Mike Vick

On Monday Night Football the comeback of Mike Vick reached a new high as Vick put up a record-breaking performance that may never be duplicated.

Vick became the first player in NFL history with 300 passing yards, 50 rushing yards, four passing touchdowns and two rushing touchdowns in a game. Vick also became the first player in NFL history to have three passing touchdowns and two rushing touchdowns in the first half of a game.

While most praised Vick’s performance there was at least one person who felt the need to make sure Mike Vick’s accomplishments were put into perspective he felt was necessary.  Steve Politi of NJ.com penned the article Michael Vick’s comeback will only be truly a great story if dog fighting declines.

Politi starts his article with Mike Vick’s tweet after his historic game, “God Can Turn Mistakes Into Miracles”.

He mentions Vick’s tweet as if to say that Mike Vick is out of touch with reality; Politi continues by calling Vick’s performance on Monday Night “impressive” but

“A miracle has to be bigger than broken tackles and touchdowns passes.  A decline in dog fighting?  Now that would be the miracle.”

Politi is either completely missing the point of what Vick is trying to say with his tweet or he is using the moment of Vick’s success to grab attention.  In this Politi is using Vick’s success…

I will admit that I am not an avid reader of Politi’s so it is possible that he has written a number of articles about dog fighting.  What rubs me the wrong way is how Politi wraps Vick’s historic night around this anti-dog fighting article.  To be honest this article acts like dog fighting begins and should end with Mike Vick and that is not fair.

We all know what Mike Vick did was wrong and him serving 21 months in federal prison along with 2 months of home confinement is no one else fault but his own.  What Politi fails to understand is that Vick being able to come back from losing it all too now being in the conversation for MVP is sort of miracle.  We always hear stories of athletes who waste their talent and lose it all; constantly being mentioned in “What if” scenarios.  How many times do we hear stories like this one turning into what seems to be a happy ending?

So when Mike Vick says, “God Can Turn Mistakes into Miracles” he is not saying it is miracle that he can put up record numbers by breaking tackles and scoring touchdowns.  He is saying that it’s a miracle that he was given the chance to play football again after all the mistakes he made in the past.

There is no need to diminish Vick’s accomplishments, as stated in the article Vick being found guilty of dog fighting and serving time for it shined a necessary spotlight on an issue that had to be addressed.  It’s unfair to saddle Vick with the responsibility of eliminating dog fighting as the title of Politi’s article suggest.

Sorry Mr. Politi, but if Mike Vick walks away from this experience an overall better person/player on and off the field his comeback is indeed a great story!!

As always….

If there is something to be said, “It’s On Broadway” to step up and say it!!!