What follows is a reprint of something I wrote in May regarding Michael Vick's potential reinstatement, seemingly appropriate given NFL Commissioner Goodell's recent decision to let Vick play. My hope remains that people use Vick as a dummy to practice tackling their own lack of generosity and forgiveness for the some half-million Americans released from prison every year. Unless of course he gets signed by the Jets...
Next month, upon his release from federal prison, the suits at the NFL will have to decide whether Michael Vick should be allowed to play professional football again. I say, give the man his job back.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not apologizing or downplaying what he did. I love dogs, even when they keep you up all night with their scratching or smell like a clam bake, and abhor those who would treat them inhumanely. Nor am I particularly a Vick fan. In general, I prefer college football and ignore the NFL unless the Dolphins are playing.
My argument for reinstating Vick has little to do with dogs or football. I want to give Michael Vick a chance because he's not the only one being released from prison this year. Vick is in a graduating class of almost half a million, and all these folks deserve a shot at a succesful life on the outside.
Among this huge graduating class, I would guess that Vick's experience is representative for approximately zero of them. Few are wealthy, famous, or skilled in such a lucrative field. Many have been raped, mistreated, or contracted life-threatening illness while in jail. Statistically speaking, over two thirds of them will be back in prison before the next presidential election. Of course, most have had their voting rights revoked anyway.
Somewhere along the way in this American experiment, we stopped caring that people had payed their debt to society in prison. In our current mindset, someone charged once with a crime is guilty for life. And these kinds of beliefs have an insidious way of manifesting themselves. They are self-fulfilling prophecies. We fail to give those released from prison a chance, and they fail to prove us wrong.
These folks know what we think about them. They hear it every time they try to get a job or an apartment, only to rebuked upon the results of a background check. With few allies and fewer options, most make the pathetic choice to reoffend.
I know many will disagree with my argument to let Vick play again. They'll say that playing in the NFL is a privelege, and that he's no longer worthy. Well, it may be a privelege, but so are many jobs. These days,it's a privege to just have a job. And playing football is Vick's job. Hell, it's what he studied in college.
So I say it's your lucky day, Michael Vick. Lets make an example of you just one more time. Not for the kids, or the Virginia rednecks raising fighting dogs, but for the graduating prison class of 2009. Lets let these folks know that they still have a chance.
Good call Goodell!
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Incredibly important point, and one that I agree with whole-heartedly.
I loved this decision from Roger Goodell. I thought it was more than fair. He could have just suspended Vick for 5 gamesand left him under a status of "not reinstated" , it would have made it hard to sign with a team, since I believe (and correct me if I'm wrong) that he would be ineligible to participate in team activities (or to even sign).
This allows Vick to solve his immediate money flow issues, because he can start collecting a salary again. It allows him to get up to speed (remember - no matter how much you work out in prison, it's not the same as having paid personal trainers working with you at a team facility), and to start learning the team playbook. So it allows Vick the chance to succeed, while still enforcing a fair amount of time away from regular season games. It also gives Goodell a chance to see how Vick conducts himself once he's back on a team and in the limelight.
Perhaps the decision by Goodall is the right one. The door is open to Vick but first he must find a franchise which will hire him which will not be the easiest thing to do. Essentially Vick was convicted of "thuggery". Unfortunately, no matter what anyone might say, NFL stars are indeed "role models". Hopefully his employment of Tony Dungy as an advisor will help him understand that being an NFL player is more than "putting on the pads".
Rated for making me try to articulate my thoughts on this. Thank you
Yep, here's the worlds smallest violin playing for a low life scum who will be making millions of dollars a year.
And it's a great lesson for kids, break the law, do some jail time and then become a superstar all over again.
A good point, but I suppose I would argue for the reinstatement of a released attorney or teacher, provided their crime isn't somehow intrinsically intertwined with the execution of their job. (Like a teacher who harmed a student or an attorney who comitted fraud, etc..) The whole idea that some jobs are "priveleges" and others are not doesn't really fly with me; it sounds like an excuse to relegate those we deem unworthy to the lower professions. If playing in the NFL is a privelege, than I should be Dan Marino, because I'm one helluva a great guy.
We simply arrest and imprison too large a percentage of our population to not give them a chance on the outside. If not, we will continue to foster a subpopulation of thugs coming in and out of the system, with a huge cost to the rest of us too.
Vick shouldn't be reinstated. This man defied the whole essence of sport. He shouldn't be allowed to further degrade the game.
Just sayin...
What Vick did was despicable. But he didn't compromise the integrity of the game of football. And there are clear historical examples of what sort of criminal behavior would earn you a lifetime ban, even after you served jail time - gambling, for example.