The new issue of GQ magazine features an interview with Michael Vick:
“For a while, it was all ‘Scold Mike Vick, scold Mike Vick, just talk bad about him, like he’s not a person,’ ” he says. “It’s almost as if everyone wanted to hate me. But what have I done to anybody? It was something that happened, and it was people trying to make some money.”
It was something that happened. Not torture and pain and death that he inflicted with his own hands on innocent dogs. Just something that happened. Like one day you are whisking around Munchkinland in your ruby slippers and suddenly a Kansas house lays you out.
What has Michael Vick done to anybody?
Vick and friends had not simply eliminated these [failed fighting] dogs with a cold efficiency, they’d beaten them first. The revelation added another layer of brutality to the already nasty case.
And then there was one last body that stood out from the rest. It had signs of bruising on all four ankles and all along one side. Its skull was fractured in two places and it had four broken vertebrae. Brownie had said that all of the dogs that didn’t die from being hanged were drowned, except one.
As that dog lay on the ground fighting for air, Quanis Phillips grabbed its front legs and Michael Vick grabbed its hind legs. They swung the dog over their head like a jump rope then slammed it to the ground. The first impact didn’t kill it. So Phillips and Vick slammed it again. The two men kept at it, alternating back and forth, pounding the creature against the ground, until at last, the little red dog was dead.
– excerpt from Jim Gorant’s book The Lost Dogs
Number of days in prison Michael Vick served for torturing dogs? Zero. Number of animal cruelty convictions on his record? Zero.
It was something that happened.
I need a drink. Or a good cry.
GQ must have an editor who is an absolute……
Michael Vick is a narcissistic egomaniac. I wonder what he tells his kids when they ask why they can’t have a dog. I wonder if he tells them the truth. I doubt it.
Is he allowed to have kids???
God please protect the babies and the innocent creatures that have no defense against such monsters ……. Please give all of your warriors the ability to fight against such demonic ways…… You put those of us that believe and trust in you in different places and situations according to your plans…….Please give those that can make a difference in an abused child’s or animal’s life the armor, knowledge and strength to stand up and fight for a positive change….Thank you Lord for those here on this site that fight tirelessly to protect these poor helpless loving animals ……In Jesus name I pray ….AMEN
AMEN
I think the best thing to do with Vick is to totally ignore that he exists. He craves attention. He is cruel beyond belief and expects people to accept that he tortured those poor dogs because it was his culture and where he grew up. He has yet to pay in any way what he has done to those dogs. For the rest of his life he should be shunned. He is not worth the air he breathes.
I like the sound of that…but I just can’t! I’m not a football fan anyway, so it’s no big deal that I’ll never watch it on TV and I certainly am never going to buy ANY Nike product.
I just think it’s scary that even if we think he should be shunned…there’s this whole network of PR creeps rewriting history and shmoozing the sports fan masses to endorse and support this guy. It’s WRONG. But those school kids get to see how it works. Money can buy you out of ANY trouble it seems.
Poor Vick, he wants a dog, whaaaaaa…..what the hell did he do with the last ones he had? On the other hand, he wasn’t convicted of animal cruelty, so on paper, he’s a good-enough home, right?! Arghhhh.
Since football fans seem unlikely to ignore him as long as he keeps winning games, it’s unfortunately not a viable strategy. He is going to get attention. He already believes that adulation is the normal course of things, just his due.
Yeah, I get really tired of repeating “Sociopath — beatings / electrocutions / drownings — never served time for it — continued criminal conduct — sociopath.” It would be nice to be able to drop this. I’ll do it when the evil mofo finds himself back in prison where he belongs.
And people had the audacity to chastise us when we wrote a dissenting view of Cesar Millan’s blog about Vick: IF he had reformed, Cesar could forgive him.
Thanks, Shirley. This SI interview seems to pretty well sum up how that monster really feels. “It’s something that happened.” And they all lived happily ever after…
The man is a sociopath, there is no reformation or redemption possible.
As long as he’s surrounded by enabling sycophants (*cough*WaynePacelle*cough*), he’ll be “out there” in the public view and accepted. But there will come a day when he can no longer play football, when his money dries up and his fame fades and then he will be alone. I hope he’s visited by ghosts in those deep dark nights.
