Shame on the Philadelphia Eagles

I've tried to stay out of politics and current events with this blog but this just outrages me. Michael Vick has been hired by the Philadelphia Eagles. For those who don't know or don't remember, Michael Vick was suspended from the National Football League after being convicted of running an illegal dog-fighting ring at his home and callously supervising the killing of dogs that proved too friendly to fight in those brutal competitions. He served his jail time (although most of that was done as house-arrest while he lounged at a multi-million dollar estate) and was granted a conditional return to the NFL.

No team would touch him for a while, but the Philadelphia Eagles have hired him. Plenty of people are saying that he served his time and should be allowed to reintegrate into society. I agree that he has served out his penalty, but just because he is being reintegrated into society DOES NOT mean that he should be allowed to return to professional sports and be paid millions of dollars while pretending to be a role model for children.

All this does is give impressionable children the idea that no matter what evil one does, all you have to do is serve an absurdly light sentence and then you can go on with your life like nothing happened. This implies that there are only the mildest of repercussions for cruel and inhuman acts.

I was a little upset that the courts allowed Michael Vick to serve much of his jail time at his own multi-million dollar waterfront estate. But his returning to the NFL takes the cake.

He should have remained indefinitely suspended from professional sports and been forced to take some other form of meaningful employment. There are lots of jobs out there. Earning millions as a professional athlete is not a right, it is a priviledge and comes with huge responsibilities since athletes are treated as role models. Michael Vick has shown that he cannot be trusted with the responsiblities of a role model so he should not receive the priviledges of being a professional athlete.

Okay, rant over.