The Life and Times of Little N*ger Jim
By @jimflamez
I will come out of the gate and acknowledge a few things before I get started so that you can better understand my frame of reference. I do not like Michael Vick. I was never as impressed with him as others and I could tell by the way that he carried himself he was likely an asshole, one that even I could not stomach.
That being said I never said the guy was untalented, just not what you think he will be in the N.F.L. I more recently have had similar feelings about New Orleans’s Saints running back and Ray J clean up man Reggie Bush. They were spectacular athletes that really didn’t have a true position in their sport. A lot like Damon Bailey (Google him, he is an Indiana Basketball Great) a listed 6’4 white guard with a jumper. Too slow to run point, to small and non athletic to play the two.
I often chided Vick performances and wondered why he was so beloved. He was good, never great and could lose you a game so quickly with his bad decision making and his inaccuracy in the pocket. I will also let you know that I have been able to watch one of the best traditional QBs ever for the last 12 seasons being a Colts fan.
Michael to me was exactly what I didn’t think the league needed, another black athlete that can do spectacular things on the field, but really isn’t all that good. Similar to Denzel getting the Oscar for Training Day, one of my all time favorites, but not the role you would want to be the groundbreaker, like Halle and her Ball. “Ever seen that movie Monster Ball, bend over like Halle Berry on that part when ole boy knocked her off.” © Webbie
With all these qualms Michael gave me the ultimate talking point. He made a personal indiscretion that was sad and funny at the same time, The Ron Mexico incident. This along with his brother Marcus Vick’s on (stomping an opposing player) and off (too many to list) the field issues made me start to wonder what kind of people they really were. It went from funny to sad so very quickly. These young men were so talented and those talents had been nurtured, but what about their minds and spirits. The deficit was apparent.
Then, the coup de grace, the well chronicled dog fighting saga ended all doubt in my mind. I am a lover of dogs, pit bulls in particular. I have been near them the majority of my life. I have petted them as they have given birth and I have feed the pups with eye droppers due to their mother’s sickness. In all honestly, most days I would take the company of a dog over that of most people. I was disgusted and thought that he should have been penalized. Then they laid down a sentence that I felt was maybe a bit much, but the activities that he took part in were so extreme that I can understand peoples contempt with him.
Over the course of Vick’s sentence I have seen something in him that he never showed me on the field. Yes, at the beginning of this saga, Michael did what he always did. He scrambled. He tried to run around it, to dodge it, to make it go away, but it stuck to him like a DE on a weak side blitz. It brought him to his knees.
Once he realized that there was no escaping this, he did what he should always have done. He stood tall in the pocket. He took what the law and the media had to give him. He served his time and did what was asked of him to regain his ability to continue his career and move on with his life. I still am not a Michael Vick fan, and I still hold his behavior in contempt, but if he does what he says that he will, he will have earned a level of respect from me. Michael Vick has been given a lot and has lost a lot. Now is his chance to show that he can not only stand up tall in the pocket on the field, but more importantly off of it. Get at Me Dog.