It isn’t soon enough for me.
Not that I ever watched football that much before but I am NEVER going to watch it again. Not any team. I hope their continued support of him brings the whole league down.
He said it was something for money, but he never took any money, He bankrolled others bets and never collected on them. Never took the winners purse.
So what he was saying he brutalized these dogs with no motivation other than he liked it. That’s great Mike…
my happiest day will consist of opening my email to find vicktheprick has broken his neck at the c2 level and must live on a ventilator for the entirety of his miserable life, which in this case I hope he lives to be 110 years old. This “man” was not sent to prison for what he did to those canines. He was sent for money laundering and racketeering. He is beyond redemption and never will he consider he committed any acts of abuse. His own father stated this “man” was the same as he today as he was when he was younger. He will not change, he is a big league money maker but when that status changes watch how fast people will forget him.
What Vick did was atrocious. He should never have the right or opportunity to have an animal. However, if his celebrity can advocate for animals, I have no issue with this. But I don’t want to see him interact with animals.
Now, a serious question. Is there forgiveness for a person that is convicted of animal cruelty? Would you take this same stand against “ALL” individuals convicted of animal cruelty or are there different levels of cruelty and we can forgive the less serious and not so atrocious acts.
I, myself, think that if you are found guilty of animal cruelty, you should not have access to animals. You can advocate for animals and do things that promote animal welfare, but you will not be directly working with animals.
I find his “advocacy to animals” to be as phony as everything else about his “paying his dues to society” argument. The ones who really could benefit from a truly changed, repentant MV will see through this charade. And Pacelle is another phony – the whole MV/HSUS “show” is nothing more than that!
I know that eventually, somehow, somewhere, this “man” will have to answer for what he did. In the meantime, I would not ever like to hear his name again.
God help those poor souls who were tortured and killed at his hands. It’s amazing to me that so many of his victims have become loving family pets.
This thing is one of the few in the world that I truly don’t consider to be a human being. I wonder his teammates don’t vomit after every game.
I read on a blog that Vick was paid $50,000 by HSUS & this record was fixed by them so he could now own dogs/pets. Is this true? Did he do advertisement for them or something?
Vick & anyone who could possibly endorse anything about him is out of my consideration for thought. I don’t believe he is any different than when he tortured those poor dogs; he will always be the sick tortureer that he is.
anything can be forgiven; but forgiveness must be based on the level of remorse by the sinner, not the level of atrocity; vick is not even aware that he has wronged the dogs (what have i done to anybody?) let alone sorry for it; he is not worthy of forgiveness yet and may never be
Amen Judith…..You have to repent your wrong doing before you can be forgiven…You can’t repent if you feel no remorse or guilt……….God gives you a choice.
He wears his title proudly:
http://s259.photobucket.com/albums/hh287/mistymoon777/Decorated%20images/?action=view¤t=2002386970254488214_rs.jpg
God will take care of this when it’s time…Vick has made his choice…we all have to serve somebody….Fires of hell are forever ……
There are few things in the entire world I feel is as low & wrong as abuseing animals, the elderly & children. Probally animal abuse would be worst because they cannot speak or understand human reasoning for the abuse.
I may have to forgive someone for atrocities & abuse to animals, if they repent, but I don’t have to like that person or ever have anything but disgust for that person. Vick & anyone like him disgusts me & their forgiveness won’t take them very far.
There is a special pocket of Hell all ready and prettified for VicktheDick. The Goddess does not appreciate those who kill her children. His time will come, or, hehe, every ‘dog’ has his day. I hope I live long enough to see his.
What took me aback was this:
Vick seems to think the only people who still care are reporters. “They are writing as if everyone feels that way and has the same opinions they do. But when I go out in public, it’s all positive, so that’s obviously not true.”
What planet is he living on, I was thinking, and then I realized – he’s a celebrity in the US. He exists within a protective bubble within which he pretty much just hears what he wants to hear, and he’s chosen not to hear what advocates for the dogs have to say.
I doubt this will ever change. On the plus side, though, every time Vick is in the news, I’ve had a chance to send folks I know links to the grand jury documents up on the Smoking Gun, and every time someone says to me, ‘I didn’t know it was like that.’
