The Passion of Michael Vick - Chris 'Preach' Smith

When has a person paid enough for their crimes?

I find myself asking this question a lot more now
with the recent resurgence of NFL quarterback Michael
Vick. His meteoric rise back to the top with the
Philadelphia Eagles after serving time in federal
prison for dogfighting is so amazing that you might
have called BS if you saw it on a movie screen. To
put it plainly, Vick is having a year that could
potentially see him going to the Super Bowl. And
I'm saying this as a New York Giants fan. All of this
comes after an onslaught of skeptics, a coach who
seemed to flip flop even after trading away the
starter who was the face of the franchise to give
him more playing time and extreme media scrutiny.
He's handled it in excellent fashion. And in the
process, taught us a few things.

First, Michael Vick has taught us once again that
unchecked pride kills. We all could sense something
was going to go down in a bad way once the 'Ron
Mexico' scandal broke out. His situation also illustrates
the fact that in some ways, there still is a divide in
the way Black athletes are perceived and portrayed
in the media spotlight as opposed to White ones.
Especially when they do wrong. Let's face it, once
PETA got a hold of Vick they wanted to utterly destroy
him. ESPN had a field day. (Be honest, had you even
seen the reporter Kelly Naqi on the network AT ALL
before the incident?) When HBO's 'Real Sports' did a
piece on dogfighting, it barely registered a blip on the
country's radar screen. There was someone I knew who
flat out felt that Vick should have gotten 15 years for
dogfighting. This same person also claimed that the
President was akin to Hitler because of healthcare.
To me that illustrates that some people didn't care
if he abused dogs, they just wanted to 'put him in
place.' Sound familiar? I'm not justifying his actions,
let me make that clear. But I'm not putting blinders
on as to where some of that outcry against him stems
from. And polls show that I'm not alone in seeing this.

Another lesson to take from Vick's story thus far is
that you should never solely rely on your talent to
get ahead. Because you get complacent, and never
do all that you could. With Atlanta, Michael Vick burst
onto the scene as a feared offensive weapon. But he
relied on his legs too much and that affected his play
to a degree. Despite all of that, he was a game away
from a Super Bowl. Now, a couple of years later he
has matured enough to develop his game further
than anyone thought. And he's done it in Philadelphia.
As rabid a fan base as any especially concerning the
Eagles. Vick has surpassed his old style of play and
redeemed himself to all of the NFL experts. Would he
have ever gotten to this level without all of the time
in prison? Who knows?

Above all, the lesson to be learned here is that Michael Vick,
through his journey is teaching us about the power of
redemption. He's not Jesus Christ in shoulderpads, despite
the thoughts of a few spectators. Nor is he an outright
monster, despite commentary to the contrary. Vick is a man
who has been fortunate enough to taste utter victory and
bitter defeat and now demonstrates that he has learned
from both extremes. We can only hope that he continues
on this path. And hope that others who want to forgive him
since he's paid his debt to society can do so with no
doubts left.