Michael Vick

Forgive me if I move away from baseball for a moment, but Michael Vick, it's being reported, just signed a two-year deal with the Philadelphia Eagles. I won't bother recounting the details of his sordid story because they are so well known.

With Vick returning to the league, you're going to hear a lot of talk about how he's going through a difficult period in his life, that he has served his time, and that he deserves the shot he's getting with the Eagles. All of that is true. What is also true is that Vick tortured and murdered dogs for sport. Vick was making tens of millions of dollars a year, and he facilitated, hosted, and participated in dog-fighting to make an extra forty grand every now and again. Was it really about the 40k? Or was it about the sick thrills he got by holding dominion over another living being? Vick's crimes were grievous, and grievously has he answered them: His career is destroyed and will never truly be repaired, his reputation and image have been destroyed and will never be repaired, and he lost two years of his life in jail. He has paid his debt to society, and I have no objection to his return. But let us not minimize his crimes, or forget that he mutilated animals for the sheer visceral pleasure of it all.