Forgiving Michael Vick

I never cared much for the NFL. I always was and still am an avid college football fan. But watching Michael Vick at the Falcons stirred something in me that the rest of the league simply couldn't copy. There was something about the way that this Black man led his team to victory, using a skill set that is highly unusual for a professional quarterback, that made him worth watching. Vick's athleticism is the stuff of legends. He may not have been the best passer in the league but no one could run like him. This dual-threat provided a spark to the Atlanta offense that maybe didn't always win games but it frustrated opposing defenses and made the sport that much more entertaining.

More importantly, I used the Falcons to murder all my friends every year in Madden tournaments. At this point I was still a kid, maybe around 14 or 15 years old. My love for Vick continued to grow, until he was arrested for dog fighting. By this time, I was older and understood more of race relations here in America. I understood that everyone associated Vick with Black men, something I was trying desperately to become. His stupidity in running a dog fighting ring out of one of his many homes really can't be put into words. I was angry, not because of what happened to him, but because of what I felt would happen to me.

I worried that this entire debacle would add more fuel to the notion that all Black men are savages, animals without any sense of feeling or control. After all participating in something as barbaric as dog fighting is simply inexcusable. The media had a field day covering the trial and Vick's so called "boy" ratted him out to the feds. I wondered subconsciously if anyone would look at me differnetly because this idiot messed up.

I refused to look at it from his point of view, ever. All I could think about was the fact that the Black community has lost another role model to his own stupidness. Now that I think about it I can safely say that Vick lost more from his mistakes than I did. His wealth, image, prestige, fans, friends, everything that the world says makes a man a man were taken from him. In the time that he's been in prison I have realized my hypocrisy in condemning him. After all I have done plenty of stupid things, I'm just not famous enough for everyone to know about it. I still can't help but wonder how a person that has everything could throw it all away for dogs. I know good Black men who are struggling to make ends meet that would love to have just a tiny fraction of Vick's former success and wealth. But in the end I have to recognize that we're all human and that everyone makes mistakes. It doesn't excuse what he did, but he's paid his debt to society and its time to move on. I wish him the best in whatever lies ahead, and who knows, maybe it Matt Ryan starts sucking maybe my beloved Falcons will get their original franchise quarterback back.