Ack: There's Goes Michael Vick
Maybe you've heard. Michael Vick, former Atlanta Falcons superstar quarterback, sentenced to 23 months in prison for his part in the dogfighting mess in Virginia.
With time off for good behavior, he might be out of the stir in October of 2009, serving 20 months.
Just another case of an athlete who thought he was above the law, bullet-proof, being slapped in the face by cold, hard reality.
A couple of thoughts here:
1. Vick's career isn't officially over, but it's going to be a rough road back. He will miss three entire seasons -- 2007, 2008, 2009. (It's hard to imagine he will be in any position to walk out of prison in October, 2009, and be playing football before the season ends.)
He won't be particularly old (29), and the time off may save him from a lot of wear and tear. But is there anyone who ever came back, successfully, at the NFL level, after three years out of the game? I'm gonna say: "No."
Not that it can't be done. Actually, I believe he WILL get a chance to play for someone, given the sorry state of NFL quarterbacks. But it's hard to imagine his skills not eroding seriously during a three-year break. He won't be the same guy. On a bunch of levels.
2. In a world where murderers walk around, free, on legal technicalities ... does the sentence seem a bit harsh? It's easy to get angry with a man who treats animals as cruelly as Vick did ... but can we put it in the context of a system that so often is so lenient toward people who actually kill other PEOPLE?
(One recent example: Actor Lane Garrison of the show "Prison Break" killed one kid and injured two others while driving drunk. He got 40 months, in October, but his attorney said he will serve less than half that -- 20 months. Same as Vick will serve.)
One year in prison would have been more than enough to get across the message that dogfighting is a crime, and to dissuade Michael Vick from getting anywhere close to a dogfight ever again. And isn't that, really, the point of this whole exercise?
And, remember: The feds recommended Vick get a sentence of 12-18 months. He got 23. His bad fortune to get the wrong judge.
3. Which reminds me ... does it strike anyone as interesting that American society freely uses the word "dogfight?" It can be about aerial/warplane fights to the death ... and sports figures often have used it to describe a particularly tough, violent encounter. "Man, that was a dogfight." Most football players have heard coaches say, "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog."
Thus, can we agree that at some point in our not-so-distant past the concept of a dogfight was not exotic, in American culture? That we all knew what it was? Because the terminology survives to this day, even if most of us have never been to a dogfight and don't know anyone who has.
And let's just remember Michael Vick comes from rural Virginia.
Michael Vick earned punishment. I don't think he earned punishment this severe.
Comments
Okay,if you think 20 months is too stiff I will step up to the plate: Let me come over to your house with a few stray pit bulls --say 66 of them (the number found at Vick's)-- and have them mix it up for a while. We can smoke a little grass, the $250 an ounce stuff, while we're kicking-back watching the dogs tear each other's flesh off. Then after we have fun engaging in this quaint old American pastime, we'll take the losers (the dogs, not you or me) hang them, drown them, electrocute them or just plain shoot them and drop them from the roof of your house for good measure. Sounds like a whopping good time. And only 20 months in the slammer? Cake walk.
Posted by: Teri Siaz | December 11, 2007 8:53 AM