Hide Your Beagles! Michael Vick Has Been Signed to the Eagles!

by John M. Ellison IV

For those who don’t know, Michael Vick is a professional quarterback with the NFL who’s known for his skills on the field and his controversial behavior off the field.

Well, his biggest offense is an animal lover’s nightmare. Michael Vick was operating an illegal dog fighting ring on his 15 acre property. The Fighting venture known as “Bad Newz Kennels” was based in rural Surry County in southeastern Virginia. There was evidence of torture, execution of under performing dogs. Vick and others who were involved were indicted on federal and state felony charges related to this operation. Vick served 18 months of a 23 month sentence for his involvement with this. Michael Vick also completed his sentence under house arrest at his home in Hampton,VA and also the state charges he faced were resolved and dropped in late 2008 with a suspended sentence.

Due to his incarceration, Vick’s finances suffered and any money that was available went to attorneys, 6 luxury homes in Virginia,Georgia and Florida, providing living expenses for friends and relatives. With millions of dollars in excess of assets and collections by some of the creditors, Vick’s attorneys filled for federal bankruptcy protection under chapter 13 on his behalf in July 2008. Vick’s legal team devised a plan that would have Vick earning a very substantial income as a pro football player.

Amidst the controversy, Michael Vick was finally drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles for $1.6 million and there’s also an option for the 2010 season that’s worth $5 million.

Here’s the deal, his cocky, bad ass persona caught up to him and the people he surrounded himself with really were his downfall. Do I feel he deserves redemption? Only if he’s truly repentant. But until proven that’s he’s remorseful, fuck Michael Vick.

To be fair, here’s a addendum to this article,
After looking at the 60 Minutes interview, Michael Vick seems more like a follower that wants to be a leader. The company he kept was more or less his downfall. The story of the large entourage from his home town, is reminiscent of the story of rapper MC Hammer. In this case, Michael Vick and Hammer are very similar, such as both had large entourages from guys from the old neighborhood, lavish spending and basically ended up going bankrupt due to the company he kept. Like a good entourage, they stroked the ego of the celebrity but are actually in control of said “celebs” career. Hopefully, Vick has learned from these mistakes and maybe we can learn from this story as well. Well, learn until we forget that is.