Michael Vick's NFL comeback

Michael Vick is out of prison, said Steve Aschburner in Sports Illustrated, but that doesn’t mean it’s okay to cheer for him when he starts his comeback as a quarterback in the National Football League. Vick would still be mixed up in his “repugnant dogfighting conspiracy” if he hadn’t been caught. “Until a majority of us see Michael Vick as a changed man,” his accomplishments on the field won’t matter.

Vick’s crime was “reprehensible,” said Joe Henderson in The Tampa Tribune, but there should still be a place for the former Atlanta Falcons star in the NFL. His crimes were no worse than felonies committed by other players still in uniform, and he has paid his debt to society. In fact, “I’m not sure any player in the history of the league has paid a greater price for his misdeed than Vick.”

Vick won’t be the first NFL player to attempt a comeback after prison, said Len Pasquarelli in ESPN. But successful comebacks are “rare indeed.” Most players can never match what they achieved before their incarceration. Vick spent a year and a half in prison. “Even for a guy as talented as Vick, it's hard to get that stuff back.”

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