Welcome back, Michael Vick

We don’t need to get into the details of Vick’s well-documented transgressions, but the quick summary is that at the peak of his career – and earning power – he was busted for running a dog fighting ring and was subsequently prosecuted and jailed, and suspended from the National Football League.

At the time of Vick’s arrest, he was the highest-paid player in North America’s biggest sports league – a star still on the rise with a decent-enough Atlanta Falcons team around him that it seemed like nothing but the sky would be his limit.

Flash forward a couple of years and change since the whole deal went down and Vick is now out of jail, having paid his penance, and has signed a two-year deal to back up Donovan McNabb with the Eagles.

Which brings us to the topic at hand: Should Michael Vick be allowed to resume his professional football career.

Of course, I’m not the only one to address this topic in the media, but I felt compelled to weigh in following a conversation I was involved in with some family members and a visitor around the dinner table a few weeks ago.

After all, the most important court of opinion in sports isn’t in the pages of a daily newspaper or website, it’s in front of an HD flat screen on Sunday.

Look, what Vick did was terrible – fighting and killing dogs for the sake not only of one’s pleasure, but also for profit, is a truly despicable act. But we live in a society that believes in reform and that people can grow up and learn from their mistakes. You may not be able to change a leopard’s spots, but with the right guidance, you can certainly teach it not to eat you.

Our guest the night of our Vick debate did not agree – in fact, he went as far as to compare Vick to a child molester. Sorry, friend, that’s apples and oranges.

As far as any of us know, Vick is not a murderer, he is not a child molester, he is not a rapist. He is a human being who made a terrible mistake and paid for it by rotting for two years in a jail cell. He’ll continue to pay for it with the looks and comments from anyone he crosses for the rest of his life. Should he have been jailed for his acts? Absolutely. Does he deserve a second chance? 100 per cent.

Like a Republican accusing a Democrat of being unfaithful to his wife, he who casts the first stone should definitely make sure he doesn’t live in a glass house. By no means are we a society of dog killers, but we all make mistakes.

Vick made a bigger one than most, but if he truly has learned his lesson and will use his fame and money to make our world just a little bit better from now on, then sign me up for a Number 7 Eagles jersey…

Well, only if the Jets don’t make the playoffs.