Michael Vick (perhaps you've heard of him) has been officially reinstated by the NFL and is now currently a proud member of the Philadelphia Eagles. Reactions from the sporting community have ranged from “Congratulations!” to “Throw him in a cage full of pit bulls with Steakum-scented Underoos." Ah, freedom of expression. As a half-assed journalist I consider it one of my favorite rights. Over time, unfortunately, the term rights has devolved into a virtually unrecognizable four-letter word uttered by way too many ignorant nincompoops who use it where it doesn’t, and shouldn’t, exist.
A quote-collage as I would call it of sports analysts, bloggers and various know-it-alls compelled to comment on any and all online articles has boiled down to essentially this: He has a ‘right’ to an opportunity to play again in the NFL.
He does? Who says? You? The Constitution? Barack? Buddha? Where is this coming from?
I’ll meet you half-way. Vick has a right to ask for his job back. Just like the decision-makers of this privately owned company had the right to say, “Yeah, no.”
Let’s thrust out of the hundred-million-dollar orbit of the NFL universe a second and break it down into real-world terms everyday schleps like you and I can identify with. How many of us feel that it would be perfectly okey-dokie to demand that our boss keep a spot open for when we get released from federal prison, hmmm?
This article appears in Aug 19-25, 2009.