IS FEELING THE VALENTINE'S DAY LOVE
UPDATED:
An Eagles spokesman informed us a little while ago that he asked Michael Vick and that Vick said a blog attributed to him was not personally written by him and is contents were not dictated by him.
A spokesman for Def Jam Enterprises, the parent company behind the blog, said in an email to the Daily News last night in the process of our confirming the information before we posted this, "I assure you that Russell Simmons spoke with Michael Vick a little over a week ago (Russell blogged about his conversation with Michael on both Huffington Post and GlobalGrind.com) and Michael committed to writing an exclusive blog for GlobalGrind.com, which would be released simultaneously with Michael's appearance on 60 Minutes. We stand 100% behind the blog's authenticity."
More to come as we get it.
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Here is the earlier post ...
Simultaneous with his interview on "60 Minutes" -- chronicled here by Mark Kram -- a blog post attributed to Vick appeared on GlobalGrind.com, the Web site founded by hip-hop mogul, activist and animal lover Russell Simmons.
Simmons met with Vick about 10 days ago and chronicled the meeting on the Huffington Post. This represented a significant shift for Simmons, who had teamed with PETA in July 2007 and urged Vick's sponsors to drop him. A spokesman for Simmons said Vick committed to writing the blog at that meeting.
Of the meeting with Vick, Simmons wrote, "I always look for the best in people, and when Michael tells me that looking into the eyes of people who love and respect animals and seeing their pain and disgust -- it changed him. I choose to believe him, and realize that I may be in the minority amongst the animal rights community that I proudly am a part of. We can never undo the suffering those innocent dogs endured or bring back the many, many lives that were lost. All we can do is try using Michael Vick as an instrument, to stop dog fighting in the community while we save the lives of those innocent animals and change the karmic effect that will be felt by those who wake up and realize what they have done. That is my only prayer."
Vick began the blog post with two words: "I'm sorry."
He described his actions as "horrendous, awful and inhumane" and said he had no excuses.
He continued, "It makes my heart hurt now to think about what I've done. And I'm gonna be real honest, it took a while for me to get to this place.
"Sitting in a prison cell didn't make me feel remorse. It was meeting so many animal lovers, speaking with them and looking them in their eyes. Staring at them. Looking so deep into their eyes that I began to feel their pain. Allowing that pain to enter into my body is when I started to understand how bad it really was. I have been trying hard to connect with people who feel this pain,because for my whole life I was disconnected from the suffering of animals. And you might say, "come on Mike, how could you do those things to those dogs?" And you're right...I ask myself those questions every day. What kind of person does this? How does a human-being treat dogs or any animal with such pain and cruelty? And the hard part for me is the answer to these questions. Because the answer is ME. And I am trying so hard right now to become a better person, because who I was, I am ashamed of.
"Cause see, my whole life has been numb. I was numb to the violence in my community...cause I saw it all the time, ever since I was a child. I mean, how does one grow up in a city that's nickname is Bad Newz? You can probably guess that from the jump, ya' know I've seen some bad things in my life. And football was the only way that I could escape. As a kid, I even used to go out fishing, and most of the times I wouldn't catch a darn thing, but just needed to get away from the chaos every once in a while. So, when the commissioner called my name as the #1 draft pick in the NFL - the first time a black quarterback had ever been chosen as the #1 pick, I thought my life was all good. But, what I didn't realize then, that I have begun to realize now, is that even though I had more money in my pocket, big cars and big houses, I was still numb. And when I say numb, I ain't talkin about not realizing the stuff that was going on around me, it was just like I was living life asleep. However, that is still no excuse for what I did. But let's not forget that there are still hundreds of thousands of young people growing in similar environments and seeing violence at a young age has severe consequences.
"Now that I'm trying my best to wake up, I know I have a lot of work to do. And this isn't about trying to win a Super Bowl ring or a MVP trophy...this is about trying to save lives. I think back to when I use to play football and of course I use to see all those kids in the stands wearing #7 jerseys. And I would never want them to look up to the Michael Vick who did all of those terrible things to the dogs. I know where I need to do the most work is with all of the people around the world who continue to fight dogs. Let me be straight forward with y'all: What I did was wrong, and what you're doing is wrong. We must stop dog fighting, and I will do everything in my power to be a voice of someone who has finally woken up from the numbness, and knows just how bad it really is. My mission now is to be a source of service to save many animals. I am working very closely with The Humane Society and will be launching a new campaign shortly. If I had one hope in life, it would be that my actions will speak louder than my words. I know it will be hard to forgive me until you see my sincerity through my actions, but I promise you and I promise myself that that day will come.
"Lastly, I accept this challenge, not of writing this blog, but of redeeming myself."
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To read what Donovan McNabb blogged last night about why Vick is an Eagle and how it happened, click here.
Les
Bowen has covered the Eagles for the Daily News
since 2002.
Before that, he spent nearly 13 years covering the Flyers. It took Les
only a few seasons after the switch to figure out that there was no
penalty box at the Linc, and that the time really wasn't his, despite
what Andy Reid kept saying. Les came to Philadelphia and the Daily News
from Charlotte in 1983. In the intervening years, he has pretty much
lost track of NASCAR, and his accent. He, his wife Barbara, and their
two sons live in Haddon Township, New Jersey.
E-mail Les at bowenl@phillynews.com
and follow
him on Twitter.
Paul
Domowitch has been with the Daily News since 1982.
He has spent most of his nearly 3 decades with the paper covering the
Eagles and pro football. For the last 10 years, he’s been a
selector for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. A native of Wilkes-Barre
and a graduate of Wilkes University, Domo started his career in Texas,
working first for the Midland Reporter-Telegram (1976-78), and then for
the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where he covered some god-awful Texas
Ranger baseball teams. His first beat at the Daily News actually was
boxing, which he covered just long enough to lose 2 sports coats to
blood spatter before moving on to football. Domo and his wife Shelley,
a University of Oklahoma grad who still hasn’t gotten over
that Fiesta Bowl loss to Boise State 5 years ago, have 2 terrific
daughters -- Allison, 28, who is an attorney in South Jersey, and Amy,
25, who works in administration for a professional baseball team.
E-mail Domo at PDomo@aol.com and follow
him on Twitter.
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