I was going to do a story on Michael Vick and the release of his new autobiography “Finally Free: The Power of a Second Chance”. But I learned that Vick canceled his book tour because of death threats to him, his family and some of the staff of some of the bookstores. REALLY?!
I was going to write about Vick getting yet another chance to be great this season and perhaps lead the Eagles to a winning and memorable year under new coach Chip Kelly… but NO!
Five years later people still are allowing the bitterness, resentment and unforgiveness to rot their souls like a cancer. Is there no hope for a man’s future because of his past? People have put themselves under arrest in the midst of their plight to put this man back in bondage. Who is losing in the whole matter? Vick is the one still playing football (and with a new contract). Vick is the one writing books. Vick is the one moving on with his life.
People would rather see someone down than rehabilitated. Why is that? It’s not normal to feel that way toward any person. Michael Vick is not being celebrated for being a dog killer but for what he’s been able to do beyond that. Would he get quicker forgiveness if he had been a repentant drug dealer selling poison to kids instead? Regardless of how you feel, Vick like anyone else has the “right” to the pursuit of happiness. It’s not anyone’s call.
As a former drug addict, I’ve seen lots of death in the streets. I’ve seen dead dogs – killed in fights – their bodies dumped in wooded areas, discarded like yesterday’s trash. I’ve also seen dead people. After 25 years of drug abuse and in and out of the streets I know almost two dozen people personally who have lost their lives because of drugs and alcohol be it through overdose, alcohol poisoning or suicide. I know you love your dogs but which is worst?
We celebrate and romanticize gangsters we see in life and in the movies (many of your own kids aspire to be like them) the same ones made famous for being murderers, kidnappers and rapists. But people are saying that they want and wish it was in their power to “kill” Michael Vick. What is wrong with our society?
Some say that Michael Vick titled his book improperly. Instead of “Finally Free” it should have been titled “Never Free”. That is the sentence too many ignorant and misguided people have given him. But I say it is so properly named because Mike Vick is free. His freedom doesn’t depend on what people think or say or feel. He is free because he has accepted the freedom and forgiveness given to him by someone a whole lot bigger than any of us. He is free of the lifestyle that plagued his life for too long. Free of the guilt and the shame that comes along with the dastardly deeds committed by his own hand.
If we as a society refuse to examine our own lives, we will continue to perpetuate our own dastardly habits and behaviors and pass them on to our kids and then you’ll be asking, needing, begging someone to forgive them. What then? Who is the man or woman in the mirror?
Like the rest of us, when we die..
I’ve never seen death in the streets. I’ve never seen bodies ( dogs or humans) dumped in the forest. And while people I know have died, its ( for the most part) not been because of their stupidity.
This is what should be strived for, not the celebation of the rehabilitation of those who have been there. We should celebrate the underdog chad halls, rather than the ‘redeemed’ Mike Bucks.
The gangsters we ‘romanticize’ are either long dead or fantastical creations. They are Hollywood. No rational person emulates their actions..
I do not condone anyone who drops threats on MV, but the guy is difficult to root for.
You can drop all the what else does he have to do business s all you want, but I’ll stick with people/players who have never been ‘there’ in the first place
c’mon vinnie what page are you on, we all know you couldn’t resist reading an autobiography “Mike Vick” book
helluva post vin.
another writer falling for the mike Vick victim card he pulled yesterday. lol. days of our lives sports stories. this shit is tmz type of nonsense. all this guy is is off field drama and that’s good for him because everything on the field is insignificant.
mylow can you write an article feeling bad for Brady Giselle and their kids tomorrow please? people werE mean to them criticized them and threatened them last year.
We should be behind anyone who has been down and worked to get themselves back up regardless. No one ever knows what lies ahead for them. We all make bad decisions, some worst than others. You don’t have to like a person to applaud their recovery. I’m not writing this because I’m a Vick fan but because people seem to want to keep a person down when there issues aren’t on the table. Whether or not your undoing is your fault or not doesn’t mean you can’t try again. You never know when you might need help to come from the very person you condemn.
mylow fact of the matter is u are I will never know Vick the person. all u will ever really know is what is written about him. I hope he is a good role model for his kids and is a good husband but I’ll never know. I think he is an awful qb and I root for the eagles to get rid of him so I can stop seeing local stories about his life outside of football.
and I have no idea if he is recovered of not. I know I read he and see on the news he gets out into the community once a year but I also know most players have clauses in their contracts that make them.
