Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Give Vick a chance

I’m from Boston, so I don’t really feel much like talking about the NHL or NBA playoffs right now. Instead, let’s talk about my favorite sport – football.

Even though it’s the offseason, there’s still a lot going on in the NFL. Let’s have a recap: Michael Vick was recently released from prison, and Brett Favre is talking about coming out of retirement, again, this time to stick it to the Packers by possibly playing for the Vikings. Al Davis skipped over Michael Crabtree in favor of Darrius Heyward-Bey out of the University of Maryland, which of course is known as a football powerhouse that consistently breeds top-10 draft picks, in yet another in a long-line of horrible decisions. And we saw tragedy strike when the Cowboys’ training facility collapsed, leaving a scout paralyzed.

Jason Taylor is going back to the Dolphins; Tom Brady is coming back to the Patriots; Matt Cassel is going to try to turn things around in Kansas City; and all of New York/New Jersey is hoping that Mark Sanchez can carry the Jets. T.O. was released by Dallas and subsequently signed with Buffalo, which makes a ton of sense because now he’ll be catching passes from the great Trent Edwards, which shouldn’t cause any problems; and the Redskins guaranteed about a billion dollars to Albert Haynesworth.

Of all of those stories, I have to say the one that interests me the most is that of Michael Vick… just hear me out. Vick was sent to prison for 23 months for financing a dog fighting ring. Now, while I by no means condone what he did, I realize that he was certainly, and perhaps somewhat unfairly, made an example of. Nevertheless, Vick has done his time and now is being released to serve his final two months on house arrest.

I sincerely hope that some NFL team will take a chance on the former superstar, one that can take the heat that PETA and other animal rights activists will throw at them, because apparently serving two years at Leavenworth, losing all of your money, the respect the world had for you isn’t enough – he must suffer forever! Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that what he did wasn’t horrible, but I think he served his time, and he deserves a second chance. After all, it’s not like he was involved in a double-murder, plead his way out, paid off the victims’ families, and is now the hero of the Baltimore Ravens. Just trying to put it in perspective.

All of that has happened, and it’s only the beginning of June. Man, I love football.