Agent: Michael Vick signs with Philadelphia Eagles

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/08/13/vick.eagles/index.html

"Michael Vick, recently reinstated to the NFL after being freed from federal prison after a dogfighting-related conviction, has signed a two-year deal with the Philadelphia Eagles, according to his agent, Joel Segal.

…

The Eagles are scheduled to play Vick's former team, the Falcons, in Atlanta on December 6."

woa.

You know, I'm a dog owner and an animal lover and I regularly give money and supplies to the ASPCA and local rescue outfits and I think Vick is basically a despicable human being, but conceptually I can't deny that the guy served the sentence that was passed on him and, as such, has a right to come back and earn a living in his chosen pursuit.  The best outcome would be for my beloved Giants defense to deliver a Theismann on Vick in his first game back.

You know, imo, in the grand scheme of things, what Dante Stallworth did (or even Ray Lewis) is like a billion times worse than Michael Vick. And I'm a vegetarian pet-owner.

Vick did awful shit, but he served his time, seems remorseful, and wants to play football again.  I have no problem with that.  And I'll agree that Stallworth did do something worse. 

If a team was, and apparently is, willing to sign Vick, then by all means, go ahead.  I'm interested in how the whole situation goes over once the season starts.

I would've thought the Cleveland Browns were a better fit for him.

I  hope PETA are at every Eagles game causing disruptions..he's a maggot and should never have been signed by any team simply on principle, but it's a team from Philly so no big surprise there eh?

Yeah Vick who has paid the penalty prescribed by society should be banned from everything and not allowed to do shit, but Stallworth who knowingly drove drunk and killed a man should get a month in jail and no one is upset about it.  If you think people should protest why don't you grow a set and go do it yourself and not rely on someone else to do it?  I hope that anyone who disrupts a game gets sent to jail and when they get out they ought to lose their right to work and earn a living.

Frank wrote:
I  hope PETA are at every Eagles game causing disruptions..

I think we've recently seen what happens to folks who cause "disruptions" outside of stadiums in Philadelphia.  God forbid they should so much as spill somebody's beer in the process.  Best of luck to them.

The guy Donte Stallworth hit consciously put himself in the path of a moving vehicle.  Whether the driver is drunk or not  you don't run out in front of a car at night.  I'm by no means defending driving drunk or hitting someone, but the situation isn't quite as heinous as it sounds.. it is despicable and he did get off easy.  It was by no means a methodical act.

However, dogs on the other hand, have no choice in the matter.  They don't have the free will to be like "you know, this Mike Vick guy is a douche, I don't want to live at his house and have him be my owner anymore" and leave.  As such, it's your responsibility to properly care for any life form that you choose to own.  So, to not only purchase hundreds of dogs, abuse them and kill them over the course of several years merely for entertainment, I believe is a far more vicious act.  Fuck Michael Vick, he's a special kind of piece of shit that should never see anything even remotely resembling public attention ever again.

ggw wrote:
I think Vick is basically a despicable human being, but conceptually I can't deny that the guy served the sentence that was passed on him and, as such, has a right to come back and earn a living in his chosen pursuit. 

yup - if not, what are we telling people?  once you go to jail, you have no chance of redeeming yourself?  we have enough of a problem of people emerging from jail as worse criminals than they went in.  let's give them some hope.

Frank wrote:
I would've thought the Cleveland Browns were a better fit for him.

huh?  we're talking a different kind of football here - the runney-catchey kind ;)  i think philly is a strong fit, lots of parallels can be drawn between mcnabb's style and vick's.  when mcnabb goes down to injury - like he does almost every season - the team won't have to radically change their game style.  smart move, IMO.

Frank wrote:
I  hope PETA are at every Eagles game causing disruptions..he's a maggot and should never have been signed by any team simply on principle, but it's a team from Philly so no big surprise there eh?

so he should be paying forever?  there is good money to be made in dog fighting… if he can't earn a living as he wants, let's push him back into the arms of illegal activity.  brilliant thinking there, mank.

RatBastard wrote:
I hope that anyone who disrupts a game gets sent to jail and when they get out they ought to lose their right to work and earn a living.

LOL.  good point.

the browns have the dog pound is frank's joke, i assume

the man's lost $100m and spent a year and a half in prison. for me, thats enough. its not like we're giving him top level pentagon security codes here

Two things:

1) I think he was joking about the Browns, since, uh:



2) Is Frank Gallagher mankie?  When did that happen???

sweetcell wrote:

Frank wrote:
I would've thought the Cleveland Browns were a better fit for him.

huh?  we're talking a different kind of football here - the runney-catchey kind ;)  i think philly is a strong fit, lots of parallels can be drawn between mcnabb's style and vick's.  when mcnabb goes down to injury - like he does almost every season - the team won't have to radically change their game style.  smart move, IMO.

Frank wrote:
I  hope PETA are at every Eagles game causing disruptions..he's a maggot and should never have been signed by any team simply on principle, but it's a team from Philly so no big surprise there eh?

so he should be paying forever?  there is good money to be made in dog fighting… if he can't earn a living as he wants, let's push him back into the arms of illegal activity.  brilliant thinking there, mank.

imbecile wrote:
The guy Donte Stallworth hit consciously put himself in the path of a moving vehicle.  Whether the driver is drunk or not  you don't run out in front of a car at night.  I'm by no means defending driving drunk or hitting someone, but the situation isn't quite as heinous as it sounds.. it is despicable and he did get off easy.  It was by no means a methodical act.

