Michael Vick is looking for a new team and a chance at a starting job this offseason, which could lead to a conversation with the Vikings since they are in the market for a new starting quarterback. One member of the Vikings thinks that the two sides could make some beautiful music together.
It’s no secret I’m a Minnesota Vikings fan. By definition, that means I’m used to a long, unbroken succession of failures, mediocrities, and close calls (see Gary Andersen in the 1999 NFC Championship Game). The past few seasons have been even more disappointing than the norm. More than anything else, the Vikings to have particularly difficulty with finding a starting quarterback who can actually run an offense and score some points.
The most recent culprit was Christian Ponder, drafted out of Florida State a few years ago to much fanfare, little of it warranted. Ponder, who’s probably a great guy, is at best a journeyman backup, not a bona fide NFL starting quarterback. Notable mostly marrying well- his wife is ESPN’s Samantha Steele- Ponder has shown time and again that he’s simply not the answer to the Vikings’ quarterback problem.
This offseason finds the team (once again) in search of competent leadership under center. No one should be expecting Peyton Manning or Tom Brady to walk through the locker room door at the Vikings’ practice facility. That said, this year’s crop of free agent signal callers may- and I emphasize may- contain the answer to a long-running question. Who that solution might be is anyone’s guess.
I’ve heard speculation that the Vikings might be interested in Michael Vick, which set me to thinking. Vick’s well-documented crimes (torturing and killing dogs he’d trained to fight) are behind him, as is the prison time he served after being convicted for them. The horrific, inhuman nature of his crimes are such that I find myself wondering about the wisdom of putting Vick in a Vikings uniform. Is making the playoffs worth the infamy and baggage Vick would bring with him?
I believe in the power of redemption and the right to a second chance. Anyone who’s screwed has hoped to be granted a chance to make things right. In Vick’s case, I find myself wondering about it that right to a second chance should have its limits. He’s paid his debt to society, and by all indications is a reformed and better person. Still, he tortured and killed who proved insufficiently aggressive for his dog-fighting business; is there (or should there be) a statute of limitations on how long we define him as a dog killer?
Are some crimes so inhuman, so heinous, so beyond the pale that forgiveness and redemption aren’t available options? No matter what Michael Vick does or how well he does it, he will always be an animal abuser and dog killer, deemed unworthy of forgiveness by some people. I’m not saying I fall into that group, but it is difficult for me to get past the brutal, gruesome things he did to his dogs. IF the Vikings sign him, it’s going to be difficult for me to see him as merely a quarterback. I don’t know if that’s right or wrong…but it’s the truth.
