Has Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick redeemed himself?
By Ivey DeJesus |
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on December 05, 2010 at 12:00 AM
AP Photo/Matt SlocumPhiladelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick points to the crowd as he walks off the field after the Eagles beat the Houston Texans 34-24 on Thursday night.
On the morning of Monday, Aug. 27, 2007, Michael Vick walked into a Virginia federal court surrounded by family.
The man who stood before the judge was a far cry from the brazen Atlanta Falcons quarterback who flipped jeering fans the middle finger in the previous season after a 31-13 loss to the New Orleans Saints.
This Vick was nervous. He spoke softly.
As he confessed to running a dogfighting operation, Vick said he had a lot to think about in the coming year. He called himself a failed role model.
Then, like a clairvoyant conjuring divine power, Vick told the court: “I will redeem myself. I have to.”
Gone was the public admiration, the career, the millions in salary and endorsements. For 18 months, Vick, the convict, washed pots and pans for 12 cents an hour at the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas.
Now, a man once reviled, a man whose jersey fans shredded, a man who sports analysts said would never again play professional football, has pulled off an audacious transformation.
Vick has commanded the Philadelphia Eagles to a strong 8-4 record and first place in the NFC East, wowing with record-setting performances on the field and resurrecting a shattered public image to earn the admiration of fans and millions beyond the football field.
In a season that began with few expectations, the Eagles are emerging as legitimate contenders for the Super Bowl, mostly due to Vick.
Sports writers call him Mr. Excitement.
MVP buzz surrounds him.
His No. 7 jersey, once dropped by Reebok and boycotted by retailers, is flying off the shelves.
The once-dethroned athlete graces the cover of Sports Illustrated and is a spokesman for animal rights.
“Redemption is doing the right thing all across the board,” Vick told Bob Costas a few weeks ago while filming a segment for NBC’s “Football Night in America.” “You just can’t be doing it just for perception. It takes time. I think my life was always going to be a work in progress. I’m just going to continue to chase success, on and off the field. I think if I do that, I think redemption will come.”
A player once known for being last on the field and the first off has emerged as a team leader, on the field and in the locker room.
“There’s no doubt in my mind I believe Michael Vick has done a great job not only positioning himself as an outstanding NFL quarterback, but also a guy who is willing to get involved in the community and willing to do what it takes to be successful,” said Ron Jaworski, a former Eagles quarterback and ESPN Monday Night Football commentator.
“I believe that’s the reason the people of Philadelphia have now embraced Michael Vick. He has made up for his mistakes.”
‘Americans love redemption’
The tale of Vick’s fall and rebirth has been expertly crafted within the “nobody is perfect, everyone deserves a second chance” Protestant parameters that have historically made such tales great.
“Americans love redemption stories,” said Mark Dyreson, professor of sports history at PennStateUniversity. “You see it in the narrative from novels like ‘The Natural,’ which is about baseball, but also in novels that are not about sports.”
Vick’s story has the two requisite components: He has shown remorse and has apologized.
“For the redemption parable to work, the fallen athlete has to humble himself and ask the American public for forgiveness,” Dyreson said. “When they do, we forgive almost anything.”
Put New Cumberland resident Jim Tomek, Jr. in that category.
“I’m not a big fan because I’m a dog owner, but, he did his time,” said the lifelong Eagles fan. “He’s really sorry, and he is working very hard to get back to where he wants to be and even surpass where he was before.”
Fallen sports heroes are sometimes forgiven after death — think Mickey Mantle and Shoeless Joe Jackson. But halls of fame dustbins are littered with the snuffed-out remnants of unrepentant disgraced sports heroes, from Tonya Harding, to O.J. Simpson, to Pete Rose.
“A necessary component in history is not only that the hero falls and is disgraced, he has to ask for forgiveness, and Pete Rose just can’t bring himself to do that,” Dyreson said.
Tiger Woods — with his robotic demeanor and insistence that his peccadilloes are nobody’s business — has failed to warm up to fans, Dyreson said.
Vick embarked on his transformation long before he became starting quarterback, making public appearances all last year.
“He was paying the price for his mistakes,” Jaworski said. “He has paid for it financially. He has lost his fortune, he served his time in prison, and I quite honestly believe he deserves a second chance.”
Vick’s comeback narrative would read vastly different if the Eagles were at the bottom of the NFL standings. Fallen sports heroes cannot come back as mediocre players.
“It wouldn’t have the same buzz and luminosity,” Dyreson said. “This is almost like a novel. The football version of ‘The Natural.’”
Lifelong Eagles fan Chris Green of Mechanicsburg hasn’t forgiven Vick for his dog-fighting past, but he is wowed by the player on the field.
“He’s unbelievable. He is like a video game,” Green said. “As an athlete you can’t help but fall in love with him. As a person, if I saw him anywhere, I don’t think I would want to go shake his hand.”
Vick, once the highest-paid player in football, is on the second-year extension of a one year deal with the Eagles, worth about $5.2 million. He’ll be a free agent if the franchise does not offer a new contract.
“There aren’t a whole lot of outstanding quarterbacks in this league,” Jaworski said. “I think right now when you look at the Eagles with Michael Vick and Kevin Kolb, you have an opportunity to have two outstanding quarterbacks on your team. I don’t know what they are thinking, but I see his performance on the field and I say, boy, this guy deserves to be here for a while.”