However, dogs on the other hand, have no choice in the matter.  They don't have the free will to be like "you know, this Mike Vick guy is a douche, I don't want to live at his house and have him be my owner anymore" and leave.  As such, it's your responsibility to properly care for any life form that you choose to own.  So, to not only purchase hundreds of dogs, abuse them and kill them over the course of several years merely for entertainment, I believe is a far more vicious act.  Fuck Michael Vick, he's a special kind of piece of shit that should never see anything even remotely resembling public attention ever again.

I would argue drunk driving is as wanton and shows just as much disregard for life as dog fighting. And the bigger point I was trying to make is causing the death of one person is way way way worse then causing the death of a thousand dogs, imo. I mean, there's like a hundred NFL guys who beat their wives, or drunk drove, or whatever that was worse than dog fighting.

Intent is a huge part of assessing the severity of a crime.    If some NRA idiot is shooting at stop signs and accidentally kills someone, he's an asshole and deserves to go to jail, but if someone puts a gun to someone's head and pulls the trigger in cold blood, that is a worse crime, because he *meant* to kill.

Likewise, a drunk driver who kills someone, no matter how reckless they were, didn't mean to kill them.  Yes, they deserved jail time, and I actually think a month is much too short.  But without the intent, it's in a different category.

So let's be clear about what Michael Vick did.  He wasn't just "dogfighting."    Vick and his buddies killed dogs that didn't perform by hanging from trees, electrocution with cattle prods, and slamming their bodies to the ground, forcibly drowning them.   They admitted to deliberately starving them to make them fight harder.

If you think this is no big deal, next time you see a dog, try to imagine yourself doing those things to him.

That kind of cruel, psycho crap is not a mistake that you express remorse for and move on with your life.  You are either the kind of person that does that kind of thing, or you aren't.   If Vick was that kind of person, then he still is.   And playing in the NFL isn't just "making a living," it's a position of privilege with a huge income and fan adulation.  He does not deserve that.

There are plenty of examples in professional sports where people have been allowed to come back who shouldn't have – Tyson the rapist, for example.   But that doesn't make it any more right in Vick's case.

Doom, I was about to type the same…ditto and thanks!

Doctor wrote:
That kind of cruel, psycho crap is not a mistake that you express remorse for and move on with your life. 

oh shit, i didn't realize that someone here was privy to vick's rehabilitation progress.

sweetcell wrote:

Doctor wrote:
That kind of cruel, psycho crap is not a mistake that you express remorse for and move on with your life. 

oh shit, i didn't realize that someone here was privy to vick's rehabilitation progress.

I'm sorry that the facts of Vick's extreme cruelty might have interfered with your sports  entertainment needs. 

Along with intent, another huge part of assessing a crime is what the actual crime is. And there's no way killing a thousand dogs at all relates in my mind to killing a human. I can intentionally jaywalk, and just because I did it intentionally doesn't mean its somehow equatable to accidentally committing vehicular homicide. There has to be some balance between intent and the action itself, and for my money, I just cannot put Michael Vick as one of the worst people in recent NFL history.

Okay, toughguycell ;), you are right, no one can know. Obviously, it's an outside assessment. A year and a half in jail perhaps humbled, rehabilitated, changed for better, or even could have angered him more. Who knows? Being the other side of the devil's advocate - deliberate torture of a living thing for a continuous period, takes time to rid that behavior and thinking out of your system. I'm guessing he had a bit of anger built up…Is he in current anger therapy or similar? (I'm not asking snarky, I'm really asking)

Julian, wrote:
Along with intent, another huge part of assessing a crime is what the actual crime is. And there's no way killing a thousand dogs at all relates in my mind to killing a human. I can intentionally jaywalk, and just because I did it intentionally doesn't mean its somehow equatable to accidentally committing vehicular homicide. There has to be some balance between intent and the action itself, and for my money, I just cannot put Michael Vick as one of the worst people in recent NFL history.

Right… but lots of people get away with con games, too.  Doesn't mean Madoff should go free.

Doctor wrote:

sweetcell wrote:

Doctor wrote:
That kind of cruel, psycho crap is not a mistake that you express remorse for and move on with your life. 

oh shit, i didn't realize that someone here was privy to vick's rehabilitation progress.

I'm sorry that the facts of Vick's extreme cruelty might have interfered with your sports  entertainment needs.   

nothing to do with entertainment needs, everything to do with giving folks the benefit of the doubt and a chance at redemption.  maybe that's openness and generosity that is beyond you.

i'm not a fan of vick, although i am a fan of the sport.  apparently i don't share your self-confidence in knowing what's going on in someone's head - especially after they've been incarcerated and in therapy for almost 2 years.

Sugartastic wrote:
Okay, toughguycell ;), you are right, no one can know.

cute :)  no, there are people who know - lawyers, parole officers, therapists, etc.  but i'm fairly certain none of them are on this board.

Sugartastic wrote:
Is he in current anger therapy or similar? (I'm not asking snarky, I'm really asking)

i would be shocked if he didn't undergo some type of therapy, anger or otherwise.  but i don't know.