Michael's Vick's legal troubles have all finally been resolved and now, it's just a waiting game until he gets out of prison and starts trying to get back into the NFL. No guarantees it'll happen, though, because Roger Goodell is kind of a dick.
But even though he will have paid his debt to society (and the debt of two or three other people) when he's released from prison, and even though he's lost everything (financially speaking), that's just not good enough for some people. There are people who still say he should never be allowed back in the NFL. And that's cool, because it's their right to be stupid.
These are the people who say that playing in the NFL isn't a right. I don't even know what that's supposed to mean at this stage. Working at Burger King isn't a right, either. It's not even a foregone conclusion that he'll even get back to the NFL, but it's wrong to deny him the chance just because some people don't like what he did. Now, if he had been sitting on the sidelines smashing puppy skulls on his helmet, then yeah, I'd say that he should be gone for good. I'd also say he needed help.
But that's not what happened. Yes, he did it, admitted to doing it, and turned himself in. It's got nothing to do with football, though. And crimes away from the field or how clean someone's soul is should have nothing to do with whether or not someone should be allowed to play. People always bring up Leonard Little still being in the league after he killed A PERSON while driving drunk back in 1998. Some people even bring up Ray Lewis's murder trial. I'm going to bring up alleged drunk and rumored racist, Babe Ruth. I don't even know if that stuff is true, but if it is, and that guy's in the Hall of Fame, continues to be celebrated in America, and was immortalized through confectionary and fictional curses, then Vick should be allowed to play again.
What about all of the athletes who hit their wives? They're still allowed to play. Guys are busted for drug use or DUI or gun possession all the time. What about college athletes who steal from other students or cheat on tests? What about when they cheat on their wives? What about when they abandon their kids? Pacman Jones gets to play and he's probably choking a stripper right now. It's funny how these people who continue to judge Vick are doing it based on his crimes against dogs, but the ones who commit crimes against people are fine. The point is, a lot of these athletes are not angels. Michael Jordan is an asshole, but the Chicago Bulls didn't draft him because they thought his aura made angels weep. They drafted him because he was a monster on the basketball court. If whether or not a player was a good guy was the deciding factor to these decisions, then professional sports would be a very boring place because almost none of your favorite players would be in it.
Michael Vick made a mistake. He's paying for it and will continue to pay for it in ways that are far more hurtful than PETA picketing the next team he plays for. Let's move on, as he's trying to, and let the man live his life, whether or not that includes football. Of course, I don't expect that to happen, because we don't exactly live in a forgiving nation. They didn't let that "not guilty" verdict stand in the way of their opinion that O.J. did it.
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