Well lemme see, Michael Vick has returned to NFL as a Philadelphia Eagle. Most people say fine; he went to jail; he did his time; you can’t punish him forever. People with the Eagles are saying things about second chances and helping a guy by giving him a job, rehabilitation, community service blah, blah, blah. The ONLY good thing about this is that Tony Dungy – by all accounts a stand up guy - is in Vick’s corner.
I agree. You can’t or shouldn’t punish a guy forever, but if anyone thinks that the Eagle’s motives here are about giving an ex-con a second chance, they are nuts. The only motive the Eagles have is to win football games. And that’s fine by me too because that’s the business they are in. But don’t give me that we’re bringing Vick in because “everyone deserves a second chance” bull$h!t. If Vick were some offensive guard with a slightly bum knee who did what Vick did, he’d be selling slurpies at a 7-11 somewhere hoping to God not to be late for his next parole meeting.
The ONLY interest the Eagles have in “public service” and “rehabilitation” is a public relations interest. Well, if Vick doesn’t follow through on these things, there’s likely to be a backlash. There will be a backlash anyway. And it will occur because people know what a demented individual Michael Vick is. You cannot do the things this vile guy did without a serious short circuit in the “this is right and this is wrong” part of your brain.
But hey, as long as you win, these things tend to go away in the NFL. Ray Lewis played some significant role in the murder of two men. Mysteriously and quite miraculously for Lewis, witness statements changed and murder charges against Lewis were dropped. A year later he was the Super Bowl MVP and is celebrated around the league as a “true leader.” Yeah sure, the platitudes to Lewis go something like this, “When it’s fourth and one or I want to beat down a couple of punks in bar at 2 am or I want to beat a murder rap, there is no one I’d want in my corner more than Ray Lewis.”
Look the Eagles can do whatever they think is in the best interest of franchise. If they think hiring a dog torturing, killing psycho ex-con is good for the team, well they should hire him. But don’t tell me they have even the slightest concern for Vick’s rehabilitation outside the PR nightmare any relapse might cause. The Eagle’s presser on Vick should have gone like this:
“Look, we’ve been so close for so long we’re willing to do ANYTHING to win the Super Bowl. So when the dog torturer and killer became eligible, we snatched him up because the child rapist isn’t gonna be out on parole for another 10 years and we’re worried about his arm strength. Besides, adding Vick gives us ONLY 10 felons on the team. That’s well below the league average of 15 and the league cap of 25. I’m mean, it’s not as if we’ve become the Cincinnati Bengals or something.”
As the original douche bag of the NFL – Al Davis – said, “just win baby. Murders, dog killers, rapists, reprobates, felons, who cares, just win baby.” Or something like that. Oh, note to the NFL it does make a difference how you win. I hope, for Tony Dungy’s sake, this works out. As for Vick, he can go to hell and is, I’m sure, well on his way.
No comments:
Post a Comment