
Every Iggles road game is going to be a media circus. At least they don’t go to Cleveland this year.
Being a felon shouldn’t deprive a person of the right to make a good living after having paid their debts to society, which Vick has. Forcing Vick to sit out a season, or two, or whatever, is an unreasonable punishment based on strange and faulty assumptions. Playing professional football, unlike most jobs, is a time-sensitive profession. You can’t do it when you’re 50. You probably can’t do it when you’re 40, and even for most people who do play professional football, you can’t do it when you’re 30. By saying Vick has to sit out another year, or two, you’re essentially banning him for life from football. Completely unreasonable.
Second, what does making good money have to do with anything at all? Should a CEO be banned from running a business if he gets a DUI? Should a successful doctor be banned from practicing medicine if he cheats on his taxes? What does “flipping burgers” do to possibly help Vick “earn another shot?” Why would a felon, after having served their court appointed sentence, be forced to take a bad job instead of using their talents and skills to make a good living? That’s an arbitrary punishment based on, I’m assuming, jealousy about how much he would make going back to work. Again, being a felon shouldn’t deprive a person of the right to make a good living.
And finally, how has he not earned forgiveness? He spent two years in prison, earned his parole, and didn’t violate it. He has worked with the humane society to right the wrongs he has committed. He has accepted the help of highly esteemed advisors that are guiding him to righting his life. He has been apologetic at every opportunity. What more do you want from the guy?
I find myself pulling for the guy more and more as I read how people respond to him. I honestly never knew this country has such a population of perfect angels.
Around here they have a breakfast cereal on sale called, yes, “T. O’s.” You can’t even escape him at Tops or Wegmans, let alone “the worldwide leader”.
I’m surprised Vick didn’t get a bigger suspension–not for the dogfighting, but for the illegal gambling. The NFL usually frowns on that.
Anyone know offhand what NFL team has the most felons on their payroll? Just curious. Has anyone thought about an expansion team whose roster is made up solely of felons?
ETA: I’m not the only one thinking along these lines:
http://www.thephatphree.com/features.asp?StoryID=850&SectionID=2&LayoutT
He hasn’t gotten instant forgiveness. Apart from the 2 years in prison, and suspension, he hasn’t been forgiven for anything by anybody as far as I can see.
If Vick was a film actor, people wouldn’t be out there saying he “shouldn’t be able” to make millions of dollars for acting in a movie. People might say “I won’t watch a movie with him in it” and that is exactly the reaction people should have here if they think Vick shouldn’t be allowed to work. Or, more accurately, should be allowed to work in a job they feel sufficiently warrants a felon, but not the pristine NFL. There’s nothing that says felons should be allowed to work crappy jobs and not good ones. The NFL made a business decision to suspend him for a certain period of time over and above his prison sentence. Now you can argue that suspension wasn’t long enough, but I don’t see why that would be the case as such.
As for the Eagles signing him - well the League gave their ruling, and Vick isn’t in jail, and his crime had absolutely nothing to do with Football.
And on edit, what Jules Andre said…
It doesn’t mean either, actually. It just means the team has an option to let Vick go. If McNabb has a great season and Vick comes in on special packages and shreds defenses, the Eagles will keep both.
Both McNabb and Vick will have their contracts expire in 2011. The Eagles, more than any franchise in football, makes decisions based on the value a player brings on the field. If the experiment doesn’t work this season, Vick will be gone. If McNabb can’t win a Super Bowl in the next two seasons, he will likely be gone too. Their futures are not linked.
Just as long as it’s not illegal.
The Eagles have to pay Vick $5.2 million if they exercise the option. McNabb will be 33 this year. They’re not going to pay them both, especially after McNabb’s inevitable injury.
He could have picked a pace with friendlier fans. Philly is famous for berating their own . They booed Santa Claus. He will not get a warm and fuzzy reception there.
I was unaware he had a right to make a “good living.” Could you show me where that right is enshrined in the Constitution, perhaps? The truth, of course, is that he has no such right.
Tough shit for him, then. Nobody forced him to torture dogs, so the fact that he’s lost time from a limited career is his own fault. (Incidentally, he is 29, so this contract would take him past the age of 30.)
I believe I already explained this: people go on and on about how Vick has earned the right for another shot, but actually, he has done nothing to earn his second chance unless he is being given a ton of credit for complying with the conditions of his parole from July 20 to August 13. He’s paid his debt to society, which means society no longer has the right to imprison him. I’m fine with that. Playing in the NFL is a privilege, however, and not a right. I would feel much better about Vick being given that privilege again if he actually earned the privilege through his behavior, since we are now talking about the ‘new, socially conscious NFL.’
Those people might lose their jobs and have trouble getting somebody to hire them. Certainly I think they would have more trouble than Michael Vick had. In any case, many professions have organizations that exist to maintain the honor of the profession. If you violate those standards you can lose your license to practice law or medicine, for example. So yes, actually, a doctor who cheats on his taxes might lose his ability to practice medicine, and if he pleaded that he has a right to make a good living as a doctor, people would laugh.
You’ve made up this right, so it’s unreasonable for you to expect other people to honor it.
How has he earned it?
He was sentenced to prison. Forgiveness, as I understand it, is based on how you conduct yourself and what you choose to do with your life _ not fulfilling the conditions of your government-mandated prison sentence. What he’s earned, so far, is the right not to be in jail anymore.
See above.
…for a whole almost-month!
I am sure Tony Dungy is a good guy, but so far, this is mostly PR garbage.
What I am interested in is what the guy actually does with himself. Vick has definitely said the right things to this point and I’m entertaining the notion he really thinks he did the wrong thing - as opposed to being sorry he pissed away $100 million - but we live in a media culture that’s apology-obsessed, and most of those apologies are made because people realize they are expected to say they are sorry, not because they’re regretful. At this point it’s difficult to take Vick at his word.
Yeah, I mean, Jesus Christ, the nerve of some people! How dare I, who has never murdered a dog for fun, sit in judgment of a guy who murdered a bunch of dogs for fun! It’s the height of hypocrisy, I tells ya!
And that’s a moot distinction. The league definitely helps owners exert leverage against municipalities to extract public funds. The fact that they do so with tacit agreement of politicians is only semantically different than if that agreement were in print in some state constitution.
Irrelevant to his ability to run and throw, yes. It’s absolutely relevant to his position as entertainer and paid role model. Let him throw the ball in some sandlot or for some community college. The position as paid role model and entertainment figure – in our society, basically superhero – should have higher standards.
Besides, playing the quarterback position is also about inspiring people. It is certainly to be hoped that no one is so depraved and lacking in self-esteem that they would look up to or be inspired by him, so he can’t fulfill that part of the job, logically speaking.
Never mind the killing of dogs for a moment. This guy ran a dogfighitng operation. That means he tortured for fun those who depended on him utterly.
That’s a very deep pit of hell to try and climb out of. “I’m sorry, Mr. Commissioner,” doesn’t even begin to approach that climb.