Gridiron Girl

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4359354

Well, congratulations Michael Vick. You have been reinstated back to the National Football League. Your margin for error is paper cut thin, but you did it! So tell your old friends that you can no longer come out to play, and send your undercover water bottles of weed with them. I can see NASA and the NFL merge together to make a satellite to watch over you. (It’s possible Google will help with the street view.) Scared yet? No? I am pretty certain that if you step foot into a mall that happens to have a pet store, you will be banned forever. Sherriff Goodell makes Japanese discipline look like a Tuesday afternoon in Amsterdam.

Leading up to and after Vick being reinstated, I have heard many people say that he paid his debt to society. Almost two years in prison. Whether he really has paid his debt, or truly changed is a matter of opinion and time. The part that I don’t understand is supporters saying that he deserves a second chance to play in the NFL. That’s funny, I don’t remember that being a right. You constantly hear athletes talk about football being a business first. Okay, fair enough. A business that puts athletes in a tax income bracket to the point where they are forced to vote Republican doesn’t just let anyone back. Let’s pretend Conrad Black was just released from prison. Can you imagine if he went back to Hollinger International or any other big news publishing company and asked for his old job? They would laugh him out of the room, and when they were done laughing they would beat him with novelty sized jumbo billy clubs.

With that said, I don’t believe he should be let back into the league. Saying you made a mistake doesn’t even cover what had happened. When I make a mistake, it’s something like, “Whoops I left my keys in my car” or “I forgot I made plans with Julie on Tuesday.” The guy bankrolled an operation where dogs fought to the death and then were maliciously killed. If that wasn’t enough, he killed dogs himself to get in on the action. Call him the Mark Cuban of dog fighting. I understand that humans make mistakes. I just think his heinous actions fall under something far worse. There is a deep rooted problem in somebody that has no compassion for a living thing. Also, don’t give me that its a cultural thing. If it were a cultural thing, it would be legal. You live in the USA. Don’t compare it to hunting either. Last time I checked, hunters killed for food and environmental reasons such as starvation. Overall, a greater purpose. (Yes, there are hunters that kill for sport. I’m also out of touch with those people too.)

Let’s say that he doesn’t get reinstated. There would be one less quarterback that runs every play because he can’t hit a moving target. Don’t pretend like you don’t know people! Vick was the Chuck Knoblauch of quarterbacks. People acted as if he was Houdini until it came to a tough defense. I’m going to come out and say that I am rooting for him to fail. As a sports fan, I hold grudges. But this is not a sports grudge, this is a human grudge. (Band name noted!) Whether he is awful on the field or a speeding ticket off it, I don’t want Michael Vick in the league. Whatever happened to that ten dollar an hour construction job that he had lined up? It sounds more suitable for a guy that is begging for a second chance and seeking structure in his life.

by Kenny Bernat