Obviously everyone who is anyone has written or commented about his story and subsequent plight. What is an intriguing question is can he redeem himself or even be allowed to redeem himself? By law, he has committed his crime and done his time. Does being a former star quarterback actually hurt his chances of redeeming himself? I think it does...if he were a construction worker for example instead of a quarterback, would he immediately be "back at work" after serving his time? I think he would. This may once again be a case of us holding superstar athletes to a higher standard then those of us who are non-athletes. We can even tackle the issue of the crimes he did commit and compare those with other types of crimes more agregious where those who committed them were released back into society and became useful members of the community. We seem to as a nation on a whole put our athletes and celebrities on pedestals, we idolize them, we revere them, and when a shining star falls, we chastise them and almost seem to take joy in their suffering. It becomes far bigger news then when a "star" helps others, helps charities, helps those who are in need, we rarely see any of that on our news. Make no mistake, Michael Vick's crimes were horrible, I agree with all those upset by what he did and participated in but we are not allowing him a chance to redeem himself. Many of us have predetermined that he should not have any opportunity to do so, put him under a bridge and let him be homeless and die young for all anyone cares. This isn't the way we should be thinking, we on a whole based on many large news polls and internet social polls have already said no good can come from this.
I say let's give him a chance, I agree with Roger Goodell the Commissioner of the NFL's decision to allow him the chance to do his job and that job is to quarterback in the NFL. Let's judge him on what he does in the future, not prejudge him because we are so offended by his past. Sure he may fall on his face but let him have that chance to trip before casting all of our stones at him. He has one person in his corner who really may guide him, someone I highly respect and that is Tony Dungy. Maybe this ugly, sad story can have a happy ending, let's give that a chance to happen instead of closing the door now....
Not to be republished without permission of the author John W. Hench
July 28th, 2009
1 comment:
Interesting perspective. I agree that Michael Vick should be given another chance to play professional football. I don't agree, however, that it is more difficult for an ex-con athlete to obtain a job. Most non-athlete ex-cons have a very difficult time obtaining a job. Most employers will try to find some reason (loophole) to justify NOT hiring an ex-con. That's one of the main reasons so many ex-cons end up back in jail. Let's hope that Michael realizes how fortunate he is.
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