I have been hearing deeply rooted arguments (sports radio, TV) against Michael Vick being allowed to return to the NFL.
Ray Lewis accepted a plea bargain, thus dismissing murder charges, and didn’t even get suspended…
Albert Haynesworth kicked a guy in practice, stomped on a guy’s helmet-less forehead during a game, receiving a 5-game suspension, has had two arrest warrants and a recent indictment.
Donte Stalworth is facing felony charges of DUI manslaughter, and I do not believe he has been suspended, despite admitting to drinking and having been found to have a BAL over the legal limit.
These are serious charges involving humans… I am not diminishing the magnitude of Vick’s actions, but the guy served his time in jail…
In the context of a league that harbors numerous criminals, why can’t he return to playing football?
If it is allowed to answer a question with another question, why shouldn’t that whole bunch be tossed in jail?
People got upset about Vick (myself included) because dog fighting is not a “sport”. It is deliberate cruelty for entertainment and for gambling on. Two dogs are place in a pit and made to kill each other. For entertainment. That’s sick.
It isn’t boxing, or tournament karate or anything like them, where the participants are willing competitors. It isn’t fought to a knockout or decision, it’s fought to the death. It’s forcing animals to kill each other for our entertainment. They don’t get a choice. And, if the animal isn’t strong enough and vicious enough, they drown it or shoot it or electrocute it.
It’s comtemptible.
Not true. It is just killing dogs for sport is reprehensible. If he had cages full of youths fighting and killed off the ones that didn’t fight well, he would have gotten in far more serious trouble. He would have been more hated.
Why not? I’m as sickened by dog fighting as anybody, but if the man served his time, let’s give him his job back and the benefit of the doubt that he’s turned over a new leaf. I don’t see anything positive coming from holding grudges against everyone who has ever committed a crime. The same goes for every one else who isn’t a mass murderer. It isn’t like he’s going back to his job at the humane society.
Well, while I personally don’t see the problem with killing dogs for sport, there’s no question that killing people is more serious, and as the OP pointed out, the players who kileld people are still playing.
Stalworth has not been found guilty of anything at the moment. I have a feeling that he will be going away long enough that it won’t be an issue of coming back. Unless he is found not guilty and then it shouldn’t be an issue either.
IMHO there is no reason why Michael Vick shouldn’t come back as long as someone is willing to hire him. He did his time. Actually he isn’t quite done, he has a conditional monitored release for a few months.
Leonard Little of the St. Louis Rams killed a woman in a drunk driving accident, got suspended for eight games, and is still in the league ten years later. He was pulled over for driving drunk one time more recently but not convicted. Compare that to Vick. The bottom line is that NFL pays more attention to what its players do off the field than it used to. And in sports in general, transgressions off the field, like Vick’s, are considered worse than those on the field, like Haynesworth’s stomp.
While Ray Lewis wasn’t suspended, he was fined $250,000 after he plead guilty to obstruction of justice. If it had happened in the last year or two I think he would also have gotten a long suspension. I never followed his case in depth but it was pretty clear from the start he didn’t murder anybody.
Vick’s always been complicated, and at least anecdotally opinions of him were divided along racial lines before he was ever in trouble. So add that in to an issue that touches on people’s emotions and represents the worst of spoiled, idiotic rich athletes and you get this case.
That said, you get the sense that (aside from animal lovers and activists) the outrage against Vick has been magnified because dogfighting is an easy issue to get upset about. Unlike having a beer or two and driving home, or even dabbling in drugs, most people would never ever do it because it’s disgusting, and they would also never have the opportunity. So he gets more attention than somebody who drove drunk or does cocaine or gets arrested on a weapons charge. On the other hand I don’t think he has any particular right to play in the NFL again - a point sports commentators have glossed over because they salivate at the airtime they will get to devote to his comeback, if there is one - and I would be happier if he doesn’t.
Vick’s actions are more recent and the NFL has gotten very aggressive about punishing off the field behavior in the past few years. The National Felon League label was in danger of hurting the NFL as much as the Thug League reputation was hurting the NBA.
Still, Vick funded and ran an ongoing dog fighting ring. The Lewis case was a bad combination of celebrities, alcohol, and money. Lewis didn’t murder anyone, but was guilty of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Who knows what happened that night? I’m sure there is a chance that either Lewis, the rapper, or both was able to throw around enough money to have the witnesses misremember enough details.
Stallworth hasn’t yet been convicted. Still, he won’t be playing football until his case is over.
Admittedly, I’ve always despised Vick even prior to the dog fighting. As soon as he was accused, I assumed he was guilty.
There are a lot of criminals in the NFL to be sure. If you kicked out all the convicted and accused felons, I don’t think they’d be playing football in Cincinnati at all.
But most of them are cases of dumb and/or arrogant jocks making foolish choices and stupid judgment. Vick’s case involves an ongoing series of acts that are, to most people, incomprehensibly cruel and likely psychopathic. It’s easy to imagine how a dumb jock influenced by the wrong people would carry a gun, like Plaxico Burress. It’s impossible to imagine how a person with any redeeming qualities could do what Michael Vick did.
I’m not sure any other NFL player has committed a crime that involves what appears to be outright, ongoing sociopathy with way Vick’s has.
The dog killing was premeditated. Killing someone in an accident is not. He set up a system to train dogs to fight to the death and killed the ones that were not good enough. This was not a horrible incident or a mistake. It was planned, premeditated and cruel. It says something about an aberrant personality to be engaged in and enjoying such cruelty. Vick loved watching dogs tear each other apart and had no trouble killing then himself. Does prison fix that?
Drinking is premeditated, driving is premeditated, driving while drunk is premeditated. You’re right that Vick took actions over a long period and that’s different from one incident. If you want to tell me he’s a worse person, good luck with that.
I think he can, if someone is willing to hire him.
Vick may have suffered more in the court of public opinion rather than in the court of law. Arthur Blank, the owner of the Falcons, took a great personal interest in Vick, signed him to a huge contract, and positioned him as the face of the future franchise.
When Vick was first charged with criminal offenses (before the trial), Blank spoke with him in private and assured Vick that he would stand behind him as long as Vick told him the truth about what happened.
Vick lied to his face and denied everything. Once the truth came out Blank walked away from him and I think the other owners were watching closely and took that as an important object lesson.
And as other posters have said, a drunk driving charge may sit with the fans as more of a ‘There but for the Grace of God go I’ type-of-thing. Whereas dog-fighting strikes the fans more as premeditated, psychotic cruelty.
I’m not huge fan of hunting for sport,* but the only connection between the two things is a dead animal. If deer hunting involved making two psychotic deer gore each other with their antlers until one of them died while a bunch of drunk red-necks watched and bet on it … I’d be just as critical of hunting for sport as I am of dog fighting.
*that is, I really have no desire whatsoever to do it, but it’s not like we don’t kill animals for food about a billion times a day on this planet so we can do things like survive.
That is not exactly true as I understand it. Upon his conviction he was suspended indefinately by the NFL. The commisioner stated he would revisit the issue once the sentence was finished. As of right now he is still officially in custody. He was released to house arrest and has an ankle monitor. I believe that part is up in July sometime. At that time he will probably apply for reinstatement. This is the part I am a bit hazy about, I don’t know if he has started the process yet or if it all has to wait until he gets his release. And also the Falcons have the rights to him until 2013. So before he can play he needs to be reinstated, be waived or traded by the Falcons and hired by a new team.
I reserve the right to be wrong since I am by no means an expert on this case.