The football player, that is. Not the guy who's 'bout to plead guilty to dogfighting charges.
I arrived in Atlanta a year before he was drafted with the #1 pick. I saw pro football here go from a simple recap on the Sunday night news report to an all-out celebration, steeped with nothing but excitement. We all know that his career didn't fully take off until '03, but from that draft day on the city was in love. I heart Michael Vick, as did many around me.
For the past 4 years, the only way you were getting a seat in the Dome was if you knew somebody who knew somebody or if you knew somebody willing to pay waaaaaaaay more than face value for a resell ticket. Not wanting to be left out, I excitedly added my name to the 10,000+ other ones on the waiting list for season tics. My number was finally called this past June, shortly before my birthday. As a gift to myself, I catapulted my Sunday plans from a six-pack and the couch to some drafts and an upper level seat in the Dome, baby!
Then the barking began.
I, like Mike, thought the latest allegations against him would just blow over. Hello! He is Michael Vick! Arguably the most exciting player in The League! Flickin' off the crowd @ a home game...nothing. Trying to smuggle something onto a plane at the Miami airport...nothing. He is Michael Vick, you know. So I had no trouble spending that kind of money on the opportunity to see this on and off the field scrambler live and in action!
No need to rehash the top sports story of the summer. Even non sports fans know the climax of this one. While we're all still awaiting the ending, it's pretty clear that he will forever be seen in a completely different light.
When you grow up in a town where every newborn baby boy is given a plastic orange and black football shortly after birth, the sport is bound to stay with you for life. I love the game. I appreciate how a player like him can elevate the game to a level a city has been craving for several years.
But what I don't appreciate is a man that does the things Mike is accused of doing. You'll never catch me with a PETA membership card, but I do have love for our four-legged, furry friends. But more importantly, I have love for the law. And in this country dogfighting is illegal and if an average Joe isn't above the law, he shouldn't be either.
I would love to see him play in the NFL again; preferably here where he started it all. But some things have got to change with him and others coming into the same status. Dogfighting, along with 'making it rain' in a Vegas strip club (that darn Pac-Man Jones!), are just two examples of activities that shouldn't be done by anyone, let alone a pro baller - new to money, new to fame, new to scrutiny on a national, heck international, level. Just as many professions, including my own, provide mentors to newbies, pro sports leagues should too. Many of these players come from backgrounds where the difference between right and wrong is not emphasized, yet that difference in their actions, again on or off the field, is paramount as soon as that contract is signed.
Yes, the blame for his situation lies squarely on Vick's shoulders. He is a grown man! But for the sake of the game and the millions of fans that love it, the NFL should immediately hand these boys two playbooks - one for the game and one for life.
I arrived in Atlanta a year before he was drafted with the #1 pick. I saw pro football here go from a simple recap on the Sunday night news report to an all-out celebration, steeped with nothing but excitement. We all know that his career didn't fully take off until '03, but from that draft day on the city was in love. I heart Michael Vick, as did many around me.
For the past 4 years, the only way you were getting a seat in the Dome was if you knew somebody who knew somebody or if you knew somebody willing to pay waaaaaaaay more than face value for a resell ticket. Not wanting to be left out, I excitedly added my name to the 10,000+ other ones on the waiting list for season tics. My number was finally called this past June, shortly before my birthday. As a gift to myself, I catapulted my Sunday plans from a six-pack and the couch to some drafts and an upper level seat in the Dome, baby!
Then the barking began.
I, like Mike, thought the latest allegations against him would just blow over. Hello! He is Michael Vick! Arguably the most exciting player in The League! Flickin' off the crowd @ a home game...nothing. Trying to smuggle something onto a plane at the Miami airport...nothing. He is Michael Vick, you know. So I had no trouble spending that kind of money on the opportunity to see this on and off the field scrambler live and in action!
No need to rehash the top sports story of the summer. Even non sports fans know the climax of this one. While we're all still awaiting the ending, it's pretty clear that he will forever be seen in a completely different light.
When you grow up in a town where every newborn baby boy is given a plastic orange and black football shortly after birth, the sport is bound to stay with you for life. I love the game. I appreciate how a player like him can elevate the game to a level a city has been craving for several years.
But what I don't appreciate is a man that does the things Mike is accused of doing. You'll never catch me with a PETA membership card, but I do have love for our four-legged, furry friends. But more importantly, I have love for the law. And in this country dogfighting is illegal and if an average Joe isn't above the law, he shouldn't be either.
I would love to see him play in the NFL again; preferably here where he started it all. But some things have got to change with him and others coming into the same status. Dogfighting, along with 'making it rain' in a Vegas strip club (that darn Pac-Man Jones!), are just two examples of activities that shouldn't be done by anyone, let alone a pro baller - new to money, new to fame, new to scrutiny on a national, heck international, level. Just as many professions, including my own, provide mentors to newbies, pro sports leagues should too. Many of these players come from backgrounds where the difference between right and wrong is not emphasized, yet that difference in their actions, again on or off the field, is paramount as soon as that contract is signed.
Yes, the blame for his situation lies squarely on Vick's shoulders. He is a grown man! But for the sake of the game and the millions of fans that love it, the NFL should immediately hand these boys two playbooks - one for the game and one for life.
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