On the TunneySide of Sports March 23, 2020 #788 Up next… A Second Chance?
After further review…NFL Network recently broadcast a quarterback marathon with all of your favorite NFL quarterbacks’ lives portrayed. Most were Pro Football Hall of Famers; some were not but admired by their T*E*A*Ms’ fans – and rightly so. One that was featured was Michael Vick who played 15 seasons as #7 in the NFL. While I was curious to watch this show, I was not a Vick admirer. His 15 seasons were interrupted by the 21 months he spent in prison.
I had known of Vick during those 15 NFL seasons and while impressed with his talent after he was the first-round draft choice by the Atlanta Falcons in the 2001 draft, I was disgusted with his arrest and conviction for his involvement in dogfighting. My background just couldn’t imagine those who are entertained by such cruelty. I had taught and coached in a high school that embodied housing projects, but none like Ridley Circle Homes where Vick grew up.
The “Bad Newz” projects from which the “Bad Newz Kennels” grew involved Vick through his financing and direct involvement in dogfighting. It is illegal in the state of Virginia as well as all U.S. 50 states. The projects in which Vick was raised is a suburb of Newport News, Virginia. Despite that unsavory environment, Vick has a stellar football career at Ferguson High School as well as an outstanding football career at Virginia Tech, where after two seasons he left for NFL.
Vick took some of his NFL and endorsement money (from Nike) to buy his mother a car and a house in Suffolk, Virginia. Brenda Vick Brodie and family were living in a 3-bedroom house in that project. Vick was kept off the streets at an early age by playing sports and being involved with the Boys and Girls Club saying, “It kept me off the streets and away from ‘bad guys’”.
Later through friends, Vick engaged in dogfighting and was incarcerated in 2007 for 21 months. His NFL career over! However, his remorsefulness emerged after his release and the NFL saw it fit to allow him a trial entrance back into the league. Yet, who would chance it?
Following some close mentoring by Tony Dungy, formerly head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, the Philadelphia Eagles, whose head coach was Andy Reid (yes, that Andy Reid, now the head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs and Super Bowl LII champions) took that chance.
Vick is now out of football and operates the Michael Vick Foundation and has lobbied for HR 2492 the Animal Fighting Spectator Prohibition Act among other charitable endeavors.
Will you give a second chance to others who may at first seem unworthy?
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