Michael Vick: Honored by the Eagles, Dishonored by the Critics

Today I read an article by Yahoo! Sports informing its readers of how Michael Vick won the Ed Block Courage Award. The article talked about why it was a bad thing for the NFL to recognize.

The spokesperson for PETA (an animal-rights activist group) discussed in an article featured on NFL.com how they felt Vick was not deserving of the award because of the dogfighting charges that led to him being incarcerated in a federal prison for 18 months.

Needless to say, there is some opposition to Vick being honored this award by the Eagles team.

Now, I want to make this clear: I do not at all support the dogfighting that Vick did at his house, and by no means do I think it is right. And the criminal justice system certainly took action by punishing him with 18 months in a federal prison.

But, at the same time, can we not see that Vick—while he did something that was against the law—served his time in prison and cooperated as he was asked to?

While he shouldn’t have been there in the first place, let’s face it: we all make mistakes.

If you are reading this article right now, you’ve made some mistakes in your life, right? I know I have. Why on earth should we be giving some people a harder time for their mistakes than ourselves?

Sure, we may not all ever be convicted of something like dogfighting, but we have all broken a law or two at some point and have paid the consequences for it (hopefully).

I understand that criticism is going to continue for Vick and the Eagles for this award. But I think a few points should be made.

1. What is the Ed Block Courage Award and Why Don’t We Hear More About It?

The award itself was named after former Baltimore Colts player Ed Block, who was recognized for his work within the community. The website linked here actually talks about the Foundation’s purpose, which is “to raise Awareness and Prevention of Child Abuse.”

This award is given to an NFL player who, selected by his team, exemplifies “commitment to the principles of sportsmanship and courage.” Characteristics of the recipient of the award include “professionalism, great strength, dedication, and a community role model.”

This has been helpful for me because it gave me a chance to learn more about this award.

But why have we not heard more about this? And more importantly, why is it that we are hearing about this now? I’d be willing to say it’s because of the controversial decision the Eagles made by choosing Michael Vick to receive this award.

This leads to my next point.

2. Is This Completely Undeserved for Vick?

I find it interesting that there is so much criticism of Vick and the Eagles for his reception of the award. Most intriguing is, in large part, that this criticism—and how Vick has dealt with it for the past year or two—could be the exact reason he’s won this award.

Let’s face it, 18 months in a federal prison was probably not an easy thing for Vick. He was most likely treated roughly and had to abide by the strict rules and regulations of those at the prison or face grave consequences.

How many of you would make it through 18 months of prison with good behavior for that time span?

I’m sure many do not want to be confronted with that question, but it’s worth asking, because there are some who go into prison and regress and have to stay longer than their sentence required initially because of bad behavior.

Vick could have been on that end of things, but he wasn’t.

Think about this as well: Vick still had to deal with media attention from all sorts of people and criticism all around. By no means does that make things easier to deal with.

Yet, he found a new NFL team with players and coaches who support him very much, despite his past mistakes.

While that doesn’t make what he did right, it does give him hope for a better future and encouragement to strive to continue to become a better man of character.

3. Parting Thoughts

For those criticizing Vick, I completely understand your sentiments on how you felt it was unfair for Vick to be honored with such an award. However, keep this in mind: there are people who harm humans who do not get punished for it.

I understand that harming animals is wrong, but so is harming humans. If we are going to hold people accountable for the harm of animals, we should also do the same for human kind as well.

Also, I think it is fair for you to continue to criticise, but at some point, you may need to give Vick his credit and due for what he has done thus far. If he continues on this road, there’s no doubt in my mind that he could become a man that exemplifies good character.

Lastly, instead of taking time to criticise Vick (or most of your time, rather), take some time to talk about the players who you believe deserve the recognition and write more articles about what these players are doing within their communities so that the public can hear about the good things going on and understand its significance.

As it is now, we are only hearing about this award because of the controversy surrounding Michael Vick winning it, and that is unfair given that we rarely hear about this award to begin with.

Take some time and talk more about the award’s past and how it’s led to the present so that it might have a better future.

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Jay Cutler and The Chicago Bears Offense Is Perplexing

Back in April, I remember getting a text message from a friend of mine telling me that the Bears had traded for Jay Cutler; I then realized it was an April Fools joke.

Kyle Orton and three draft picks later, the deal was done and Chicago rejoiced;I know I did.

