If 32 NFL personnel directors decided to take a pass on Michael Vick because he was a tremendously overrated quarterback even before his suspension and conviction on crimes associated with running a dogfighting ring, it would be understandable.
There are probably at least 20 teams in the league who badly need an upgrade at quarterback. But there’s no guarantee that Vick would help.
He has already sat inactive two seasons since his misdeeds at Bad Newz Kennels came to light and he wasn’t any great shakes when he was still playing.
In retrospect, Vick’s style is a primer on how not to be a running quarterback in The League.
The prototype running quarterback – look at the Steelers’ Ben Roethlisberger or Philadelphia’s Donovan McNabb – is a guy who moves around to create time to make a play downfield.
The instant Vick started moving, he transmogrified from a quarterback into a running back. So, yeah, it would be understandable if every team ignored Vick because of his on-the-field shortcomings.
Not believable, but understandable.
Vick’s Not the Worst
However, Vick’s biggest hurdle to an NFL comeback will have more to do with the fact that could be subject to a league suspension and any team that signs Vick will get, as a bonus, a steady stream of animal rights protesters picketing outside the stadium gates.
But for all that, someone out there will give Vick a shot if the league offices approve. And giving Vick that second chance would be the right thing to do.
If St. Louis Rams linebacker Leonard Little was back on the field less than a year after getting drunk and killing a person, there would be no justice in denying Vick’s NFL comeback bid.
Credit where credit is due. Keith Olbermann made this same point on “Countdown” nearly two years ago, but the fact that Vick’s fate is still being debated indicates that not enough people were paying attention.
On Oct. 19, 1998, Little ran a stoplight in his SUV and hit a vehicle whose driver, Susan Gutweiler, died about 12 hours later. Testing revealed Little’s blood-alcohol level to be well above the legal limit.
The Anti-Vick Hypocrisy
Little served 90 days in jail and was sentenced to an additional four years probation for killing a human being through his carelessness. He also served a league suspension, but returned in time to play for the Rams in Super Bowl XXXIV 15 months after the fatal accident.
Meanwhile, Vick will have served nearly two years in prison for mistreating and killing dogs, and his detractors are seriously saying that he should be deprived the second chance that Little got.
It’s worth mentioning that Vick has shown far more remorse than Little, which admittedly could be more about a PR effort to reclaim the life he once had than any genuine contrition on his part, but it’s still more than anything Little has done.
After the accident, Little reached an out-of-court settlement with the Gutweiler family but never apologized. Even worse, he was pulled over by police in 2006 for speeding and failed field sobriety tests. He narrowly avoided a four-plus-year prison sentence when he was acquitted of felony DUI.
The question of whether Vick deserves a second chance has already been asked and answered. The better question goes something like this – if Little got a second chance, how can the league and the public deny it to Vick?
And the answer is: It can’t.