I think we will get a good idea of his recovery after he retires from football and millions of dollars aren’t at stake and we will see if he is still doing things for the community.
im not condemning the guy im just saying..
one thing I can say for certain is that if anyone here needed help from Vick he wouldn’t give it to us whether we condemned him or not.
I can offer that he is a doting father, as our kids are in preschool together, and when he’s filming his daughter perform in the school show, with his family, and when he picks her up and clips her into her safety seat, and when he is just as human as any other caring and loving dad, it doesn’t make for a good headline. But it happens, and I admire him for recognizing that he had to make some serious changes in his life and take responsibility for his actions. Philadelphia communities are better for his community service, but we want to keep the cloud over his head to what end? Is forgiving anyone, your own parents or children, siblings or cousins easier because you recognize their humanity as a reality due to your proximity to them? Probably. Before you continue to judge someone who you know only via the press, consider they are just as human, with faults just like you or I. Not everyone is raised the same, and not everyone is scrutinized the same way, but we are all more alike than different in general.
Mylow, instead of being so concerned about the title of the book, How about you ask the question why is Vick trying to make money off being a criminal in the first place? Just saying maybe Vick will “finally be free” from his past when he himself stops talking about it.
You don’t hear crap like this anymore about Stallworth, Little, or even Kobe or Big Ben (even though they weren’t ever convicted). Those guys seem “free” to me. Probably because they are not out writing books about their experiences in drunk driving manslaughter or allegedly raping of women. Its called common sense.
true story pheags the guy is begging for critisism when he brings it up non stop.
Like a woman asks to be raped because of the way she dresses? Mhenski I don’t think he brings it up all the time.
no not like that at all. that’s an awful comparison.
So Mike Vick is the only person to be convicted of a crime to right a book? It makes it okay for people to threaten him and his family? Why does it bother anyone what he does? Don’t buy the book just ignore him. This is just exhausting. I guess to some if you’ve ever done anything wrong you should just be quite and never speak again.
Your not getting it. Nobody said he was the only person that tried to make money off of committing crimes. The other people that do that in society get more hatred thrown out them as well. Its what the public does. And no one says past criminals have to be quite. If you want to keep bringing it up so you can make money off of it then others will not forget about it either. You will never be “free” if you keep bringing it up yourself. You cant have it both ways. I agree with you that it is exhausting. But you know why that is Biglion? Cause Vick keeps feeling the need to profit off of it by bringing it up. So the stories and the media BS will just continue.
I agree you can’t have it both ways and remember he didn’t complain about the threats. I think he understands the landscape, again he is also in my opinion trying to get his story out there as a cautionary tale to the young guys who think it’s cool to be criminals. Should he profit from that? Nope but if he honestly feels his story is worth telling what is the harm?
I agree – if Vick can find people willing to pay money to read the words of a professional athlete then he has a right to sell them books. And nobody has the right to threaten him.
I just wish he would play QB for a different team, because I think he sucks.
Hey, maybe he would be better if he didn’t waste time writing books and concentrated on football. Didn’t GCobb just write an article criticizing Nnamdi for his outside distractions?
Honestly, I think Vick could do nearly anything and some guys would still be on their knees for him…
I am fatigued of Vick stories period.. Enough already..
Let’s Talk and Report on some Free-Agency and the upcoming Draft..
Paulman, I’m with you, part of the reason of doing this piece. It’s people who won’t let it go and this is my retort. If not for bitter, resentful and unforgiving people Vick’s off the field issues would have been dead years ago.
btw there canbe freedom while you live…
Yes there can Mylow and everyone should find their’s..
Mike Vick gas nothing to prove to me except being a Good, Consistent NFL QB.. The other things in his past have no bearing in my life in 2013..
Mylow, I guess its his fault for not keeping his mouth shut and trying to educate young men from following the wrong path.
Michael Vick just tweeted ….Doesn’t Know Who the Eagles Just Signed.
That speaks volumes.
it says he has a life and doesn’t spend his time on blogs worrying about things out of his control! it says that the eagles brass are busy trying to do their jobs and that he will read about it/will be told about it when appropriate.
i’ve been as critical of vick as anyone but to a couple points above:
1. vick like anyone has a right to write a book about his experiences and PROFIT from it just like CEO’s that have been heinous criminals with the publics money and a whole bunch of other people.
