Monday, August 24, 2009

What's wrong with a change of heart? Apparently more than what's wrong with killing dogs.

I can't believe that there are people out there cheering for Michael Vick and booing Brett Favre. And yet I see plenty of football fans saying that Vick has "the right to an occupation", but at the same time getting ticked off at Brett.

Hello? Anybody home?! Vick tortured and killed several dogs. All Brett did was come out of retirement. Does retiring somehow terminate your "right to an occupation"? Is that "right" still there in spite of what you do off the field?

And if any of you had forgotten, let me remind you that Vick hung dogs from trees, electrocuted them with jumper cables, drowned them in water, and even had them enter into a pit against other dogs. Vick did all that, and laughed.

Of course that's not nearly as bad as (gasp) announcing retirement and then (double gasp!) deciding to return. No, it's perfectly fine for Vick to be extremely cruel to dogs, but for Brett Favre to come out of retirement is just terrible.

First things first: there is no such thing as a "right to an occupation". If there was, I'd take my hockey stick, walk up to the nearest NHL team and drop that line so they would have to let me play.

Come on, people. Playing in the NFL is a privilege. What Vick did should have made him lose the privilege. But it's not just the fact that Vick is returning that's ridiculous, it's the fact that he wasn't jailed for a good ten years plus. If life were a giant monopoly game, all the star atheletes, and celebrities for that matter, would be loaded with "get out of jail free" cards. To suggest that Vick received the sentence he deserved, is practically laughable. None of the big names do. That much is evident when over 100 MLB players are juiced up on steriods

But the sad truth is that fans often don't see things as right or wrong. They tend to only care about what's going to happen on the field. They want Favre to retire so the story can go away and they can move on. And they want Vick to return so, well, the story can go away and they can move on. I know a lot of this is the media's fault. They practically spent an entire day discussing Vick's signing with the Eagles, and another day talking about Favre's return.

Whatever. I have two words for you: go Vikings. I'm really happy to see Favre on one of my favorite teams. The addition of him makes them, in many people's opinion, NFC favorites.

As for Vick, the day the first Eagles game comes on this year is the day I turn off my TV and go for a walk with my dog.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Very good article. Well written and many good points.Lets just hope Vick is truly sorry for what he did and sees his need for help.Tony Dungy I believe is a good person to help Vick in that regard. ZOOK