Reactions on Michael Vick situation
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Former NFL quarterback Michael Vick completed his federal dogfighting sentence Monday after spending 18 months in prison and two in home confinement. Should his indefinite suspension be lifted, clearing the way for him to return to the league?
Readers seem to be split on the issue. Here are some of the e-mails I’ve received today:
I think it would be great if Mr. Vick learned a lesson from his appalling behavior. I will never watch NFL football again if he is reinstated, and he does not deserve to be. Let him spend the rest of his productive years working hard like the rest of us, while recounting his story to anyone who will listen in hopes of contrition.
Piotr Orloff
How many times does he have to apologize before people get off his back?
Maybe he can walk with his head down, join a religious monastery, look sad all the time, good grief ...
John St. Johns
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Without a doubt, he should not play for the NFL....
Let’s see a long stint of volunteering at an animal rescue shelter, or even a ‘ride along’ with one for the emergency teams in Phoenix or Detroit, or New York City etc. which are seen on the Animal Planet. I’m betting he has never even watched such a program. Does he really even grasp the evil of dog fighting??? Ignorance of the law is no excuse!
Gail Beau
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White people amaze me and upset me.
So Michael Vick must show remorse for his actions even after he served his prison term. So who’s going to be the ‘remorse judge’? You people amaze me. A black man pinned to the cross for the rest of his life. Hell President Bush committed way more devastation while in office but nobody did nothing. Just recently some more bums were caught operating a dog fighting operation but you don’t see their faces everywhere. Does the Olympic swimmer Phelps get a pass for deep throating a bong? Of course, he is white, he has the protection of white complexion. I truly believe the KKK now exists within the white media. Only in Amerikkka.
Emanuel Stone
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If David [Beckham] wants to put his most recent fracas in perspective, and to feel better about its effect, he need only to wait until Michael Vick is foolish enough to step onto a field with people in the stands.
Jim Hopperstad
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I get tired of people trying to make everyone else look the same and think the same or view an issue through a single viewpoint. What Vick did broke the law, but was only immoral based on someone else’s
morality. Until he learned the hard way, to Vick a dog that couldn’t win was a dog that took food off the dinner table. Last I checked there wasn’t a single vegan in the NFL and most of the players hunt
and/or fish. That definitely doesn’t mesh with (Humane Society of the United States President Wayne) Pacelle’s view of what’s moral.
Rich Holland
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The evidence suggests Michael Vick routinely beat to death and tortured dogs. He doesn’t belong in the NFL soon or ever.
What is wrong with our society? Celebrity shouldn’t excuse sub-animal behavior.
Chris Brown should be tried for attempted murder. Michael Vick got off too lightly.
Hopefully you have the ear of the commissioner and will let him know the importance of taking the appropriate stand on Vick’s reinstatement.
R. Becker
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NO TO VICKS (sic) !! He had a golden opportunity to play football; he chose to throw it away. Since he associates with dogs, a job in an animal shelter would be appropriate. Cleaning kennels, of course.
TJ Weiler
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By his own admission. Mr. Vick began this pattern of behavior at age eight. He beat and electrocuted dogs who failed to fight well.
If he wants to be able to demonstrate remorse, he had better start taking acting lessons.
Candace Oakes
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Good morning...the only true remorse MV feels is the lack of money he no longer has.
This man is not some teenager that worked up a hormonal lather and took it out on dogs. This is an adult that had his own group of trolls doing his work with and for him. The public should also be aware of what goes into dog fighting is not just throwing a couple of dogs in the ring and letting the winner, however torn apart, to think that is the end. The public should be made aware of HOW these dogs are trained to do what they do. And they sure don’t use just humans for making them killing crazy.
To think that two years and a loss of some big checks is going to change this animal is to believe he can be moved by the thought of not doing his vile deeds again only more cautiously.
He’s paid his time, however short, and does have a right to look for employment. That said, the public should realize this man is the very worse spokesperson for the Humane Society that they can come up with. He’d swear anything to get back into the only employment he has the intelligence for...football.
Dolores Bennett
The brouhaha over Michael Vick is such a joke. Killing a dog must be the most heinous crime in the universe. It’s OK to drive drunk and kill a person, Compare the punishment of Leonard Little or Donte Stallworth to Vick’s.
How can anyone say Vick is not remorseful? Who could loose over 100 million and not be remorseful over their actions. The moral is make sure you kill a human and not a dog.
Lyle Runnels
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All Mike needs to do is go on the National Geographic Channel with Cesar Millan.
R.G. Moore
-- Sam Farmer
Photo: Michael Vick is surrounded by members of the media as he arrives at federal court on May 22. Credit: Steven Helber / Associated Press