Legal perspective on Vick and the Eagles
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.
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.
Comment removed.
That was the best written article I've seen on Philly.com for a while. It just shows to prove smart people just aren't becoming journalist since the mediocre established writers won't allow the young talented writers in their old boys club.— ConverseB24- This was a well considered argument, especially as I also am not sure Vick really understands what it was he did wrong other than getting caught and losing his career. However, just because other teams have allowed ex-felons to lay for them doesn't mean the fans of those teams argeed with those choices either. Many fans may have abandoned their original teams for paying an ex-felon millions of dollars to play, a feeling now shared by many ex-Eagle fans. Considering how many ex-cons whose original crime was miniscule compared to Vick's disgusting behavior are struggling just to get by day to day, isn't there something obscene in Vick suddenly being a millionaire again and looking for a Bryn Mawr mansion?— atp2007
- Well put Miss Domowitch.— bobbyuk
- Well-reasoned argument, but I do think your defense attorney bias is showing a bit on the issue of paying your debt back to society. I disagree that it's a matter of serving jail time and then returning to life as normal, as if nothing had happened in the intervening years. Yes, lawyers would have trouble getting their old jobs back, but I think there are many other professions where you wouldn't get a "second chance" to get your same job back (teachers, anyone else licensed by a state authority, etc.) not to mention the fact that a criminal background check is done on pretty much all job applicants these days so those criminal actions do continue to have an impact. So, no, I don't think Michael Vick has the right, as a felon, to have a second chance at making millions of dollars as a pro football player. It doesn't matter whether it's with the Eagles or another team. I just happen to hate the move even more because I had been a life-long Eagles fan.— PhilAtty
Excellent!!! Very Very well put! Obviously your a good lawyer as well as a estute observer.- Most lawyers don't have any morals, why should she be any different?— joe$
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- eaglessuperfan, learn to spell. You're (not your) a moron. And you're not astute. Go back to fishtown.— joe$
- I like the article, but can we dispense with Vick?— 46 and 2
- I hope it blows up in their faces an Ex Eagles fan— Edsville
- HAS VICK HAD THERAPY,HE NEEDS IT— soliteryman
- Not bad. I don't necessarily share your view about 'someone would sign him, so why not us', but fair is fair. Time will tell. Let's hope he has changed, which i have serious doubts.
- Most lawyers don't have any morals anyway, so this isn't surprising.— joe$
- Didn't Shakespeare pen, "kill all the lawyers?" I can't beleive an enducated dog owner is no looking forward to all the offensive weapons at fat pig Andy Reid's use. It just shows you she's s ell out like Lurie, Reid, and Banner. The are more Ex-eagles fans than still eagles fans after this.— Dr. Michael
