Michael Vick: Honored by the Eagles, Dishonored by the Critics

Today I read an article by Eagles-players-honor-Michael-Vick-with-award-for?urn=nfl,210601" title="Yahoo! Sports" target="_blank">Yahoo! Sports informing its readers of how Michael Vick won the Ed Block Courage Award. The article talked about why it was a bad thing for the NFL to recognize.

The spokesperson for PETA (an animal-rights activist group) discussed in an article featured on NFL.com how they felt Vick was not deserving of the award because of the dogfighting charges that led to him being incarcerated in a federal prison for 18 months.

Needless to say, there is some opposition to Vick being honored this award by the Eagles team.

Now, I want to make this clear: I do not at all support the dogfighting that Vick did at his house, and by no means do I think it is right. And the criminal justice system certainly took action by punishing him with 18 months in a federal prison.

But, at the same time, can we not see that Vick—while he did something that was against the law—served his time in prison and cooperated as he was asked to?

While he shouldn't have been there in the first place, let's face it: we all make mistakes.

If you are reading this article right now, you've made some mistakes in your life, right? I know I have. Why on earth should we be giving some people a harder time for their mistakes than ourselves?

Sure, we may not all ever be convicted of something like dogfighting, but we have all broken a law or two at some point and have paid the consequences for it (hopefully).

I understand that criticism is going to continue for Vick and the Eagles for this award. But I think a few points should be made.

1. What is the Ed Block Courage Award and Why Don't We Hear More About It?

The award itself was named after former Baltimore Colts player Ed Block, who was recognized for his work within the community. The website linked here actually talks about the Foundation's purpose, which is "to raise Awareness and Prevention of Child Abuse."

This award is given to an NFL player who, selected by his team, exemplifies "commitment to the principles of sportsmanship and courage." Characteristics of the recipient of the award include "professionalism, great strength, dedication, and a community role model."

This has been helpful for me because it gave me a chance to learn more about this award.

But why have we not heard more about this? And more importantly, why is it that we are hearing about this now? I'd be willing to say it's because of the controversial decision the Eagles made by choosing Michael Vick to receive this award.

This leads to my next point.

2. Is This Completely Undeserved for Vick?

I find it interesting that there is so much criticism of Vick and the Eagles for his reception of the award. Most intriguing is, in large part, that this criticism—and how Vick has dealt with it for the past year or two—could be the exact reason he's won this award.

Let's face it, 18 months in a federal prison was probably not an easy thing for Vick. He was most likely treated roughly and had to abide by the strict rules and regulations of those at the prison or face grave consequences.

How many of you would make it through 18 months of prison with good behavior for that time span?

I'm sure many do not want to be confronted with that question, but it's worth asking, because there are some who go into prison and regress and have to stay longer than their sentence required initially because of bad behavior.

Vick could have been on that end of things, but he wasn't.

Think about this as well: Vick still had to deal with media attention from all sorts of people and criticism all around. By no means does that make things easier to deal with.

Yet, he found a new NFL team with players and coaches who support him very much, despite his past mistakes.

While that doesn't make what he did right, it does give him hope for a better future and encouragement to strive to continue to become a better man of character.

3. Parting Thoughts

For those criticizing Vick, I completely understand your sentiments on how you felt it was unfair for Vick to be honored with such an award. However, keep this in mind: there are people who harm humans who do not get punished for it.

I understand that harming animals is wrong, but so is harming humans. If we are going to hold people accountable for the harm of animals, we should also do the same for human kind as well.

Also, I think it is fair for you to continue to criticise, but at some point, you may need to give Vick his credit and due for what he has done thus far. If he continues on this road, there's no doubt in my mind that he could become a man that exemplifies good character.

Lastly, instead of taking time to criticise Vick (or most of your time, rather), take some time to talk about the players who you believe deserve the recognition and write more articles about what these players are doing within their communities so that the public can hear about the good things going on and understand its significance.

As it is now, we are only hearing about this award because of the controversy surrounding Michael Vick winning it, and that is unfair given that we rarely hear about this award to begin with.

Take some time and talk more about the award's past and how it's led to the present so that it might have a better future.