2. he is a polarizing figure, his crimes struck a real sensitive spot to a lot of people.
3. he paid his debt to society and has a right to earn a living and by all accounts has become a positive person an involved and caring father/husband.
4. he’s never been a great QB but as he’s aged his skill has eroded to nothing.
5. getting rid of him would be addition by subtraction as his skills are not worth the controversy and the wierd allegences in the locker room.
6. He was, continues to be demonized by the fringe, dog fanatics, the same group of lunatics who kill unborn children, drug their living children, support gay marriage, etc.
speaking of ‘the fringe’ yikes!
7. he didnt even write this book. he just gets a cut
Vick will be free, when they stop messing with Ben Ruthlessburger.
Oh that’s right, he can rape girls, not serve any time, not lose that much money and go on with his merry life.
If Vick had pulled a “Cello-Green” instead of a “Driving Miss Daisy” then people would have backed off, a long time ago.
Can the race experts out there tell me if the author of this article is a racist?
Michael Vick’s book miscue
LZ Granderson [ARCHIVE]
ESPN.com | March 14, 2013
Four years ago, you would have been hard-pressed to find a bigger defender of Michael Vick’s right to earn a living than me.
I didn’t see a guy who was able to use his celebrity to avoid punishment. I saw a guy who had paid his debt to society, apologized and was trying to pick up the pieces.
At some point, we have to forgive.
But at no point should forgiving be mistaken for forgetting, which is why launching a book tour for an autobiography titled “Finally Free” was a really stupid idea.
AP Photo/Brian Garfinkel
Micahel Vick has earned a spot back on the field.
I definitely don’t think it’s OK to threaten him as some have, forcing promoters to cancel the tour. But this recent wave of negative publicity is mostly a self-inflicted wound.
“Finally Free”?
Really?
What’s next, Rae Carruth’s autobiography?
Vick either doesn’t fully comprehend how people view the severity of the crimes he committed, or he’s getting some really bad advice. Being back in the NFL, hearing the cheers, making the Pro Bowl in 2010 … none of that erases the memory of dogs being hanged, electrocuted or drowned.
“Some of the grisly details in these filings shocked even me, and I’m a person who faces this stuff every day,” John Goodwin, director of animal cruelty policy for The Humane Society, said back in 2007. “I was surprised to see that they were killing dogs by hanging them and one dog was killed by slamming it to the ground. Those are extremely violent methods of execution — they’re unnecessary and just sick.”
Sick.
People still view the author of “Finally Free” as sick.
So giving the book that title — even in the context of serving 18 months in federal prison — was a colossal miscue because it gives the impression that Vick’s punishment was an unjustified obstacle that had to be overcome. The title gives the impression that it was something thrust upon him, something he’s not responsible for. And based upon the testimony from the trial, nothing could be further from the truth (and I’m not even a dog person).
Vick and his handlers must accept that while the First Amendment guarantees the quarterback the right to write and talk about his journey, it doesn’t insulate him from the criticism that will follow for doing so. Vick’s handlers must always remember the cheers and new endorsements are in response to his play on the field, to him as a football player. Any project that requires society to respond to Vick, the man, needs to be better executed than “Finally Free.”
So working with the Humane Society to stop dogfighting is a good thing. Getting a dog to teach his children how to love and respect animals was another, as was donating $200,000 for a new youth football field in Philadelphia.
Promoting a book that appears to be making money off his past transgressions, not so much.
“Despite warnings of planned protests, Vick had hoped to continue with the appearances as planned, bringing his story of redemption and second chance to major markets,” read a statement from Worthy Publishing. “However, once the reported protests escalated into threats of violence against the retailers, Worthy Publishing, Vick and his family, decided to cancel the events.”
It isn’t right that people would go so far as to make threats against Vick; they should have showed up and debated him in person. It isn’t fair that a guy who did his time is still begging for forgiveness. But he’ll have a better shot at that forgiveness, at redemption, if he keeps in mind that many people will never, ever forget.
And nor should we, given what he participated in on his property in Virginia.
Every penny Vick made from the sales of his book went to charities, sad to continue to bash one man over over for the crime he committed years back, when in fact that same crime continues to be committed daily and theres little to no mention of it or the person(s) who committ the crime. Be honest here the hate and dislike for Michael Vick goes a lot lot deeper than dogs. REAL TALK