John McConnell
FYS
October 25th
What is the first thing you think of when you hear the name Michael Vick? Your natural
bias opinion makes you think he another thug with talent wasting it away by bad decisions. You
think this because in our world today people like to point out the bad in an individual, like in
2007 when he was charged with animal abuse for dog fighting. When you hear that once
immediately you make a bias opinion of him and it stays that way usually because once a
celebrity is convicted of a crime like this media will always wait for another screw up from the
individual. I am here to inform you that your opinion needs to change once you take a look at
Michael Vicks overall life, not just the bad news you here on TV from reporters. Instead of
making another bias opinion I want to read and understand Michael as an individual and what he
has gone through his entire life being an African American trying to rebuild his reputation to
greatness like it once was.
Michael Vick was born June, 26th 1980 in Newport News, Virginia(sports heaven). As a
young child he faced adversity throughout his life living with his single mother who was never
home because she had multiple jobs trying to support Michael and his brother Marcus(sports
heaven). As he grew older he developed his skills in youth football that would be his future
career in the NFL. He realized at a young age around fifteen that football was the best thing for
him. It kept him off the streets in downtown Newport News where nothing good happened.
However that would prove to be tougher once he became a millionaire in the NFL and the people
who surrounded him back home didn’t understand what kind of a figure he was the to sports
world.
Vick then started his high school career at Warwick High School where he was the
starting Quarterback. His first high school start he threw for 400s yards and scouts started to hear
the name “Michael Vick”. He was ranked 5th in the nation at his position
‘SuperPrep”(Hokiesports). He later went on to start three more years at Warwick where he
finished his career with 4,846 passing yards and 43 touchdowns. He ran for 18 touchdowns
racking up 1,048 rushing yards. While in high school Vick was good student who stayed out of
trouble focusing on just football and school work.
After an amazing high school career he would choose to attend Virginia Tech to continue
to play football. His scholarship brought him out of the public housing projects in 1998 to
Blacksburg, Virginia (Hokiesports). At this time Vick maintained a good reputation as a hard
worker who made something of himself. Once at Virginia Tech Vick decided to red shirt his
freshman year to develop a better understanding of the game in college. As a sophomore he led
to Hokies to a perfect 11-0 season and on to the National Championship (Hokiesports). He led
NCAA in passing and rushing at the Quarterback position and was on the Heisman watch list as
a sophomore (Hokiesports). Once he finished his sophomore year at Virginia Tech aware that his
family was still living in the housing projects of Newport News he declared that he was joining
the NFL draft.
In 2001 Vick was selected the first overall pick of the draft by the Atlanta Falcons(sports
heaven). He would later sign his contract of over a million dollars and buy his mother a new
home to help support his family. He has a very successful year as a rookie with the falcons,
earning a starting position the following season. He finished with 2,936 passing yards and 777
rushing yards(sports heaven). He was a local star and hero at the time with a great image. When
you heard the name Michael Vick still nothing bad pop in your head, but we all know how
money can change people and he would later change once he continued his career of making
millions of dollars.
We all know money can change things. We have seen this with many other athletes in our
modern time and once Vick signed his first contract the problems started occurring. In 2004 a
truck register Michael was charged with distributing marijuana. Although Vick wasn’t one of the
two men in the truck his reputation would start to alter. Then the worst possible thing happened
to Vick in 2007. His father told an Atlanta Journalist that Vick was staging dog fights at his
house in Virginia (BNKI). The investigation started on whether or not he was hosting dog fights.
April 25th, 2007 a warrant was executed to search his home for any drugs or dog fighting
activities (BNKI). They would later find dogfighting facilities, cages, food and dogs. The media
quickly jumped on to the case and was heard nationally in a matter of minutes. Then the FBI
launched their own investigation. As the separate state and federal investigations progressed,
more and more details of dog fighting, gambling and drug use were being discovered. Details of
dogs being tortured, executed, and abused outraged animal rights activist and the general
public(BNKI). Vick and several others would be indicted on both federal and Virginia felony
charges related to the scandal. Vick would defend himself at first in the accusations saying he
had no idea these events were being held at his house and that he was never there when they
were under way. Trying to defend his public reputation many people did not believe him and the
image of Michael Vick was unclear to many. After a short period of time of defending himself he
would eventually plead guilty to the charges in August due to the possibility of additional and
more serious chargers. He turned himself in early at Northern Neck Regional Jail in Warsaw,
Virginia while awaiting sentencing on the federal convictions (BNKI). Once appearing in front
of the judge Vick sentence faced a five year maximum sentence and a fine of 250,000 dollar
(BNKI). He faced a harsher penalty than other involved in the scandal due to the fact he was
believed to be contributing money to house and supporting the dog fighting with his millions of
dollars (BNKI). All of Vicks endorsements would later go on and drop him leaving him with
money to pay back in his contracts with them. This included Reebok, Adidas, Dicks sporting
goods and Sports Authority (BNKI). This left Vick with a hefty amount of money to pay back
which would lead to his bankruptcy which he declared once out of prison.
