Normally I like to jump on news like Mike Vick’s reinstatement to the NFL as soon as it’s broken and offer my editorial.  This time, being that he’s on the team that I root for I wanted to wait.  I wanted to let a few days go by, and really gauge how this fan base would react to the newest member of their team.  Philadelphia fans are known for their passion which can sometimes be mistaken for fanaticism/criminal behavior.  Well, sometimes it is ridiculous, but I wanted to represent how the news is being received here, and what the fans and media here are saying to all those who don’t have the luxury, or time to see and hear what’s going on in Philly sports.

 Since the news broke Thursday night, I’ve been listening to the local sports talk stations to get fan reaction.  But one thing I noticed was that the hosts seemed to have a great influence on the callers that made it past the producer screening.  More on that in a little bit.  The fan base is clearly divided on the signing.  Usually there are only 2 sides to the debate; those for the signing and those against it.  There is clearly a 3^rd point of focus here in the Philly fan base.  That 3^rd issue is clearly jealousy.  Even the callers who believe Vick deserves a second chance don’t believe he should be able to earn this kind of money.  As an example, just before I sat down to write this, there was a caller to a show that features former Eagle Hugh Douglas as a co-host.  The caller was a woman who was angry at the fact that her son went to jail for a drug possession charge and he can’t get a job doing anything but flipping burgers because most jobs he applies for do not want convicted felons.  In the same breath she said that Vick should have a second chance, but also shouldn’t be allowed to walk the face of the earth.  How stupid is that?  Hugh tried to take her to task for that statement and point out that her problem isn’t with Vick, it’s with the NFL and society.  Vick’s job isn’t one that doesn’t allow convicted felons to get a 2^nd chance.  It’s not his fault that her son got caught with drugs, did his time, got his 2^nd chance at society but unfortunately isn’t a professional athlete. 

 She also fails to realize that being a convicted felon carries a different stigma for an ordinary, everyday guy.  Vick wasn’t an ordinary, everyday guy before his crime.  He was a professional athlete and society holds them to a different standard.  He did serve his time, and it seems that people like this particular caller have an obvious and huge ulterior motive for not supporting the Eagles signing of Vick.  On this same show, a young man called and said he’d love for most of the callers who are anti-Vick, those who want to give up their season tickets to do just that.  It seems there are tons of fans who are on the ridiculously long season ticket waiting list who wouldn’t mind if people give up their tickets.  Back to the jealousy angle; I had a chance to listen to a lot of callers give their opinions and a lot of hosts influence those callers and basically encourage them to call.  So many fans are on their moral high horse and are basically still judging Vick to the point of condemnation.  It’s clear that nobody condones what he did, but the fact is that he did it.  He’s been to jail, he’s lost millions and millions, and he lost 2 years of his career plus the first few weeks of his 2^nd chance.  I don’t know what more people want.  I heard the phrase “flipping burgers” enough this weekend to last a lifetime.  Is it Vick’s fault that his employer is allowing him a chance to get his job back?  Is it his fault that the Eagles feel that he can be helpful to them?  Is it his fault that Andy Reid can relate to his situation on a fatherly level due to his own sons’ run-ins with the law? 

 Philly fans wanted Reid fired for the sins of his sons.  They jumped on him hard, fast, and with such an unforgiving spirit that you’d think none of them have ever done anything wrong in their lives.  Now they are jumping on Vick with the same animosity and prejudice, or as Philly fans like to call it, “passion”.  Many of the hosts and the callers tried to make it as non-racial as possible while trying to rain down their righteous indignation about Vick’s horrible crimes and how he should never be allowed to play in the NFL again.  Unfortunately, some callers couldn’t help but to make it racial.  I just wanted to put that across because it seems we can’t get past that no matter what.  One went as far as to ask if Vick was white, would there be such a reaction?  The hosts had to answer honestly, and they both said they believe the reaction would be different.  Personally, I don’t care if he was.  Some disguise their hate by saying that he hasn’t shown remorse and that they’ll never forgive Vick for what he did.  Okay, that’s fine.  Unfortunately, Vick only needs the forgiveness of certain people and he has that forgiveness.  The NFL is a business, and business has to move on and they decided he should get a chance.  He was forgiven by his family, his friends, colleagues, the commissioner, and paid the price society set.  The fact that he’ll be making millions again if he does okay burns some people to the core.

