Michael Vick, Philadelphia Eagle

[NC_Eagle]

I know I'm late to the party (can't post from work) but I have to say:

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! 

I hope someone put a suicide watch on Kolb, I know I'd need one if I was him. Also, I give 50/50 Reid is gone after this season, if not earlier depending on how things go.

[Sgt PSN]

No way Reid goes mid season unless it's his choice to do so.....which he would never do.  And I don't think there is anything that could happen this year that would cause Lurie to drop the ax on Reid either.  It would pretty much have to be about 3 or 4 years of no playoff, non competetive football.  More importantly, revenue has to dry up a bit before Lurie will make a change. 

[Eagaholic]

No way Reid goes mid season unless it's his choice to do so.....

What if he has a heart attack while trying to throw a challenge flag? Does that count? And would they get charged with a time out for the lost challenge AND an injury TO? Would be the perfect legacy.

[Rome]

Shut up. All of you.

poty

close forum.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

The Michael Vick conundrum

Tim Keown [ARCHIVE]
ESPN.com
September 28, 2010
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It would have been quite a bit easier had Michael Vick returned from prison and remained a mediocre backup. If he'd spent a couple of years wearing a headset as an aging helmet-slapper -- you know, like his brother-in-bankruptcy, Mark Brunell -- before being released, nobody would really have to confront their feelings about the guy. When it was over, when the experiment ran its course, the Eagles could have publicly said they were glad to have him while privately saying they were glad to be rid of the animal-rights protests and the rap sheet.

But now what? What do we do about Vick now?

Because he's good. He's really good. Some people are already tossing around letters like MVP, which is crazy at this point, but there's no denying the man's talent and on-field charisma. Andy Reid might have botched the process he used to name Vick his starting quarterback, but he picked the right guy. And no matter how good Kevin Kolb might be (someday), there should be no quarterback controversy in Philadelphia. Vick is the man.

It appears he can do just about anything he wants out there. (I know, wait 'til he faces a good pass defense, which won't happen this Sunday against the taterskins or next Sunday against the 49ers, either.) He's standing in the pocket, buying time with his legs and keeping his eyes downfield unless there's a compelling reason against it. In other words, he's displaying all of those pocket QB talents a lot of NFL people thought he'd never have the discipline to learn.

So that's the easy part. The human side of it is much more difficult. Discussing Vick's remarkable ability to work his way back into the national discussion -- as a football player, not as a totem for Everything That's Wrong With Everything -- after 18 months in Leavenworth is unlike anything I can remember in the last 30 years.

Is this a heartwarming comeback story? No, not even close. But you watch: It's about to become one.

It's a great sports story, and a story of a great athlete whose gifts are both resilient and singular. But everybody always wants more than that. It has to transcend sports. It has to be about heartbreak and redemption. There has to be a moment of clarity for Vick, when he saw the error of his ways and redoubled his efforts to regain everything he lost. And if there are visions of suffering dogs running through his mind as he pushes himself to run that extra set of sprints, all the better.

We do black and white. Gray has a tendency to elude our grasp.

It's already starting. The post-Sunday dissections included a healthy scoop of false Americana. You know the routine: "We're the land of second chances" and "We're a forgiving nation." Aside from being laughably wrong -- we do intolerance and rigidity when it fits our purpose -- it doesn't pertain to Vick in the slightest. He's not playing that game, and he doesn't seem interested in watching you play it, either.

During the Raiders-Cardinals telecast Sunday, one of the announcers described Raiders quarterback Bruce Gradkowski by saying, "He just looks like someone you want to root for." Aside from Gradkowski looking like a mediocre backup, I'm not quite sure what that means. Apparently, the "you" the announcer was citing is someone who appreciates the nuances of quarterbacks who are easy to root for but hard to watch as they struggle to see past the line of scrimmage. It was Raiders-Cardinals, so it wasn't the first string, but still.

The point is, no announcer would ever think of saying that about Vick. (And no, this isn't about race, because Donovan McNabb looks more like someone I want to root for than Gradkowski. He's sure as hell easier to watch play the game.) Vick, by contrast, is nobody's role model. He committed some truly repellent crimes, and his apologies have been more perfunctory than vein-opening. There's a wariness about him that suggests a man who understands just how much of himself he can afford to parcel out to the public.

He seems to know, maybe better than we do, that America is a great land for second chances only as long as you perform. We're a country that values winners over the redeemed. The redemption we're seeking is often just the excuse to feel good about rooting for someone whose past is thoroughly distasteful.

Vick doesn't want to be your feel-good story. He just wants to be the bad-ass who happens to be the most riveting performer in the NFL. Let's keep it that way, shall we?

[PhillyPhreak54]

Nice read.

[PhillyPhreak54]

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Vick's Ascension Magnifies Racial Divide

I was talking to an ex-NFL player last week, guy I hadn't seen in a while, and eventually we got around to Michael Vick. The ex-player is African-American, from the rural South. His take was that Vick's prison term for dogfighting was way too harsh, and that people should let that go, as Vick remakes himself as the quarterback of the Eagles. The ex-player recalled seeing Sunday afternoon dogfights in a park where he grew up, witnessed (and presumably wagered upon) by the local police.

This was not an isolated occurrence. I think if you surveyed the largely African-American Eagles locker room, that guy's take would be the perspective of a huge percentage of the players.