Eucritta, may I please have the link to those grand jury documents?
Here are all my links from Smoking Gun:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/cohorts-say-vicks-dog-killer
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/first-down-vick-cohort-cops-plea
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/more-michael-vick-barbarism-bared
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/michael-vick-indicted
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/michael-vick-cops-felony-plea
We all know what Michael Vick is, a low life s.o.b. Anyone capable of doing, allowing, participate in what he, evidently, enjoys is beyond any of the mental conditions that I have heard of. The AMAZING part is that so many HUMANS can over look and forget these horrendous atrocities. What kind of nation have we become?
I try to not hate any sentient being. I really work on this but Vick pushes my resolve to the absolute limit. I would forgive an abuser who truly feels regret and makes amends. In Buddhist thought repenting isn’t enough, you have to make it right, make it up to those you hurt and acknowledge your hurtful action. I don’t see ‘it happened, somehow…’ as if it were beyond his control as anything of the sort.
And it kills me that sports fans don’t care what he did, how much suffering he caused. It’s a sad comment on our world.
Interesting….GQ seems to have disabled comments on this article.
Where is a link to the grand jury documents? That’d be interesting as well as if anyone knows about a deal he cut with HSUS to make so much money from them.
ezbuddy, I posted my Smoking Gun links above – the post was in moderation for awhile, because of all the links. SG has more Vick documents than those, those are just the ones specifically about the dogs. Warning: they’re very painful to read.
The full details of the HSUS deal have never been made public, so far as I know, and HSUS – as well as other private non-profits – is not subject to FOIA.
I sent the following email to Nike:
Here’s their reply:
Ah, no. Vick doesn’t acknowledge his guilt. “It was something that happened.” Those are not the words of someone who takes responsibility for his actions. Even with the best PR flacks Nike’s money can buy in constant attendance, Vick still reveals himself as a heartless monster. Nike should be ashamed.
Thank you for sharing that grahund. Since Nike apparently is not ashamed, I’ll be ashamed for them.
Even “1000 ways to die” will take a jab at him if they can. On Monday night they did a story about a guy going and trying to steal a fighting pit bull. They of course wrongly portrayed all pit bulls as fighting machines but the interesting part was the names they gave the guy and the dog. To protect the deceased identity they change their names. The robber was Vick and the dog was Michael. Michael ended up killing Vick when he got locked on the dogs cage.
I love it….!
Did anybody watch the Frontline special on kids and sports injuries on PBS? I was fascinated. And I see how Vick (and other young men) are TRAINED to be not only tough, but violent. It’s one thing to expect our youth to join the military and fight for what we think is important, but it’s another to grow them up in a competitive network that habitually rewards abuse. (Of themselves and others…with plenty of glory for the winners only.)
LynnO – Frontline special on kids and sports injuries on PBS? no but I’ll look for it. PBS junkie here and always fond of your comments.
Did anyone see on PBS “Between the Lines” the true story of surfers during the Vietnam War?
Combat veterans Pat Farley and Brant Page will be in my head forever – Pat Farley made me cry, and shit I don’t cry alot…he revealed the worst experience he had in the war and it involved killing his sick pet puppy. It was horrible, it will always haunt him just like the damned war will and has…but y’know all I wanted to do when I watched Pat Farley “confess” was hug him – it took courage to tell what he went through – he has his humanity back even through the evil that he committed and witnessed. He is a good man – and I wish good for him.
So when I think of Vick and I don’t very much…he has no remorse – he’s simply been caught.
In team sports or in back alleys, the group/team/gang of young folk will always follow, idealize & want to do what the “BIG dog” wants. In vick’s case, he was probably the big dog that everyone around him followed. He is more than likely responsible for createing other vicious dog killers.
It’s not only what he has done to those dogs, but what he has done to many other younger men. How many dogs has suffered at the hands of all his peers? But there are still many followers who didn’t get caught & are still out there impressing THEIR peers at how tough THEY are by the cruelty THEY can display & how tough THEIR dogs are.
Vick has successfully created a culture that I’m sure is still secretly operating in the black-market of fighting dogs…and getting away with it!
It matters little if Vick gave up his vice, it’s the warping of his peers minds & what they continue to do with dogs that will be the legacy. …Sad sick culture.