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Opinion: NFL conditionally reinstates dog-fight felon Vick, PETA mad

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Michael Vick was conditionally reinstated on Monday by the National Football League, allowing the star quarterback and convicted dog-fight promoter to participate in practices and preseason games but not play in regular-season contests. NFL Police Chief, err, Commissioner Roger Goodell said he will re-evaluate Vick’s situation and may give him full reinstatement by Oct. 19, six weeks into the coming NFL season.

Not surprisingly, PETA is against the reinstatement. PETA blogger Shawna Flavell writes, “The law says that he is entitled to walk free. But that doesn’t mean it is acceptable to put him in the position in which children will look up to him as a role model and wear any new jersey that bears his number.” The battle lines are more clear-cut than the NFL trenches, with animal rights playing defense, Vick supporters playing offense and the all-powerful Goodall standing in the neutral zone.

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Vick’s actions were horrifying; no one denies this. But should his crimes keep him from pursuing work as a professional football player, provided he can find a team that wants him? Whether or not you believe his 23 month-prison term was a sufficient punishment, the law says it was. Of course, professional athletes being the demigods they are, there is the “role model” issue. But consider what USC sociologist Karen Sternheimer recently told me about the influence of steroid use in baseball on young kids: “If you ask kids who they trust most, it’s parents and teachers, but you’re not going to have a poster of your parent or teacher up in your room.” In other words, the influence of good parents and teachers easily overshadows the behavior of bad athletes.

Simply put, we overestimate the influence of athletes. Does anyone really believe that young boys will be encouraged by Vick’s 23 months in jail and post-conviction NFL comeback to to start their own illegal dog-fighting rings? And it’s not as if the NFL has had much of an aversion in the past to letting convicted felons back into the fold. In fact, this whole episode may very well have shed some needed light on cruel practices going on in damp corners.

At great risk of receiving highly critical comments from PETA members, I’ll put myself on record as believing that Vick, in a legal sense, has paid the price for his wrongs and should be allowed to pursue a career in any field his talents allow. It’s not as if he were running for public office. The NFL is not a democracy, and if there is an owner willing to pay and if Vick can still play an elite level, no one should stop him from playing.

Fire away, PETA.

--Kevin Patra

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