Michael Vick

[jerrymcl89]

From a football perspecitve, I think it's a dubious decision for the Eagles to sign Vick. I've never thought that highly of him as a player, so annointing him as the future of the franchise seems like a shaky decision to me. Plus, McNabb is notoriously sensitive, and unlikely to welcome somebody intended to replace him

Comments

[nutmeg3]

Heh. I just posted about Vick, too. You're more forgiving than I am. As far as I'm concerned, he's welcome to re-enter society, but I'm appalled that he's been accepted back into a profession where lionization is the name of the game, because I think there should be permanent consequences for crimes like his.

[jerrymcl89]

I think the case raises some thorny issues about how we value certain crimes. I'm not inclined to value animal life more highly than human life, and there are other players in the NFL (like Leonard Little, who killed a woman in a drunk driving accident and was arrested again for DWI after he did that) who have treated human beings worse. But I also think the ongoing, premeditated cruelty of Vick's actions is hard to reconcile. Acts of impulsive stupidity are easier to deal with.

[nutmeg3]

I didn't know about Leonard Little, though I can't say I condone his rehiring, either. In his (slight) defense, alcoholism is a disease, but no one made him drive drunk, and that's something else entirely. And I didn't think Latrell Sprewell (sp?) belonged back in the NBA, but - as with Vick and Little (and I'm sure many others in much smaller ways) - there seems to be a feeling that if a team can win with someone, they'll overlook things that, imo, shouldn't be overlooked

[shipperx]

Well, he served his time so I can't see doing anything legally to preclude him pursuing his career. But that doesn't mean that I have to like him or that his co-workers or the Eagles fans have to either.

[jerrymcl89]

Certainly, nobody ought to have to like him.

[cindergal]

We had the pre-season game on in the background, and one of the announcers was going on about how sorry he felt for him and how "difficult" these past few years had been. Please. It was difficult because he committed a crime.

I was complaining to my husband about how in almost no other profession besides professional sports could you be convicted of such a crime and then be welcomed back with open arms to your 7 figure income.

And then they announced that the Eagles had signed him. As an Eagles fan, I am disgusted.

[jerrymcl89]

As I said above, I believe, in principle, in giving peole who go to jail another chance. Even high-paid professional athletes. But most of them have done impulsive things. It's harder to deal with someone who ran a brutal ongoing operation for years on end.

[cindergal]

I believe in that as well - but all the commentary about how hard his life has been because he was actually sent to prison (gasp!) for a terrible crime is a little much. This habit of putting these guys above the law (in many cases) does no one any good.