Fairborn commencement
Badin graduation
Division I regional track finals
Award-winning columnist Tom Archdeacon — an old-school storyteller in a brand-new venue — writes about sports, the city, southwest Ohio and anything else that catches his fancy… or yours.Home > Blogs > Through the Arch > Archives > 2009 > October > 08
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Michael Vick reality show a doggone bad idea
The Animal Planet has the show starring Victoria Stillwell called “It’s Me or the Dog.”
Now BET is about to launch a reality show starring Michael Vick.
While it could be tagged “It’s Me — The Dog’s Dead,” folks at the cable network have tentatively named the show “The Michael Vick Project.”
The LA Times reports that the eight-part docu-series will focus on the life and times of the newly-reinstated Philadelphia Eagles quarterback, who spent 21 months in prison for his role bankrolling and supporting a dog fighting operation on his Virginia property that lasted some six years and tortured, maimed and killed numerous dogs.
Vick told the Times he wants to be seen as a human being:
“I just want people to really get to know me as an individual. What I want to do is change the perception of me. I am a human being. I’ve made some mistakes in the past, and I wish it had never happened. But it’s not about how you fall, but about how you pick yourself up.”
Maybe something good could come out of this, but I doubt it. I think it’s a bad idea.
While the Humane Society has recruited him to help in their campaign to end inner-city abuse of dogs, I think this is nothing but a six-figure money grab and a public relations snow job by a guy who, to me, often seems disingenuous when he talks about his dog involvement.
In a rambling speech soon after his reinstatement, Vick continually described his fascination with fighting dogs to the death— and torturing and killing others who under-performed — as ‘pointless.”
Pointless?
There was a point to it. A bad point. How about focusing on what you did to the dogs, not just dismissing your own vile actions as “pointless.”
I think it’s okay that he’s back in football, but I believe he should be working at reestablishing himself as a pro player and talking to churches, schools and kids’ groups about right choices, not giving us an eight-part series that celebrates him as a misunderstood person.
Tweet
