NO...
I dont think that convicted felons should be able to play any professional sports. It is amazing that private sector corporations will refrain from hiring convicted felons, but professional athletics seem to attract them. Since the franchises cannot be trusted to refrain from signing these people, the leagues need to simply make it against the rules.
But then again, I think that professional athletics as a whole are silly and should be eliminated. When I hear that my sons school may be closing because the teachers cannot be afforded (at $30k per year), but some goon can get $20 million a year for playing football, baseball, basketball, golf or badminton... it pisses me off!
Lets send little Joey off to Iraq to get blown in half for $25k per year, and pay Michael Vick $20 million to throw a football!!!! YEAH!!!!!!!!!
RANT OFF
Here is some easy reading for you!!!
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell reinstated convicted felon and dog torturer Michael Vick on Monday, allowing him to immediately begin practicing with any team which will take him. Vick can also return to the field in mid-October. This move will put yet another convicted criminal on the sidelines, in a league already heavy with felons.
Of course, Vick spent 18 months of a 23-month sentence at Leavenworth federal prison for dog fighting charges.
When police raided Vick’s house in Surry County, VA in 2007, they found 65 dogs (nearly all pit bulls), a dog-fighting pit, blood-stained carpets, and various equipment commonly used in dog fighting.
One of the items found on Vick’s property was a ‘rape stand’ which is a device in which female dogs are strapped into and restrained, to allow a male dog to breed with her.
According to the federal indictment, when dogs at Vick’s Bad Newz Kennels lost a fight, or failed to perform well in ‘test matches,’ they were routinely killed by methods including electrocution, hanging, drowning, and in at least one case by “slamming†the dog’s body onto the concrete floor. In one session in April 2007, at least eight dogs were killed through these methods.
Vick took part in these executions along with his partners Purnell Peace, and Quanis Phillips. The indictment detailed a March 2003 incident, in which a female pit bull who had just lost a match was killed. Vick and Peace decided to kill her by “wetting the dog down with water and electrocuting her.â€
Despite these ghastly facts, the NFL has decided to welcome back Michael Vick.
Goodell told reporters: "I do recognize that some will never forgive him for what he did. . I hope that the public will have a chance to understand his position as I have."
To their credit, the New York Giants, the New York Jets, and the Dallas Cowboys have already announced they would not take Vick.
Goodell is not only understanding of those who engage in the torture and killing of man’s best friend, but also of those who torture and kill man himself.
In 1998, St. Louis Rams’ defensive end Leonard Little ran a red light, while driving drunk and hit and killed wife and mother Susan Gutweiler, 47. Little pleaded guilty to a manslaughter charge, served 90 nights in a work release program and was back on the field the following season. In 2004, he was arrested again on drunk driving charges. In 2006, he was selected for the Pro Bowl.
In 2000, Baltimore Ravens’ linebacker Ray Lewis pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, and agreed to testify against his two friends, Reginald Oakley and Joseph Sweeting, in exchange, prosecutors agreed to dismiss murder charges against him. Lewis was accused of stabbing to death two people after a Super Bowl party he attended, where a fight broke out between he and two members of a rapper’s entourage. While the NFL did fine Lewis for the crime, they did not issue any suspension. In 2008, Lewis received his 10th selection to the Pro Bowl.
In 2003, Chicago Bears’ defensive tackle Christian Peter retired after spending six seasons in the NFL. Before being drafted, Peter was arrested eight times for various offenses while in college at the University of Nebraska, one for grabbing a woman by the throat. Peter was also alleged to have raped a freshman named Kathy Redmond multiple times, while head coach Tom Osborne helped cover up the crime, Osborne has since apologized to Redmond. .In 1993, Peter also sexually assaulted two women.
Peter was drafted by the New England Patriots, who in light of his long history of criminal behavior, and his eighth arrest just before the draft, relinquished their rights to him. Peter entered the NFL the following season with the New York Giants.
In 2005, Cleveland Browns’ running back Jamal Lewis served 4 months in prison for attempting to set up a drug deal. Lewis was caught in 2004, as he tried to obtain and distribute five kilograms of cocaine. He received a four-game suspension. In 2008, Lewis rushed for 1,000 yards.
Between 2005-2007, Dallas Cowboys’ cornerback Adam “Pacman†Jones was arrested and/or convicted of multiple charges including disorderly conduct, public intoxication, assault, felony vandalism. In 2006, Jones was arrested for spitting in a woman’s face at a Nashville nightclub. In 2007, Jones assaulted a stripper in a Las Vegas club and threatened the life of a security guard, Jones eventually pleaded guilty to lesser charges. Jones was suspended for the 2007 NFL season, but returned to the league with the Cowboys in 2008.
In 2006, Cincinnati Bengals’ defensive tackle Tank Johnson was charged with aggravated assault and resisting arrest, after allegedly threatening a Chicago police officer. At the time of his arrest, Johnson was on probation for a 2005 guilty plea to carrying a concealed weapon. Johnson was also charged with further probation violations in 2006. Johnson received an eight-game suspension, after serving 43 days in jail.
In April 2009, Cleveland Browns’ wide receiver Donte Stallworth pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges and received a laughable 30-days in jail after hitting and killing husband and father Mario Reyes, 59 in Miami, Stallworth was drunk at the time. Officially, Stallworth is still on suspension from the NFL. The Browns have not released Stallworth, who signed him to a $35 million contract two weeks before he killed Reyes.
During the 2007 NFL season, an incredible 21 percent of the players had arrest records.
