Michael Vick: Thanksgiving, Celebrity, Price and Opinion

On this Thanksgiving day, the dynamic Michael Vick has ascended toward the top of the NFL pecking order of players with his brilliant play, his team's success, and his apparent acts of redemption.

On this day of thankfulness, many football fans who appreciate a superb talent—and many others who simply enjoy a successful second act after a precipitous fall from grace—are thankful that Vick is back.

On this day of appreciation, one hopes that Michael Vick rewards all those fans, and all those who are still skeptical, with his own sense of true appreciation for where he finds himself once again. With his wildly successful second act (so far), he will have the unique opportunity to not only fulfill his once-in-a-generation promise on the gridiron, but to also make quite a difference off the field.

And on this Thanksgiving Day, I will give my own thanks for the opportunity to express my own opinions on this site, and I appreciate all those who endeavor to do what I try to do. 

That is, to realize that there is a responsibility to write with passion, but also with integrity. I know that the mere mention of "Michael Vick" elicits great debate and polarizing opinions, and I respect his name as much as I respect the name on the byline above.

Yesterday, courtesy of a Sports Illustrated cover story on Vick by S.L. Price, more details came to light about what Michael Vick's involvement may have been in a June 25 birthday bash in Virginia Beach that resulted in Quanis Philips—a co-defendant in his 2007 dog-fighting, etc. trial—being shot in the leg. 

I have not read the piece, titled, "The Enigma: What Michael Vick Tells Us About Ourselves," which was excerpted in a column in yesterday's Philadelphia Inquirer.

After reading the Inquirer synopsis, and the apparently candid quotes from Vick about the incident and its aftermath, I hold to the opinion that I arrived at this summer. Vick is extremely lucky to not have been either prosecuted for a probation violation (or worse?), cut free by the Eagles or suspended by the NFL. 

He apparently now realizes that, and we should all be thankful if Vick cashes in on what I have always termed his third chance.  Clearly, he is doing so on the field, and with his new-found dedication and preparation between Sundays.

Among the myriad of issues that surround Vick, here are my thoughts. Each point would make its own mini-column, but here goes:

Michael Vick served his time for the heinous crimes perpetrated at Bad Newz Kennels. I can't tell you if 19 months was an appropriate sentence or not, but having served it, he deserved his chance to make a living at what he does so well. 

As a lifelong Eagles fan, I wish that his second chance was granted elsewhere. Admittedly, more than 90 percent of that reaction was because I'm a big Donovan McNabb fan, and wanted to see him (however unlikely that may have been) finish his career as an Eagle with at least one championship.

I don't begrudge those who still can't reconcile themselves to what Vick did. It's hard to, and their opinions should be respected. However, once those who hold these opinions go beyond condemning what he did and engage in name-calling or worse, I'm not on board with them. And any argument that is infected with racism (against Vick or any minority group among us) is disgusting and repulsive to me.

I will be thankful if I never hear "he made a mistake" again.Of course, I get the simple and simplistic point that we all make mistakes. Characterizing the series of acts that he willfully took as "a mistake" is a ludicrous understatement.

Without walking in Vick's (or anyone else's) shoes, I can't speak to all of the sociological and psychological reasons that may have led him to be a part of the crimes that he was prosecuted for. I do have a problem with those who explain it all away by citing "cultural differences."

Cultural differences, at their best, make our communities (and our country)  fascinating and diverse places. Can there be a negative, flipside to cultural differences, no matter which culture we are describing? Sure. But how many people were surrounded by a similar "culture" as Vick and wouldn't dream of doing similar, unconscionable things? 

Misusing this term as an apology does no service to Vick, and no service to his culture. Some wonderful human beings—however famous—have come from, and will come from, that same culture. Let's hope that Vick is on his way to becoming one of them in his second act.

It is impossible to judge a person's sense of remorse, even among people we think we know well. I hope that Vick has a powerful sense of  remorse for what he did as well as for what he lost, and that this awareness will propel him to do and say all the right things from this moment on.

In the end, most people will judge him by what he says and does.  How can anyone look inside him, or anyone else, and judge what they feel? Again, I hope he comes through with his third chance, but this needs to be assessed over much more time.

I will be thankful if and when any discussion about Michael Vick is solely about his play, or looking forward, perhaps it will be about how he truly redeemed himself with his good works. But that may not happen for awhile, and we should all realize that.

I plan to read S.L. Price's SI piece, and maybe it will shed some light on the "enigma of Michael Vick and what it tells us about ourselves."

Unfortunately, we did not need the Michael Vick drama to remind us how polarized our society has become, and not only on racial divides. For example, when was the last time you watched, or heard, a reasonable, intellectually honest political discussion without it degenerating into name-calling, labeling and screaming? It is a screaming shame that we continue to divide ourselves on whatever grounds, and for whatever justifications.

On this day, and on all days, I am thankful for reasonable discussions, and I believe that one can be passionate and reasonable at the same time. These adjectives are not mutually exclusive.

In fact, I am fascinated by dualities. I am a humor writer—thinking and writing from that mindset (not now) comes very naturally to me. But underneath that surface and that talent is a very serious person. We all have talents and dualities within us.

So, when it comes to Michael Vick, let's reserve our shouting for what he does on the field, and let's use our ears and our minds as well as our voices when discussing the other issues.

I am thankful that you read this, and will be appreciative, as always, of passionate and reasonable opinions, whether they coincide with mine or not. Maybe I'll learn something from your point of view.

On this day, let us celebrate the fact that not everyone sees issues in the same light and from identical vantage points. I hope that I represented my own thoughts and opinions well, and encouraged you to do the same.

Happy Thanksgiving, fellow sports fans!

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