Missing The Point On Michael Vick

Countless sports talk show hosts, listeners, bloggers and journalists weighed in on Michael Vick yesterday after he was released from federal prison.

The range of opinions varied from the well thought out to the utterly ridiculous.

Some people believe that Michael has paid his debt to society and he should be entitled to immediate reinstatement by the NFL.

Others call him an absolute pariah and should never be allowed to play professional football again.

There is a school of thought that there are racial undertones to the treatment of Vick by the NFL. Those people reason that if Michael Vick were white, the NFL would give him a second chance without a blink.

They state that NFL executives have it in for him because he never conformed to how a professional quarterback is supposed to look or act. i.e., white man who dresses in a suit and doesn’t wear an earring or run with a posse.

We’ve heard from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or just simply dog owners who believe what Vick did is unforgivable.

But we’ve also heard from people who say that if Leonard Little can get a second chance, why can’t Vick?

Little is the man who killed a woman while driving drunk in 1998 and was reinstated after being suspended just eight games.

“Isn’t a human life more important than an animal?” they ask.

There is no right or wrong response to many of those issues. But the reason teams may or may not want to take a chance on Vick has nothing to do with any of them.

The reason for the apprehension is that Michael Vick is a quarterback.

The quarterback is the face of the franchise. He puts fannies in the seats and sells those big advertising banners that are hanging all over the stadium.

The quarterback sells personal seat licenses and corporate loges.

It wouldn’t matter if Vick were black, white, yellow, or green. If people threaten to take away advertising dollars because your quarterback was killing dogs, the NFL and its partners take notice.

If Vick played defensive end like Little or wide receiver like Michael Irvin, NFL franchises would be less hesitant to put a felon on the field as long as he helps them win games.

But quarterback is a different animal altogether (no pun intended).

Besides the fact that quarterbacks are the players who are the most identifiable figures on the team, let’s just take into account how taking two years off of playing affects his on the field performance.

Playing quarterback after such a long layoff would be unprecedented.

This isn’t just missing training camp. This is two years without throwing a football in game conditions.

Have his skills eroded?

Remember, Vick wasn’t exactly William Tell when it comes to accuracy to begin with.

If he struggles to get back to form, is all the bad publicity even worth it?

Someone (eventually) will take a chance on him. But the reason teams are hesitant have nothing to do with him being black, being a felon, or being involved in the vicious killing of animals.

The real reason is simple: Michael Vick is a quarterback.