 His chosen profession allows him that chance.  I don’t know what he has to do to show remorse for his crime.  Does he have to stand on the corner wearing a burlap sack, proclaiming how sorry he is for what he did?  Should he make a daily or weekly PSA proclaiming his remorse and sadness for what happened?  I understand that some people will never accept him, his apology, or his new job with the Philadelphia Eagles.  It’s not their place to say how he should express his remorse.  No matter what he says, it’ll never be enough.  That brings me back to my point about the talk show hosts influencing the callers, or more precisely, the callers who make it on the air.  Sports talk show hosts are afforded a luxury that newspaper writers don’t have; they can express their opinions freely and defend it to anyone who has a different view.  That’s fine, we bloggers have the same luxury to express our opinion.  And we can answer comments.  What we can’t do, and what the radio hosts have been doing is cutting off some callers who just won’t see it their way.  To be fair, most of the hosts have tried to remain objective.  But one flat out said he won’t support the Vick signing by spending any money on the team.  That’s his right, but he will still attend Eagles games because he gets in for free since he’s a member of the media.  Some of the hosts are fanning the flames hard, saying how they won’t forgive Vick for his crimes.  Saying he’s such a monster for what he did to those dogs, and no explanation is good enough.  Whether he grew up in a culture where dog fighting was accepted, or even if he knows better now it doesn’t matter. 

 They make sure to paint him as a criminal who has no remorse and is only sorry for getting caught.  They tug at the heart strings of animal lovers by skewing the fact that he went to jail for running an interstate gambling ring more than for the dog fighting itself.  The dog fighting made for great news, headlines, and public pressure to make an example of him.  And now he’s being put through the ringer again to gain headlines, and garner ratings by hosts who wish they were near his level of fame.  One host admitted that if a team the like the Patriots or Colts had signed him, he’d be calling it a great football move.  He’d be praising the organization for giving him a second chance and for allowing him back in and showing faith in him as a person.  How hypocritical is that?  He’s saying how bad a move it was for Philly to do it, but it’s brilliant if some other team did it?  Everyone is reacting with their emotions on the signing of Vick.  Nothing wrong with that, but I do find it an issue to use your airtime to vent your own anger toward someone who you don’t know personally and to judge him as if he’s never had a trial or been to jail.  You can’t say you want him to get a second chance in one breath but act like he didn’t pay his debt to society in another. 

 In the end, all the media circus that will surround the signing of Vick in Philly will be just that; a MEDIA circus.  People have a lot of things to worry about in their daily lives, and it seems some vent their frustrations about their own lives on the air by damning Michael Vick and his opportunity to make money.  We all want to make money, and any media outlet wants to have publicity (high ratings) and a lot of patronage.  That’s fine, but we have to learn to keep things in perspective and be accountable for our own lives and choices.  Michael Vick has not backed off the questions so far, and he’s been honest.  He’s even admitted that he looking back he can’t believe how bad his decisions were, and how stupid and wasteful he was.  His remorse was good enough for Tony Dungy, Roger Goddell, Andy Reid, and the Eagles locker room.  To all the fans who are so opposed to him being back in the NFL and making money again, be honest with yourselves:  Are you really so sickened by what he did or are you really jealous that he has that much more earning power than you?  Are you so morally clean that you can continue to condemn someone who has been to jail, and lost more money than you’ll ever make?  Are you big enough to admit that you are jealous of Michael Vick?  To all the fans who say they are done with the team for signing Vick, I say good riddance.  My life is more important than worrying about what a football team is doing.  Until I am earning money from them directly, they just have to win and try to make smart moves for their organization. I will continue to root for the Eagles, not individual players.  Remember, being a professional athlete takes a lot of work, sacrifice and dedication.  It’s still a job, and his job allowed him back.