Wow, What a read. After 30+ pages of reading, I have enjoyed the roller coaster ride and perspectives from all sides. Being a native central Pennsylvanian and currently living in Philly, I too will weigh in with my bullet points from this fantastic thread.
Dogfighting analogies: Only one even comes close and that's **** fighting. Both are sports done on the fringe of society and illegal in this country. Both are done openly outside of this country. Both involve animals that can be pets or eaten (see Asia).
Dogfighting does not come close to hunting, trophy hunting, murder, child abuse, abortion, domestic abuse, selling baby organs (not to be confused with baby grand pianos), slaughterhouses, horse racing, boxing, being a gladiator, or being a carnivore or vegan. These are all separate arguments to introject personal agenda onto dog fighting.
Tomlin is not a member of Bad News Kennels.
Tomlin does not hire players.
A "rape chair" is also called a "breeding harness". The harness restricts the motion of the female so it can be inseminated, and not harm itself or the male during copulation. It is common practice by breeders to selectively breed bloodlines in just about every breed of dog if natural copulation doesn't occur. They are not unique to breeding fighting dogs. They are also used for breeding with horses.
Fighting dogs are not pets. They are bred for ferocity, and are kept in cages away from social interaction. Selective breeding is done to create the most aggressive dogs.
Underperforming dogs are killed. I read the Vick report stem to stern, and he most definitely tortured (with electricity), drowned, and killed dogs. I did not read anywhere where they stole domestic dogs to train on, killed domestic dogs, or had instances where his fighting dogs came into contact with the general populace. All dogs killed during training were the less aggressive dogs that were also being trained.
Mike Vick went to prison for transporting fighting dogs across state lines (federal offense), as well as admitting financial funding, and participating in the hanging and drowning of dogs in his plea.
Financial:
Vick was the posterboy of the NFL. He had a 100M contract from the Falcons and $50M in endorsement deals lined up. The Nike Michael Vick experience was a HUGE national promotion. When he went to jail, his sponsors dropped him and he chose to pay back $6.5M of his prorated signing bonus back to Atlanta. He filed chapter 7 bankruptcy for about 18M. If he chose chapter 11, he would have had most of his debt exonerated, but he chose to pay back his debt. He is now around $1M owed and his current net worth is $15M
Eagles (I worked with the Eagles when Vick was signed out of prison. Extra security was brought in and they were expecting demonstrations in the thousands to occur).
First game back less than 100 protesters. Game 2 about 20. This is the same city that boos their own players and santa.
Eagles award Vick with his second $100M contract
Charity:
Vick is a speaker for the HSUS. Even after his community service hours have been served, he continues to work with the Humane Society to educate others on the horrors of dog fighting and is helping to push litigation to end dog fighting by making it illegal to be a spectator. He personally funds all of is speaking engagements and is not paid for his time.
Conclusion:
There is a tremendous amount of hate coming out about signing Mike Vick. I'd expect that hate more so in 2009 in Philadelphia when I experienced it first hand from my Eagles Fanatic neighbors. My neighbor, who was a dog owner, also took the stance of not rooting for the eagles while Vick was there. In time, the team was stronger than his resolve and he did support his team, though didn't like having to root for Vick to do so. I don't expect the same reaction 8 years later.
I do enjoy the irony of supporting the Eagles team that took in a felon directly from prison: gave him millions of dollars, and then a 100M contract, yet shunning your life long team for taking on a backup (who happens to be a positional upgrade), at a significant cost savings (probably around $2M), after 8 years of remorse.
I don't think Vick is a good person at all, and I probably wouldn't want to know him personally. I do however, respect his talent and ability as a football player. As a businessman, I'm able to separate the personal from the business side. This gives me clarity to make difficult decisions, or interact with emotional clients/peers, without jeopardizing my company over emotional concerns. This is how we were able to grow and expand while surviving the worst recession of most of our lifetimes.
There is nothing wrong with taking a stance if you feel strongly about something. There is also nothing wrong with taking the stance of forgiveness. These aren't the reasons to blame each other for your reasonings. Just believe what you believe and accept sometimes, you'll be in the majority, and other times not.
