It has been over 4 years since former (and forever) Hokie, Michael Vick, was implicated in an illegal interstate dog fighting ring and ultimately sentenced to 21 months in prison on associated felony charges. He declared bankruptcy in July 2008. He signed with the Philadelphia Eagles and was reinstated in Week 3 of the NFL 2009 season. His return to prominence in the NFL has not been without an occasional hiccup or two (in no small measure due to some help from his ever-wayward younger brother), but overall it has been remarkable.
He seems to be arighting many things in his personal life as well, and I am happy, and also proud, to see this. With apologies to Bruce Smith, no one Hokie player has done more to advance the VT football program in terms of on-field performance, publicity for the school (albeit, both good and bad), and long-term VT football recruiting than Michael has. Before Vick, the VT football program was certainly a solid program due to Frank Beamer (and Bud Foster, among others), but Vick's relatively-short tenure at the school took the program to the next level, and it has more-or-less stayed there since his departure for the NFL as the first pick in the 2001 draft. It has become a program that consistently has the potential to produce a Top 5/Top 10 caliber team, and this definitely improves VT's chances to get back to the national championship game, where it hasn't been since Michael was there.
However, to some people, Michael Vick will always be persona non grata. For his cruel -- and frankly -- sadistic, treatment of the canine residents of "Bad Newz Kennels", these folks believe that his punishment has been too light, and they believe that he should not have been re-admitted to the NFL, and they will never root for him. Even some diehard Eagle fans have adopted this position. Their emotions are real, and they are valid. I won't discount them, even though my view is different.
Dog fighting in the US emerged after the Civil War, according to the ASPCA. But the main thing to note, is that it is not a new "gangsta" phenomenom. In fact, the ASPCA notes that "it was a common form of entertainment for police officers and firemen—the 'Police Gazette' served as a major source of information on dog fighting for many years. Although many laws were passed to outlaw the activity, dog fighting continued to expand during the twentieth century." So dog-fighting has a history in this country, whether we want to recognize this fact or not. It is no less a part of our history than Prohibition, Speak-Easy's, and the bootleggers and gangsters depicted in HBO's "Boardwalk Empire" and "The Sopranos" television series.
If you had the opportunity to watch the admittedly self-serving BET series, "The Michael Vick Project", you heard Michael talk about the dogfighting that was commonplace when he and his brother were young kids living in the Ridley Circle Homes public housing project. In an interview segment on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Tiki Barber suggested that middle- and upper-class America looks at dogfighting differently than those who have grown up around it and thus were exposed to the sub-culture at a young age. My point is that, while I and many others view dogfighting as abhorrent, people who "grew up with it" look at it differently, like bull-fighting patrons in Spain or cock-fighting enthusiasts in Latin America (and underground in the U.S.). Even people who work in slaughterhouses view their jobs differently than those looking in from the outside (and not just PETA). It's easy to categorize someone as "inhuman" because we can't understand something that they've done -- but our perception of their humanity, or lack there of, is affected by the prism of our background and upbringing. Conversely, our sophisticated and "intellectually-advanced" society has determined that abortion is an accepted practice for ending a pregnancy and ending a life. How can this be more acceptable than dogfighting?
I think that many Hokies view Michael's rags-to-riches-to-rags-to-riches story favorably, if not proudly. Anyone that has been knocked down, especially if the fall was self-inflicted, can relate to Michael Vick's story as well. He is a controversial and polarizing figure, and a complex one. People who look at him and categorize him as irredeemably bad, or others who are ready to nominate him for sainthood, do both him and themselves a disservice. You and I are not simple creatures; we are complex. No one truly knows what is at work inside us but ourselves and our creator.
So, to all of the Michael Vick haters, I say "let he who is without sin throw the first stone". To those who would sweep his dogfighting and dog cruelty under the rug, I say "get real". Michael Vick is not Jesus, and he is not Satan. Like everyone of us, he is a complex creation, gifted by God to play a sport that many of us love to watch, and one that many of us would love even more to be able to play. We are all on separate journeys to our ultimate destination. Your path, my path, and Michael's path may all be different; but it doesn't make any of them less valued or less valid. Michael admits that he made bad choices, but he also believes that those choices and their consequences were an integral part of his journey, bringing him to the point that he is in his life today. The same is true for us, and while our mistakes may produce painful bumps in our road and impose many detours -- they do not define us. Where we are right now is who we are right now. If we don't like what we are, we need to further our journey along away from where we are now. Only God holds the "treasure map" for our personal lives; we need to listen to Him and we need to follow it.
Go Michael, and Go Hokies!
