NFL's 10 biggest jerks

The man is cooperative with beat writers and you're worrying about the torture of dogs?!?

 

Sometimes my priorities are out of whack.

 

Wow, funny stuff.

Yeah, I think everybody who's spent time around Mike in the past few years can see what an incredible evolution he's made as a person. It's easy to sit in judgment from far away. He did some awful awful things, paid a very steep price, and has come out the other side a changed person who is deeply and profoundly committed to affecting change, speaking to kids, working in the community.

If that makes him a jerk, so be it.

 

Jim Schwartz is wound a little too tightly at times - every Sunday from 1-4 - but he's far from a jerk. Has far more personality than most coaches/managers I've covered.

 

Some good points here, but the Tour de France is a nonentity in the U.S. again with Lance gone. Just the way it is

 

No. It is the fact that he has it in him to torture living creatures for his own enjoyment. I say he has it in him because he didn't stop on his own. He stopped because he got arrested for it. He stopped because he was put in jail for it. He stopped because he knows how difficult it would be for him to get away with doing it again. He stopped because he knows just how bad things would get if he was caught doing it again.

Jerk doesn't even cover what Vick is.

Did his experience make him start taking his career more seriously? It seems that way. Maybe it made him start to treat people better and stop taking his gifts for granted, too. But none of that changes what he did. He has the right to get back to living his life, but I damn sure have a right to think of him as a lousy human being for what he did, too. That kind of capacity for cruelty says something about the man that shouldn't be forgotten.

 

That depends on who the "real" Michael Vick is ...

1) The dog-torturer he was when everyone thought he was such a great guy in the first part of his career
2) The reformed, former dog-torturer who lost it all and knows the only way to get out of his financial and professional hole is to not do such despicable things

He may be reformed and a great guy now. But didn't he seem like a real swell guy during his days with the Falcons, too, when he was hanging and electrocuting dogs in his spare time?

If the adage is that real character is who you are when no one is looking, then I'm not going to blindly accept him for being a great guy just because he acts that way in front of sportswriters. His history has shown otherwise.

EDIT: OOP said it much better than I.

 

If you are Judaeo-Christian, you are obliged to forgive Michael Vick of his sins.
He has already been absolved by the United States government.

 

Are you also obliged to forget about it and assume he's some neato guy now?

 

Rueben Frank above has already vouched for his good moral character and professionalism.

 

He is not unwell and moderately neato.[/georgecarlin]

 

The latter has nothing to do with the former. Part of forgiving someone is believing person is sorry for what he did. I believe Vick was sorry that he got caught. That's it.

Didn't Vick blame his upbringing for his actions? He said he grew up with it. He shouldn't need to be arrested and go to jail to discover that torturing animals for fun is a bad thing. He shouldn't need to be told it was wrong.

So no, I don't have to forgive him just because I'm Jewish. Real forgiveness is G-d's territory. In my mind, he's still the guy who tortured and killed dogs for his own amusement because I think he would still be doing it if he hadn't gotten caught. I see no reason to believe he would have ever figured out how cruel his behavior was on his own.