Not only is Vick thriving, the perception is he is a better human being.
“How many times do you see Donovan (McNabb) after he throws an interception, he’s jerking around and carrying around and laughing,” Tomek said. “When Vick does something bad, you can see he is upset that it didn’t go the right way. He is supportive of the team but he is also their biggest critic too. He wants them to do well. I don’t think he is faking anybody out.”
The transformation
To pull off his transformation, Vick teamed with former Indiana Colts coach Tony Dungy and Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States.
Vick has spent months under Dungy’s tutelage, learning humility in great doses and how to act on and off the field. Dungy, a man known for his faith and his impeccable integrity on and off the field, has been credited for transforming the once-embattled quarterback.
“Tony Dungy is a figure whom we perceive as a bastion of morality in a messy world,” Dyreson said.
At the Athletes in Action Super Bowl Breakfast in February, Dungy, appearing on stage with his protégé, explained how when he first started mentoring the fallen quarterback, he asked him a question about his time in Atlanta when he was enjoying the money, the limelight, the endorsements with companies like Nike.
“Where was the Lord in all that?” Dungy said he asked Vick.
Up on the stage, Vick replied: “I was so self centered and so concerned about myself and what I had going on, I had forgotten about the Lord.”
Dungy has told reporters he was certain of Vick’s sincere desire to change.
Pacelle, of the Humane Society of the United States, said he had to do soul searching before he agreed to visit Vick at Leavenworth.
“I was personally very harsh on Michael,” said Pacelle, who helped author the federal law used to prosecute Vick. He had urged prosecutors to arrest Vick and punish him.
“The whole idea of talking to (him) and seeing if he could redeem himself was not a foregone conclusion.”
Vick told him he wanted to be involved in the Society’s mission. Pacelle, fully aware that dog fighting continues to be a problem in poor urban communities, realized he had a powerful ambassador in Vick.
Pacelle suggested Vick could be an animal rights advocate for a few years.
“He said, ‘I don’t want to commit two or three years. I want to commit indefinitely and I want to make this my life’s work’,” Pacelle said.
Vick has been traveling across the country on behalf of the organization, about twice a month, regardless of game schedule, crusading against animal cruelty and dog fighting.
Pacelle said Vick pays his own travel expenses.
Between the New York Giants and the Chicago Bears games, Vick visited three high schools in New Haven, Conn. Two were comprised of predominantly black students; the other nearly all Latinos. Pacelle hopes Vick’s message will inspire students to form animal protection clubs at their schools.
“He certainly is speaking in a powerful way and reaching these kids,” said Pacelle.
Vick seemed poised to fall back into the abyss in July when Virginia Beach police questioned him in the June 25 shooting of a man outside a nightclub where Vick was celebrating his 30th birthday.
Police cleared Vick of any suspicion. But Vick told Sports Illustrated that Eagles coach Andy Reid and his mother hammered him for partying after midnight and putting himself into a position where he could get into more trouble.
“Right then and there I told myself, I am changing my life,” Vick told Sports Illustrated.
A corporate comeback?
Vick’s money-making prospects off the field could serve as an interesting test case: Can a disgraced but redeemed sports hero regain corporate endorsement prowess?
Brian Nelson, vice president of The 16W Marketing, a Rutherford N.J.-based sports marketing firm that brokers endorsement deals for names like Cal Ripken, Jr., Howie Long and Clyde Drexler, doubts Vick will.
“It will be difficult for him to get back to the point where corporate America will embrace him,” Nelson said. “He will be a polarizing figure for the rest of his career no matter what.”
To have a chance at pulling a Kobe Bryant and restoring his good graces with corporate America, Vick has to continue to do what he is doing on and off the field.
“He has to make sure he stays on the straight and narrow off the field and does everything he set out to do,” Nelson said.
If Vick restores his corporate appeal, it will probably be with a shoe company, but he would be wise to sign a contract that has a sizable charitable component, he said.
For now, his Eagles jersey is selling well.
“That’s always a good indication of what the public sentiment is,” Nelson said. “He’s going to have supporters. He’s a phenomenal talent and he seems sincere and contrite off the field. That’s a great first step.”
To be sure, legions of football fans — Eagles, Falcons or otherwise — will likely never embrace Vick — regardless of how far the Eagles go.
“You cannot believe the amount of Eagles stuff I sold at yard sales,” said Rhonda Leidig, a lifelong Philadelphia Eagles fan. “I have four dogs. I would lay my life down for my dogs. I don’t care how good of a player he is. I think he is scum.”
Leidig said she is disappointed the NFL signed on “a convicted felon.”
“I don’t think it is showing moral character and he is not good role model for kids,” she said.
Troy Peters, a young father from Annville, is not a Vick nor an Eagles fan, but he likes to watch him play.
Peters said he looks beyond his disappointment in Vick and Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who has been cleared of accusations he sexually assaulted women.
Peters is willing to believe that athletes are sincerely contrite for their bad actions.
He remembers that when reporters interviewed the mother of Tour de France cyclist Floyd Landis after he admitted to doping, she quoted the Bible verse: “Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone.”
“I guess that’s the way we should view this,” Peters said. “We’ve all done wrong things and it’s easy to think people who are high profile and successful should be on a different plane. But that’s false expectation to have.”