While in jail Vick was faced with many things to think about in his life. At this point he
knew his public perception was awful. He started to focus and think about how he could better
himself once out confinement. He knew he wanted to play football once you he was out, but
wasn’t sure if any team would take a chance with him. It is a dangerous decision to be made by
an NFL to pick up an athlete like this because they don’t want to demeanor their team image or
disgrace their fans. Also he must be reinstated to the NFL by the commissioner to be able to join
a team. Even with questions lingering whether he would be able to play again or not he worked
out every day in prison trying to stay in shape and better his athletic ability for when he gets out.
On May 21, 2009 Vick was released from prison (EBSCO). Although it seemed Vick
was a free man he still faced huge problems with his life. Yes he wanted to get back in the NFL,
but he need to take care of his financial problems while try to be reinstated to the league. He was
forced to pay 20 million dollars back to Atlanta Falcons due to the fact it said in his contract he
cannot participate in illegal activities (sports heaven). Also he was forced to pay back millions to
his endorsers such as Nike, Pepsi, and many others. This led him to declare chapter 11
bankruptcy (EBSCO). He owed a debt of 50 million dollars total. He knew that the only way to
start paying these corporations back to try to get back into football and that happened in 2009
when he signed a contract with the Philadelphia Eagles (EBSCO). Although it was only worth a
million dollars it was a start of his rebirth in the NFL.
Once out of prison Vick addressed the public in a press conference saying he is a
changed person and knows he did wrong. He stated that he was going to repay for his
wrong doing in every way possible. Once he became an Eagle he has don’t just that. He
was the 3rd string quarterback in 2009 barley seeing any playing time. In 2010 he started
the season as the 2nd string quarterback until starting quarterback Kevin Kolb was injured
the very first game (sports heaven). Once Vick was on the field it was clear he not only
was capable of playing in the NFL, but he was better than ever before. He won the
position at quarterback for the rest of the season after his first game back. Many eagles’
fans rallied with Vick, but it was clear the Philadelphia Eagles were facing some hatred
for starting Vick. Many time before games animal protestors and activist would wait for
Vick to walk into the gates so they could raise their signs and yell at him
(HumaneSociety), but I think it’s clear to say now that they need to stop. Do they not
recognize the good he is bringing in the world today as a celebrity? Not many people get
second chances and take advantage of them the way he is. People are naturally bias and
think he will never change.
It’s clear that Vick has changed though. He has donated millions of dollars back
to different organizations. He created the Michael Vick Foundation which gave kids
schooling supplies and accumulated for over 100,000 dollars of money (HumaneSociety).
He has donated over a million dollars to boys and girls clubs around America. He is a
part of the humane society and donates money towards animals on a regular basis
(HumaneSociety). He has been doing everything possible for 3 years to gain the people’s
trust, and demonstrate that he is a changed man. He has not been in trouble once since
being released from prison. I think it is time for people to stop making assumptions and
look at the facts just like they did when he was a bad person before being convicted.
It is a fact that people are bias. No matter what the topic is people have their own
immediate opinion. They assume what they know already is how it really is. This is life
and just how things work. I want my readers to understand to look more into things
before making a complete bias opinion on someone. Before you go around telling people
and making statements about Vick being the same person he was before prison even
though it’s clear he is not. Bias opinions come from what your values are and you’re
your culture beliefs are. Wherever you live and grow up play a huge role in your values.
Vick grew up in the ghetto as an African American in the streets of Newport News
(EBSCO). Like stated in one of his quotes,” I grew up around dog fighting and gambling,
it’s just the way of the streets where I live.” (EBSCO). Maybe he didn’t recognize what
he was doing because it was natural of his community he lived in. Many athletes don’t
understand once they become famous that they also have to change their ways sometimes
to stay successful. It takes something like the Dog Fighting incident to make you realize
you are doing wrong and need to change. Vick noticed his wrong and eventually plead
guilty and is doing everything possible now to make up for it. If you believe in second
chances then you understand he is making the fullest of his.
If Michael Vick was a white male would he be labeled like he is? The answer is
probably not because people are bias towards other races. When professional players who
are Caucasian get in trouble they do not get as much scrutiny. When Ben Roethlisburger
was suspended for sexual assault on a female at a club is wasn’t as big of a deal. People
simply just forgot about it once the week was over. I think it is ridiculous how the world
works; it’s obvious that the media works the same way. An African American has one
major offense and people can’t move past it. Even when Vick has done everything
possible to make up for his mistake people cannot move on.
I understand that what he did was terrible and some people are never going to be
able to forgive him. He was involved in a scandal that killed and tortured hundreds of
dogs. Its ok for people to never settle for that being ok, but you must understand how he
was raised and where he grew up. He learned his lesson from the incident and has proven
this by what he is doing today. He recently signed a contract with the Philadelphia Eagles
worth 100 million dollars and has given a third of it away to charities (sports heaven). He
paid back his debts with it and has stayed out of trouble.
Overall Michael Vick has had a very successful career and deserves credit for
what he has done and is trying to do. He made one major mistake and people make
assumptions about his whole life. Bias opinions will always influence one way or
another, but hopefully once you have read this you understand he is a better person now
and you understand not to make an immediate bias opinion on someone due to their race
or one mistake. My father coached against Vick in high school and still talks to him and I
have had multiple conversations with him. He is a good person who made one big
mistake. He is a changed person who does not need to be reminded every time he has a
incident of the dog scandal. Hopefully you do not make a bias opinion about Michael
Vick and look at his overall life all the way to today as a Quarterback, charity funder and
father.