Michael Vick & Donte Stallworth

Mike Vick is no longer in the federal choke hold and is now officially a free man, or is he? For those who are not in the loop, I'll bring you up to speed. Michael Vick was charged for bank rolling a dog fighting ring in his home. He was sentenced for 20 months and subsequently suspended from the NFL. A lot of people feel that was a lot of time for such a crime. Even though I don't condone what he did, I personally think that 18 months of jail time was not necessary. Maybe 3 to 6 months playing ball with the local felons and a HEFTY chunk ripped from his bank account would have been damaging enough.

The problem that I'm having now is that the man did his time and he's still paying for it. The NFL Commissioner has still not reinstated him into the NFL for whatever reason. I personally think it's all about the moolah. I think that the commissioner is afraid to reinstate Vick because he might feel that some of the advertisers will pull out and not want to do business with the league. It's a shame how such a talented athlete can make a mistake, get punished for it, come out after time served, and still can't resume his livelihood. I'm not much of an animal lover, but I do understand what he did was wrong and cruel, but there are people who have done worse crimes and less time. Donte Stallworth, the WR receiver for the Browns, hit a pedestrian and killed him while DUI. He only served 24 days of a 30 day sentence. I got a DUI 5 years ago, didn't kill anyone and served 15 days of a 30 day sentence. Mike Vick kills dogs, which is inhumane, gets 20 months? For dogs??? I'm going to play devil's advocate, since when are animal's lives worth more than people? Do we not live in a society where hunting deer, duck, and rabbit are sports? Do we not kill animals for our own personal human consumption? Yeah, Vick did pit the dogs against each other to fight to the death and he did drown the ones that didn't perform well which is definitely wrong, but what is the difference? What if after he killed the dogs, he ate them, would that have made things ok? No one is going to jail for eating at McDonalds. Those cows are being slaughtered every day. Why isn't that illegal. How come PETA doesn't boycott Diddy for wearing a chinchilla coat? Multiple chinchilla's were killed for that one fur. Why aren't the manufacturers locked up? Little things can be blown out of proportion and an ant hill can turn into a mountain after 5 mins of media coverage. The reason why Vick got 20 months is because PETA was all over that one. They would have protested at every Falcons home and away game and the league didn't want to deal with that. That would have cost them fans and lots of money. But if that was the case, then how come no one was worried about MADD when it came to Stallworth? Didn't they think that Mothers Against Drunk Driving was going to be at every game protesting the light sentence that he got? Even though he has still yet to be reinstated, that has to be a factor. I read in a forum where someone agreed with the light sentence that Stallworth got because the pedestrian was J-walking and wasn't using a cross walk and insinuating that it was the pedestrians fault that he got hit and that if Stallworth wasn't drinking, he would have still hit the man regardless. Look, Stallworths BAC was 0.12. He was clearly impaired and over the legal limit. I personally think that had he not been drinking, he possibly would have missed the man and avoided the accident. I only say that because as a receiver you have to be fast and react in a quick manner. So the guy who wrote that was a complete idiot. Stallworth was wrong for drinking and driving in the first place

There are some people who think Vick shouldn't be reinstated to football because of what he did with the dogs. But there is also another argument out there that kind of does make a lot of sense to me when I first heard it. Someone threw out an argument that if he was working as a 9 to 5 Joe and he had to go to jail for 20 months, his old employer wouldn't automatically give him his job back once he got out, so why should Vick? This is a true statement and I do agree, but Vick isn't an ordinary Joe. Can you run a 4.2? Do you have a pass completion percentage of 53.8? Are you good under pressure in the pocket and can out run most line backers and defensive backs in a tough situation to gain a first down? If you can, then you're not ordinary. Just like I don't think an ordinary Joe would have gotten 20 months of federal time for the exact same charges that Vick got. I figure an ordinary Joe would have gotten maybe 3-6 months tops. Vick wasn't ordinary, he was extraordinary. I'm not riding his nuts or sticking up for what he did, but most people talking trash can't even pee straight let alone throw a football. Not saying that being blessed with athletic ability should get you a free pass in this society either, but let the man continue his career. He paid his debt to society. He doesn't owe anybody anything else as far as I'm concerned.