Michael Vick: Deserves Fresh Start, Not Suspension

I have tried to justify Michael Vick being reinstated into the NFL for the 2009 season, but starting the year with a four-game suspension, like the source in the latest Sal Paolantonio-Chris Mortensen ESPN report suggests.

I have tried to think about how he deserves to spend four Sundays in a row on the sidelines in a Belichick hoodie as public, NFL justice for shaming the league, its players (most of whom are honorable citizens who do more charity work in a year than most people do in a lifetime) and fans with his silly and disgusting dogfighting operation.

I have tried to think about the fact that commissioner Roger Goodell needs to suspend Vick in order to keep animal lovers off his back and on their couches watching football instead.

And I have tried to reason that a four-game suspension would be beneficial for both sides, allowing the league to show PETA and co. that it is not giving Vick a free pass while giving Vick the chance to sign with a team and continue to get into playing shape and re-familiarize himself with an NFL playbook at the same time.

However, as much as I try to justify it—I can’t.

I can’t see how you can suspend a man for four games after he has essentially been suspended for two years (the indefinite suspension that Goodell handed Vick in July of 2007 was in effect for both his prison term and house arrest) while losing everything in the process.

His good name, his fame, his money.

And I definitely can’t see how you can suspend a guy who has not complained one bit after spending 19 months in two federal correctional facilities, but instead focused on how to become a better man by allowing the honorable Tony Dungy to be his mentor, spending time with troubled youths and agreeing to do public service announcements and other work for the Humane Society.

Let’s not make any mistake about it—Vick broke the law in a terrible manner when he had his group of pitbulls fight for money and ordered or assisted in the severely-injured or weak ones being tortured to death in the aftermath.

He deserved to sit in a cell in an orange jumpsuit for more than a year and a half, deserved to have fans shed themselves of their No. 7 Falcons jerseys, and deserved to have the league move on without him.

And there is also no doubt in my mind that Vick wouldn’t have agreed to work with the Humane Society if he didn’t see it as a slant pattern for assisting him back into the good graces of Goodell.

But with that said, it is time for Goodell to recognize that Vick has been punished for long enough, and therefore offer him a second chance with some strings attached, similar to the deal that he made with Adam Jones last year.

Vick should be reinstated to the NFL before training camp, but told that further legal troubles could result in an indefinite or perhaps permanent suspension from the league.

I say this because Vick’s situation is entirely different from the past ones involving the Pacman, Chris Henry and Marshawn Lynch, who could have walked onto an NFL field right away despite their continuous shenanigans.

And the more recent issues involving Plaxico Burress and Donte' Stallworth are also different, as both could play this year, thanks to Burress' lawyer drawing out his sentencing date and Stallworth's 30-day sentence for DUI Vehicular Manslaughter, which he served from late June-to-early July.

But Vick’s sentence caused him to miss all of the 2007 and 2008 seasons, theoretically serving as a two-year suspension from the league.

For that reason alone, I don’t see how you can suspend him any further.

If Goodell does suspend Vick for four games, then the man just faces more hurdles than he already does when it comes to donning a new uniform with a new team in a new city.

There are enough teams that don’t want him already due to the negative PR that would come with him, let alone the fact that he would only be eligible to play 12 games in a 16-game season for a sport where every play could result in a season or career-ending injury at a much higher clip than other ones.

Instead, Goodell should give Vick the chance to become an integral part of a team right away.

This way both Vick and his new team would be able to figure out what position is now best suited for him (running back, wide receiver, quarterback or cornerback) and get him reps right away instead of limiting his work in favor of others since they know he would start the year on the sidelines anyway.

And it would also give Vick a fresh start to clear his name without as much of a burden hanging over his back, as rather than stressing about a four-game suspension, he could spend his time after training camp practices continually expressing his sorrow and shame for his actions to reporters, talking to troubled kids and serving as an advocate against animal abuse. 

He would do this enthusiastically thanks to the knowledge that Goodell is willing to give him a second chance and that he needs to make the most of it.

From Thanksgiving in 2007 to May 20, 2009, Vick has spent his days in a darkened jail cell thinking about how much of an idiot he was for throwing away his NFL career just to show off his masculinity, while eating bad food and going bankrupt in the process.

He has served his debt to society, and now it is time to see whether time spent in our correctional system has the ability to rehabilitate someone into a positive person or not.

Lets give Vick the best chance to prove to us that he's a changed man, and that chance is with him entering a team’s training camp at sometime in the next couple of weeks with a smile on his face, knowing that on Week One his days of being barred from the NFL are over, so long as he keeps his life headed in the right direction.