A week from today, “The Michael Vick Project” will air on Black Entertainment Television, and the Editorial Board would like to make it clear that we won’t be watching - and we hope the Student Body won’t either.
Vick spent almost two years in federal prison for fighting pit bulls. In case you forgot, he hung them from clotheslines and electrocuted them when they were no longer good at annihilating each other.
Since his release, Vick has been coddled and drooled over. The Philadelphia Eagles took him in a few weeks into the 2009 season — no accountability there.
In December, his team awarded him the Ed Block Courage Award, which is supposed to reward a player who shows “commitment to the principles of sportsmanship and courage.” Sure, Vick, if you equate courage with beating animals until they’re so terrified and angry that they rip each other’s flesh.
Now BET is giving Vick a chance to beg for sympathy and portray himself as someone who deserves forgiveness.
According to a story on Change.org, Vick says on the show that dog fighting “excited him” and he “gravitated to it.” Well, Vick, that might be a defense for an addiction to horror movies or porn, but it’s not a good excuse for the torture and murder of living things. Not only is BET giving him a forum to try to sway us into thinking he’s human, but also, because we’re sure he’s not doing it for free, they’re rewarding him for his horrific behavior.
Americans shouldn’t give him the satisfaction of listening to his story. We should make it clear that we think he’s a monster and deserves the same treatment he inflicted on his dogs.
Until BET changes the title of the show to “The Michael Dick Project,” we’ll be sticking to MTV on Tuesday nights.
