Michael Vick: From Hero to Zero

What do you think would happen if your everyday, trouble-making, poverty-stricken person living in an urban slum was just magically given the opportunity of a lifetime? More specific, lets say $100 million and a chance to claim sport as your their job occupation.

How would that lucky person respond?

Many who have defended Michael Vick in the past two years claimed that his childhood lifestyle followed him through his NFL career and tied him up as an innocent victim of harsh environment.

To me, that claim is absolutely ridiculous. Nobody with any kind of sanity should have defended Michael Vick after the accusations that he was fighting dogs on his property.

The inhumane nature of the acts makes me sick. I know that watching suffering animals cuts deep into my heart, and I think most people on this entire planet would agree. I do not often tear up, but boy did I while watching SportsCenter spots on the Vick dogs.

To me, Michael Vick is a perfect example of the foolishness and arrogance that comes with the abuse of power. Vick was given everything in the world, only to throw it away with some of the most idiotic stunts a national icon has ever made.

Vick brought excitement and hope to a sports city thirsty for success. We may never see the Georgia Dome as packed and electric as it was while Vick was starting at quarterback. However, more importantly, Vick broke the heart of thousands of fans and people who looked up to him.

And the saddest part about it was, we could not defend him. For those who did, you were wrong and ignorant. The man willingly killed animals. This was not a drug possession charge or a DUI.

Michael Vick willingly committed acts that I could never in my wildest dreams think of committing. Heck, I have never done a dose of drugs or driven drunk. But, can I realistically see myself getting a DUI or arrested for drugs? Yeah.

Can I see myself fighting dogs? Absolutely not. I ran the concept of what we as individuals can and cannot see ourselves doing by some of my friends and got the same response.

With Vick getting released from prison today, I think a lot of people are starting to wonder if they feel there is hope or not for Vick. I am writing this article because, despite the disgust and small dose of hatred that I now have towards Vick, I want to see him rise back to the top. Not because he deserves it, but because I am a firm believer of second chances and hope.

To me, pre-prison Michael Vick was one of the most arrogant and embarrassing celebrities out there. I remember what set me off of a tangent was when a camera was following Vick after news broke about the accusations. Vick was walking with his pants sagging below his tail end and yelling back to the camera, "It dont matter what y'all say about me, I'm Michael Vick."

Are you kidding?!?!

You are not the most powerful man in America because you make $10 million a year, and you definitely dont have the right to say something that bold unless your name is the Juggernaut.

I was sitting alone in my house when I watched that clip, and I was still embarrassed. Here is the guy who I have followed and supported for five years acting like a complete moron. This was not his first stunt either. The water bottle incident and the flicking off of fans was just as hard to watch.

And yet for some reason, people continued to support Vick by blaming all of his idiotic gestures on "his past" and his "background".

So here is my point—it does not matter who it is given to; when someone is given the opportunity Vick was given, there are no excuses for foolishness and immature behavior.

I do not care where Vick came from. He was given $100 million in contract money and surrounded by ownership, teammates, and friends who cared about him and his success. Vick was not tied down by his past, and, if anything, should have been released from the clutches of harsh society the second he signed his first contract in 2001.

Michael Vick, despite being given the opportunity of a lifetime, chose to hold onto his past. When anyone gets paid that much money and is put in that huge of a spotlight, they should have two goals in mind.

One, they should make sure to focus at their work at hand in a productive manner and two, they must make sure they portray themselves positively. Guys like Peyton Manning and Lebron James have done this to perfection and are two of the most respected icons in the United States.

Is it an acting job? No, it is an awareness of self importance and the realization of responsibility. Vick did the opposite.

What Michael Vick has to do is not give up. The first sign of hope is actually the fact that Vick wants to play professional football. However, he needs to have an agenda.

Vick first needs to realize that he will be seen as the public enemy before he is seen as someone important. He needs to realize that he is now, no pun intended, the underdog.

He will get booed and heckled by at least 30,000 people when he steps on the field at road games, and will likely receive the same treatment by at least 10,000 people in his own home stadium.

He also needs to be aware that people are not going to forget what he did. People forgot about Ray Lewis. People forget when a superstar gets a DUI or is arrested with marijuana possession. Donte' Stallworth drove drunk and killed an innocent man, and honestly I felt horrible for Donte'. Stallworth was cooperative with the cops and immediately remorseful and ashamed after the accident earlier this year, and I felt terrible for him.

Vick will be associated with crime and societal embarrassment for the rest of his career and his life. That is a tough thing to have to live with, and he needs to understand he carries that burden.

So this is what Vick needs to do: He needs to keep mend and tie things up with his personal relationships. He needs family and supporters.

Second, he needs to focus on the work he is given and be extremely grateful he is still being given the opportunity of a lifetime. He needs to keep his mouth shut and be respectful to fans and media.

When he gets booed for 16-straight Sundays, he needs to take the field, do his business, and get off the field without sticking certain fingers up at the crowd. When people criticize him, he needs to stay quiet and not respond.

Hopefully, Vick can do these things. If done right, he still will not become a hero, but he could become a national symbol of redemption.

Two years ago, everyone supported and loved Michael Vick, and his immature persona drove that support into the ground. Two years later, Vick comes out as his own and only supporter, and everyone is now against him.

This sets up perfectly. Vick could not have a better opportunity to redeem himself than to have all of the chips against him. I am no longer a fan of Michael Vick, however, he could be that one major icon in society that could potentially display hope and change.

I want Vick to prove that change can happen for everyone. Plenty of people throw their lives down the drain, and in response to the chips being down (just like Vick's are right now), go down further.

Human potential is not a matter of what your background is or where you came from; It's about who you choose to be and how you react to the forces around you.

Michael Vick is not only a perfect example of that from a negative spectrum, but he could become the example on the other side of that spectrum as well.