MIcheal D. Vick

Michael Dwayne Vick
By: Jaquita Binns
August 19, 2009


As a successful NFL Quarterback, Michael Dwayne Vick was the overall draft pick in the 2001 NFL Draft. He was highly praised; he had endorsement contracts with Nike, EA Sports, Coca Cola, Powerade, Kraft, Rawlings, Hasbro, & Airtran. But in August of 2007 Michael Vick’s life took a down fall, he plead guilty to illegal dog fighting & illegal gambling. This landed him 23 months in a federal prison; but only served 18 months, three years probation, but following prison he was to pay a fine, & prison time suspended upon condition of good behavior. After his release from prison people were saying that they think he shouldn’t be allowed to play football anymore, but what they fail to see is that was in the past & Michael Vick was a great football player. Plenty of successful people make mistakes in life, but they aren’t protesting about that, so why ruin his career?

Michael Vick was sentenced to two years in a federal prison, but as for Donte` Stallworth a football player for the Cleveland Browns, he was sentenced to 30 days in jail but only served 24 days, for a vehicular manslaughter incident while under the influence of alcohol. Stallworth was only suspended from The National Football League for the 2009 football season. If somebody who is a professional just like Vick, gets charged for vehicular manslaughter, and gets sentenced to 30 days in jail, & gets suspended from the NFL for only one season for killing a human being that is not right. If the people who are protesting about Michael Vick have any common sense they would see that what Donte` Stallworth did was much worse then what Michael Vick did.

After his release from prison, Michael Vick was required to give half of his income, which is roughly about $8,000,000, to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, give 500 hours of community service by working in Animal Shelters, and do public service commercials advocating against animal abuse. He has done some his public service commercials, and his public speeches in Chicago to a group of youths about dog-fighting.

I am pretty sure that some of the people, who are protesting against Michael Vick playing for the NFL, were some of his fans before this incident happened. Vick is a great football player. He was one of the most highly favored African American football players. In 2002, he became a star and MVP candidate in his first season as a full-time starter. He was started in his first 15 Pro Bowl games, and only missed one game against the New York Giants on October 13, from a sprained shoulder. Vick established numerous single-game career-highs, including passes completed with 24 and pass attempts with 46 at Pittsburgh on November 10, also passing yards with 337 on the December 22 game versus Detroit.

As a conclusion, I personally think that Michael Vick is successful and has realized that his actions were wrong. Therefore those who are criticizing him about his legal actions and who are making fun of him, by making harsh cartoons and suggestions, should also think about there actions and realize they are wrong for what they are doing to him, his family, and his career. I think that Michael Vick is hurting extremely from this hatred towards him. He has a family to help support and he is having a difficult time doing this because of the way people are being about the situation. They also should think about if it was them in that situation, how would they feel if people were trying to bring their career down and it was jeopardizing their family’s life.