Not buying it

This is because Vick has a new book out about his "redemption." First off, I've seen his tweets and heard him speak in unscripted situations, unlike his carefully scripted PR lies during 60 minutes. He makes LOLcat-speak look like Bertrand Russell. Someone needs to tell him that redemption involves more than doing what your PR team tells you and blaming everything on everyone else than accepting that you're a frakking monster who has learned he can get away with anything. He's no better than Sandusky, the NFL and the Eagles are no better than the Penn State officials in the cover-up, yet the sports culture somehow worked in his favor. That's the only difference: Vick got away with it.

In the same way that Sandusky preyed on little boys, Vick preyed on those dogs. Unfortunately, those dogs couldn't speak English and "come out" about what happened. The best we could do was the ASPCA investigation and the forensics teams that determined how several dogs died brutally. Vick says he was in a bad crowd, and his "advice" to kids was to choose their friends better. My advice would be to start choosing your heroes better. But let's look at how Mr. Vick's associates were the bad influence, shall we? Vick ran the dogfighting ring, which is what he went to jail for. He did not serve time for animal abuse, as so many people think he did, thanks to the spin machine of the NFL's PR team. And he didn't even serve a full sentence. He was sentenced to 23 months in jail in November of 2007. Twenty-three months would be October of 2009. Yet, he was released to house arrest in July of 2009, where he could train for the upcoming season. I wonder how many criminals get an early release so they can go out and look for a job? He was released from house arrest in late August of 2009, and signed by the Eagles before he was even due to be out of jail.

But, I digress.

This is a "man" who pathologically tortured animals. And if he was so horrified about what was going on, why, then, did investigators recover video footage of the fights? If he was so influenced by his "friends," why then did he kill the dogs who didn't perform well? Or the ones he just...couldn't make a fighter out of? Keep in mind that these dogs are tortured and abused to make them mean and aggressive. Beaten regularly. Starved. Prodded with cattle prods. And when they lost or still didn't fight? Well, the ones Vick shot were the lucky ones. This sadistic "hero" came up with creative ways of killing them. Hanging them. Picking them up and slamming them on the ground - repeatedly - to crush their rib cages and shove those splinters of bones into internal organs for an agonizing, painful, slow death. Putting them into a swimming pool and then attaching jumper cables to their ears and connecting the cables to a car battery.

Vick's brutality wasn't confined to his own dogs, either. He or his cronies would sometimes capture a neighbor's dog or cat and toss them into the ring as a "bait" animal, and laugh as someone's pet was torn apart, mauled, brutally killed. Imagine this happening to your pet. Given how he laughed at this, thought it was entertainment, one wonders if the only reason he didn't use kids was because it would just be too difficult to hide.

But...20 months in jail, where his meals and shelter are provided, and then released early so he can look for a job, and then signed and having a whole PR team to restore his image makes him redeemed. Some people have said that they didn't like it when the Eagles signed him, but they still bought tickets. Their love of their team and of the sport overrode any disgust they had at what he did, and they willingly turned a blind eye to what he had done, and they allowed themselves to forget what he had done. What he is capable of. That he is in an industry that prizes such aggression rather than send him to a psychologist to treat him of his issues. He's held up as a hero, cheers erupt when he scores a touchdown, and he's a model story of redemption. If you believe that, then you can bite my not-so-shiny, hairy Italian ass.

As for why I still rail against him? Because I'm an optimist that someone might actually listen, might actually remember what he is, and might rethink their priorities in life. I know that this might upset or anger some people, but, I'll do what I can to spread the truth. I aim to misbehave.

Just my $0.02...
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