Michael Vick

I don't really have much to say about Michael Vick that everyone else hasn't said already, but for whatever reason, I feel the need to write a few words about him.

What he did, of course, was horrible. The punishment he is likely to get, at least 12 to 18 months in jail, is fitting. And it sounds like he'll probably be banned from the NFL for another year or so after that, putting his earliest likely return around 2010. And I won't be crying if it's even longer with, say, a longer sentence (closer to the five year maximum) or, a longer suspension from the NFL, or even a lifetime ban.

This is a situation where I feel I just have to sit back, watch the wheels of justice turn, and accept that whatever the final punishment he gets is just... I just don't know what the answer is, if there's a way to quantify cruelty to animals in the terms of NFL suspensions and jail terms.

If he returns to the NFL, in 2010 or whenever, I can accept that. I do believe that people can be rehabilitated, and I have to hope, for the sake of humanity, that people like Michael Vick can find the light and become more ethical human beings.

However, I'm with King Kaufman on this one... I just don't see it happening. Vick's got at least three things going against him... He had never really lived up to his talent anyway, the quarterback position would be an even harder position to return to than any other, and, most importantly, a team would have to voluntarily take on the distraction he would become. Michael Vick in 2010 would make the Terrell Owens distractions of the last few years look like nothing.

So I think it's time to just put this one in the books and wish Michael well upon his release from a well deserved prison term.