About The Hardline
2009
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EmailLike alot of youse, I watched NFL football quarterback and star - Michael Vick on 60 Minutes last night with Tony Dungy by his side. Me? I'm suspicious of apologies that require co-signers. He's done his time, and that's great. I think crimes against children, women and animals are crimes of the soul. If Vick is really sorry, he should man-up and stand up on his own. Look, if you messed up and someone is there to offer you support, that's one thing. But if you make a show of using their moral credentials to prop up your penitence, that's problematic for me. If you need someone else's virtue to fill in the gaps of your own, then the quality and veracity of your mea culpa is in question. Now, I'm on record: I wouldn't mind watching two roosters go at it UFC-stylee, but there is something abhorrent about compelling man's best friend into blood sport.
When any of us stand up to apologize, we look a lot better with a co-signer and better still if that person is a minister or, in Vick's case, a bible-thumper with street cred. Of course Tony Dungy is more than that -- but for these purposes, not much. I think Vick needs to man-up and face the music --- alone. It isn't that I don't think Vick is sincere: I believe he is sincerely sorry he got caught, sincerely sorry his pockets are short and sorry that he has to go through these motions just to play football again. He came across as over-rehearsed or not rehearsed enough -- I can't decide which.
Any way you find the road to redemption is fine, as long as you get there, right? I just hope Vick doesn't do a R. Kelly by getting our forgiveness and then returning to his old ways, more or less.
What did you think about Vick's 60 Minute interview?
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