Legal perspective on Vick and the Eagles
The Philadelphia Daily News - Eagletarian
Legal perspective on Vick and the Eagles
Daily News staff
Eagletarian has gone second generation today, as Allison Domowitch -- a lawyer, lifelong Eagles fan, ocassional blogger, and daughter of Paul Domowitch -- provides a legal perspective on the Michael Vick saga.
Now that I’ve had a few days to reflect on the events of the last few days with regard to the Eagles’ signing of Michael Vick, I've formed a more decisive opinion on the issue than I had when the news first broke last Thursday night.
Michael Vick's actions were flat-out despicable. It literally brings tears to my eyes to think about the things he and his dog-fighting cohorts did to those poor animals. While I wouldn't put him up there with the likes of child molesters and rapists, I have a unique sympathy for animals (we own two beagles, including one we adopted from Animal Welfare) and an accompanying disgust for people who mistreat them. Dogs are completely dependent, to the point of unconditional loyalty, on the people who take care of them; they have no defenses or alternative options if those same caretakers abuse them. I have no respect for someone who beats his wife, but at least she is physically capable of leaving the situation. Thus, any person who mercilessly beats, tortures or murders a defenseless animal is a special kind of disgusting.
Vick served 18 months of a 2 year sentence in Leavenworth for those actions. We can sit here all day and debate the finepoints of the judicial system in this country, but for all intents and purposes Michael Vick has satisfied his punishment for crimes committed in the eyes of the law. It remains to be seen whether he has been rehabilitated, and we may never know whether he is truly sorry beyond mere regret for the death of his career. Nevertheless, given precedent in the NFL to allow other felonious athletes to be reinstated after serving their punishment, my personal repulsion at his crimes does not justify his situation being treated any differently.
Maybe it's just the underlying defense attorney in me, but I believe that once you've paid your debts and served your time, you shouldn't be continually punished by the rest of the universe. Either keep them in jail or let let them be truly released from punishment. "But," you might argue, "my job wouldn't hire me back if I committed a violent felony, so why should his?" I understand this argument, as the state bars to whom I must report would certainly not be so forgiving of its lawyers. However, being a professional football player is not a job that inherently requires honesty and morality as does the practice of law or medicine. Whether or not you believe these well-paid athletes should be better role models, their job description is essentially to show up and play ball. Vick is not the first nor the last in an absurdly long line of wifebeaters, sexual deviants, drug abusers, animal abusers, drunk drivers, and general douchebags that play professional sports in this country. As shocking as his crimes were, even more shocking to me has been the uniquely harsh reaction that his return has received compared to these other criminals.
I never in a million years expected Philadelphia to be the city in which Vick would land. However, football is a business like any other, and Andy Reid and Joe Banner and Jeffrey Lurie are businessmen trying to improve their product. From a football perspective, this may prove to be genius or it may blow up in their faces, but regardless it is their job to try to craft that football product in whatever way they can. I'm highly disturbed that many fans are treating the Eagles' front office as if they themselves were in Virginia partaking in these crimes. Vick may be a horrible person, but he was absolutely going to be signed by some team -- it's not like the Eagles plucked him off the streets to give him a second chance that he wouldn't have otherwise had. Ninety-nine percent of the Eagles detractors hadn't said a word about his reinstatement until he came here, which seems a tad hypocritical. I'm hardly saying these former fans should run out and get No. 7 jerseys, but it seems rather extreme to abandon a team that they've been following for decades over what essentially boils down to a personnel decision.
I suspect that if Vick pans out on the football field, the complaints will die down- we're Eagles fans for God's sake; we're as faithful as they come. My initial reluctance over this signing was that he can't possibly be worth the $1.6 million price tag (and the PR nightmare that this decision has proved to be). But frankly, my skepticism is slowly fading as I deliriously think of all of the offensive weapons that will adorn the field this season. Any time Vick is on the field, he'll be a threat in some way, shape or form, and that constant looming threat has to at least have some advantage. I'll put my concerns aside and let his performance speak for itself in the coming weeks. After all, the legal system has concluded its judgment, so why shouldn't we?
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To read our earlier post from today's practice, click here.
I am only responsible for myself, not my family that has died and gone. It is just not logical to suggest that I should renegotiate the standards or laws I am required to live by and base them on human beings that existed and were gone long before Vick. It does not matter who we learn some behavior or activity from, we are responsible for our own actions/behaviors. Past precedent does not make what he did alright and as a matter of fact there is a very dangerous precedent beginning to dominate not only sports but all of our lives. That precedent is reduced sentences to the end that perverts just to name one evil are given only probation. I understand that he was sentenced and served what society via an appointed judge gave him, but the NFL commissioner should take a good hard look at the lack or reason for bringing this person back so quickly as though there was no harm nor foul. Also, it has gone from judgments handed down via judges were somehow based on past precedent to our own opinions somehow humbling our selves based on opinions of what people that no longer exist did because perhaps they may have been related to our own families. This is not logical nor reasonable. Otherwise, we have people winning lawsuits for being the descendant of someone who is long dead that was wronged by someone else who is long dead. None of us could have stopped it as we were not even living yet.— john200913- john200913, while the people are dead and gone, their legacy is alive and well. This is why a cultural shift has to take place. The simple passage of a prohibitory law against dogfighting is not enough--it only serves to drive the activity underground until all of those who participate in it are either dead or incarcerated with no chance of parole--and what are the odds for either one of these outcomes actually happening anytime soon? A more realistic approach is what the Humane Society is seeking to do, and where Vick can be most useful to society as a whole. As Wayne Pacelle pointed out during Vick's 60-minutes interview, the problem preceded Vick and is much bigger than Vick. Those who are ranting and raving over his signing have forgotten that he expected to participate in community outreach and education as well as play football, and that the main beneficiaries of his contract are actually his creditors. Therefore, he should be encouraged to perform to the maximum of his abilities, and not forced to wear a "scarlet letter" for the rest of his life.— newview
- I’ll be the first to admit that reading about some of the things that Michael Vick did makes my skin crawl. That being said, I don’t remember people lining up outside stadiums to protest Jamal Lewis, who sold cocaine. Or Albert Haynesworth, who stomped on a man’s face. Or Ray Lewis, who (at a minimum) obstructed a murder investigation. And I doubt that people will come out in force to protest Donte Stallworth—who got drunk, climbed behind the wheel of a car, and struck and killed a man—if he ever returns to the NFL. In case you’re wondering, those players spent 5 months behind bars. Combined. Of course, the fact that other NFL players have received slaps on the wrists for serious crimes doesn’t make what Vick did any more palatable. But I don’t think fans should hold Vick to a standard that they don’t hold other athletes to.— OG1
