The Fall of Ookie
So, I suppose it’s only fair that I chime in on the whole Michael Vick debacle. There’s not much to say beside the guy is a scumbag, and every athlete who rose to defend him, or made fun of dogfighting, or doesn’t understand how awful what Vick did is a pretty sorry excuse for a person himself.
Because let’s be clear…Vick is stone cold guilty. Accepting a plea bargain after three of your supposed friends and loads of other people testify against you is pretty much the seal of that deal. But here’s what strikes me…before those guys sung like canaries, Vick was on the radio and elsewhere saying that he was innocent of these charges, and that he’d be cleared of things soon enough. That tells me a few things:
Vick knew what he was doing was pretty awful, otherwise he wouldn’t have denied the charges.
Vick also didn’t CARE that it was wrong, and also didn’t think he’d possibly get in trouble for this.
The only reason he accepted the plea bargain is to give himself ANY chance of ever, ever playing in the NFL again.
I started this post thinking I’d be writing something like, “Michael Ookie Vick will never, ever play in the NFL again.”
But that’s crazy, because he’s only 27 years old, and obviously has a world of talent. That’s of course NOT the same thing as saying he’s a great NFL quarterback, because he’s never been that. He’s thrown 20 TD in a season once, and at some point, it’s hard to not wonder why he’s running for so many goddamn yards. But will he be banned for ever? Probably not. It’s a league where even my 49ers signed Lawrence Phillips long after some pretty bad charges were filed against him. Tons of guys populate the league with records for a litany of things most of us find distasteful. In two-plus years, Vick will probably start coming back…but again, he’ll never be good.
I’m very happy that he’s getting his due, and even happier that his seeming indifference to penalties for these atrocious acts is getting its comeuppance. It’s yet another example of athletes being coddled for so long that they simply decide the law doesn’t apply to them.
Sorry, Ookie. You ain’t above the law.