Race is such a tricky, hot-button thing, so many of us just try to pretend it isn't a part of the issues we deal with, even when it obviously is.The Eagles' locker room shocked much of the (white) fan base by voting Vick the Ed Block Courage Award last year. Hmmm. What do you think that was about?

Another conversation last week, with a (white) agent. He was talking about going to a Super Bowl party many years ago, when Vick was near the start of his career. The party was largely African-American, and the agent remembered being surprised at how Vick's presence resonated with other famous players and guests -- "it was like Michael Jordan had walked in," the agent said.

One of the reasons Roger Goodell was so interested in Vick's rehabilitation was Vick's standing in the African-American community. Predogfight scandal, by 2007 much of white America might have seen Vick as a sideshow, a quarterback who never took his craft seriously enough to win anything. Black America saw an artist, an elegant, unstoppable performer. (They now see him as an elegant, unstoppable performer who has been persecuted by white people.)

This was much like the split that surrounded Allen Iverson in his prime. (A guy from the exact same background, a few neighborhoods over.)

So, here we are, with Vick starting for the Eagles, and playing well. All over the Internet, people (mostly African-American) argue that he has paid his dues and should be embraced. Other people (mostly not African-American) argue that torturing and killing dogs over a period of years isn't something you just shrug off because a guy went to prison for a while and is now playing real well.

I don't see any easy answers, an unqualified yes to one and no to the other. Obviously, I didn't grow up black in the rural South. I grew up white in the suburban South.  I think I understand a little of the "cultural" argument. I never saw a dogfight, but in my family, dogs were not cuddly little foo-foo things; they lived outdoors, didn't come in the house. One neighbor had a kennel of hunting dogs, and gave us one who couldn't hunt.

Still,  I found myself wanting to ask the ex-player last week, "So, after these dogfights in the park, did you watch the dogs being hanged and electrocuted? Did you think, 'Gee, that looks like fun, I'd like to kill some of those dogs myself!' Over and over and over again?"

Vick has been nothing but decent and courteous to me. I can't reconcile what he has done with the guy I talk to in the Eagles' locker room. I'm really hoping to get a better handle on that as we move forward. And as a sports reporter, I can't let my discomfort with what he did make me discount what he does on the field; if I let that happen, I am not doing my job.

But I'll admit, I find the idea of Vick "sticking it to" his critics by playing well a really perverse, obnoxious notion. He can throw for 100 touchdowns this year, and he still did what he did, and it was still really, really, really wrong.

The only hope for something good coming out of Vick's ascension that I can see is that maybe Vick will gain a greater platform to somehow explain himself, that he can give us a better notion than he has so far of how these things can possibly happen, and demonstrate through his words and deeds he is really a different person now.

But I think it's going to be a bumpy ride.

**

To read our earlier post about Donovan McNabb's radio show, click here.
Posted by Les Bowen @ 1:53 PM  Permalink | 205 comments

[Sgt PSN]

Nice read.

It is a nice read but at the same time, I can't help but look at the last line of the article and wonder how does he know what Vick wants?  Did he interview Vick and ask him?  I assume he didn't because he didn't quote Vick at all in that article. 

And since this is the Vick thread, I'm just going to say that its kind of ridiculous how hateful people in this country are.  There are still thousands upon thousands of people everyday saying that Vick should never be allowed to play football again, blah blah blah.  When the dog fighting thing happened I said he should go to jail.  He did.  When he got out, I said that if the commish decided to let him play again, then he should play (although I did say that he should have spent 1 year out of football before reinstatement, but that's neither here nor there at this point.)

Point is, he did a crime and paid a price that a judge deemed appropriate.  The commissioner decided to let him back in the league.  What's the farging problem here?  Should ex-cons never be given the opportunity for success when released from prison?  No one's condoning what he did, but at the same time he does appear to be doing everything he can to turn his life around and I can't understand for the life of me why anyone would have a problem with that.       

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

A very good read.  I don't think it's a race thing per se but it at least helps me understand both sides.

I am on the black side here.  Holla at yo brutha.

[ice grillin you]

lets just say if jared allen gets caught dogfighting he doesnt do a second in prison and the uproar is miniscule compared to thug lifer vick

[General_Failure]

If Jared Allen is caught dogfighting, he will be caught on his knees growling at dogs.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

lets just say if jared allen gets caught dogfighting he doesnt do a second in prison and the uproar is miniscule compared to thug lifer vick

What about Dany Heatley and Donte Stallworth?  Both KILLED PEOPLE, did no hard time, and it's already forgotten.  Are they just not big enough stars for it to matter?

[MDS]

dont forget leonard little

but yes basically. vick was one of the top 10 biggest athletes in the us at the time

[QB Eagles]

To a lot of dog lovers, he should basically be treated like he killed a person. To people who don't really care about the welfare of animals, it was a harsh sentence. There's a racial angle, but a lot of the animosity comes from the way people feel about their dogs.

I'm somewhere in the middle and 18 months sounds about right to me. You gotta be a scumbag to run an operation like that, but there are a lot of scumbags in the NFL doing things to human beings that I think are worse than killing dogs, and most of them aren't getting 18 months.

[Drunkmasterflex]

It may have more to do with the fact that Vick was an unapologetic ahole at the time.