Michael Vick being reinstated into the NFL

I listen to sports radio almost every day, primarily because I like to keep up with what’s happening during the baseball season and it passes the time as a drive from one place to the next. Most of the time, my views on the issues that affect the sporting world are not terribly far we’ve moved from the position that my favorite sportscasters tend to take. Mind you, I’m an original, but it’s perfectly fine to agree with a well-reasoned position.

However, when it comes to Michael Vick being reinstated into the NFL, it is outrageous to me that sportscasters on ESPN radio are talking about Michael Vick and salivating over what team might take a chance on this scatter armed, scatterbrained excuse for a quarterback. Two years ago, before Michael Vick served his time in prison for running a dogfighting ring, he was a great athlete. He has never been an intelligent athlete, but his gifts were plain to see. But now that he’s been in prison, does any team seriously expect that he will be able to just walk onto the playing field and compete at a professional level? That notion is ridiculous.

What bothers me comes in multiple parts: 1) That he got out of a federal prison in less than two years, 2) That NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has decided it it sends an appropriate message to reinstate an animal murderer into the league, 3) that any team would take a chance on a player who hasn’t played in two years and could easily be a public relations quagmire and clubhouse cancer. Michael Vick expects the star treatment, and I’m not certain that two years of hard time will have brought him the humility he needs. Remember, this is not Michael Vick’s first criminal offense. As I recall, he has been brought up on both drug and gun charges. I believe that the Commissioner’s decision already warrants a vote of no confidence in his leadership ability. If a team signs Michael Vick, they deserve to be boycotted in all of their sponsors deserve the same treatment.

I have never been a fan of Michael Vick. Aside from his ability to run and elude tacklers, he has ultimately been a liability to his team because he doesn’t know where his throws are going and is jazzy freelancing off the playbook may actually be a sign that he is unable to learn more complicated place of the National Football League. I don’t care what color he is, black, brown, beige, white, or polkadotted, if he is either unable or unwilling to better himself as a player, I’m not interested in spending a dime of my hard-earned money supporting him. Throw in the fact that he was responsible for the cruel deaths of scores of dogs (living beings), and I’m about to write football off entirely (or at least the NFL) until teams take a unified stand against allowing someone like this to represent their league and be a role model for children. Michael Vick should still be in prison.