The trade looked really good on paper. You have a premier QB coming to a team that had been quarterback hungry since the departure of Jim McMahon in the mid-1980s. He is young (25) and a Pro Bowl talent with just about all the physical attributes one would want out of their quarterback.

This is what Chicago had been waiting for, right?

Seven months later, we are staring at a Bears team that is 4-5 after an abysmal 10-6 loss to the San Francisco 49ers. The whole team is struggling this season, but Jay Cutler seems to be a perplexing issue.

For one, Cutler commands a Bear offense that is struggling to run the football (ranking 29th in the NFL in rushing offense). 

Many are calling out the offensive line and amidst are some struggles, Cutler’s protection is also perplexing.

The offensive line is tied for seventh in the NFL for QB hits allowed while tied for 19th with sacks allowed.

This means that while the offensive line has been struggling protecting Cutler, he hasn’t taken that many sacks, though the hits are probably starting to take their toll a bit.

So, it’s clear that the Bears have some issues with running the football to set up the pass. More issues arise, however, in the passing game.

The turnovers have been given away and often in bunches.

The multiple interceptions (five) against the Niners is a continuing trend, as Cutler also threw multiple interceptions in week one vs. Green Bay (four), week six against Atlanta (two) and week seven against the Bengals (three).

What’s interesting about this is, all of these games (including the past game at San Fran) were significant losses on the road. Another point of interest is that 14 of Cutlers 19 total interceptions of the year came out of these four losses and Cutler has only been sacked five times within those four games.

And if that’s not enough, a great stat brought up during the national telecast got larger in week 10;Cutler leads the league in interceptions thrown in the redzone.

Evaluation time

Are the Bears struggling? Absolutely. Is the offensive line struggling to open holes for the running game and protect Jay Cutler? You bet.

Is the defense struggling? Not that much last night, but overall this season, they have been.

Who is to blame, then?

While many would like to point fingers at the defense, or the offensive line–and both, there are integral places to focus on. I’m choosing to go in two directions that I feel are connected (and could possibly get me run out of Chicago).

1. Cutler

I know Cutler has young receivers, a struggling offensive line, and no running game to speak of, but it still does not excuse the fact that Cutler is making poor decisions with the football.

Remember, Cutler is considered to be one of the premier QB talents in the NFL.

Do you think the Bears traded two first round draft picks, another draft pick, and Kyle Orton to get a turnover machine?

I sure hope not.

What’s more is that we had turnover issues like this in the past with a guy having similar problems.

While Rex Grossman had his own problems and issues, Cutler has his own too. The main issue is that while I enjoy his short memory of past mistakes, I do not enjoy his recklessness with the football.

Cutler is a team captain and therefore, a team leader.

He needs to take better care of the football than what he’s been doing, especially since he turns it over so often to put the defense in a bad spots to. Which potentially, leads up to a big play–which leads to falling behind early and often.

2. Fans and Chicago Media

I really disliked how fans and the Chicago Sports media (as well as the national sports media) treated Rex Grossman.

I bring this up only because (and this has been highly debated) Grossman–while he also had issues turning over the football–also played with a struggling offensive line, receivers who struggled with catching the football, and making plays, and not so great running backs in pockets of his career in Chicago (2003-2008).

Furthermore, Kyle Orton, Brian Griese, and Grossman all struggled under the offensive line–particularly in 2007 when all took a collective 42 sacks (Orton, two; Griese, 15; Grossman, 25).

The point is this: the Bears offensive line issues–in terms of pass protection–is nothing new.

In fact, it’s been around for quite some time, but a lot fans and media decided to blame it on Rex and cry for a “good” quarterback instead of focusing on the lack of an offensive line, good running backs, and receivers. 

Well, now we have the “good” quarterback in Jay Cutler, but the problem is there are additional issues among Cutler’s turnovers.

Final thought

Like I mentioned earlier, I was excited about the Jay Cutler deal. However, I also came to a conclusion at the end of last season:

If the Bears do not produce an offensive line that can protect a quarterback for longer than three seconds, it won’t matter who’s under center calling plays.

Now, given the Jay Cutler’s current progress, I have made this conclusion:

While a good offensive line is necessary, turnovers are the quickest mistakes to losing football games.

Cutler needs to take ownership for his mistakes and learn to make better decisions regardless of who his supporting cast is.

If he does that, he could be considered something greater than a premier quarterback and actually be seen as a true leader.

I agree with the guys at NFL Total Access in what the Chicago Bears need: good leadership.

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