In hindsight, we should have realized it was only a matter of time before T.O. shared his two cents on the Mike Vick situation.
The Bills receiver thinks that Vick should be immediately reinstated with no further suspension, calling further penalties the equivalent of “kicking a dead horse.” (Or, as the case may be, slamming to the ground a dead dog that didn’t fully die after being drowned by a dogfighter who thought that the dog wasn’t fit to fight other dogs.)
Owens also proclaimed that Commissioner Roger Goodell’s treatment of Vick has been “unfair.”
Really, T.O.? Goodell met with Vick two days after Vick was released from federal custody, and Goodell is poised to conditionally reinstate Vick as soon as Monday.
If Goodell wanted to be unfair with Vick, Goodell could have done so in a manner that still would have looked fair. Really, who would have faulted Goodell for waiting until the middle of August to make a decision on Vick’s status? The fact that the league office will, by all apearances, have a decision within a week of the removal of the bracelet from Vick’s ankle is beyond fair. It’s more like bending over backwards.
As we explained last night, Vick could have (and perhaps should have) gotten a far stiffer penalty, in light of everything that he has done.
Still, we think it’s nice that Owens is willing to go to bat for Vick to get a second chance. Then again, T.O. knows the value of persuading someone to overlook past misdeeds. Despite tearing apart the Eagles’ locker room in 2005, the Cowboys overpaid Owens in 2006, at a time when no one else wanted him. And despite helping to obliterate the Cowboys’ chances in 2008, the Bills gave him $6.5 million guaranteed for 2009, at a time when no one else wanted him.
Speaking of Owens’ current team, we can’t help but wonder whether the Bills have enlisted the man who’s already bizarrely beloved in Buffalo in advance of continuing its “all-in” run for a long-coveted Super Bowl title in the 50th season of the AFL, and the 91st year of owner Ralph Wilson’s life, by signing Mike Vick in the hopes of providing the ultimate answer to Miami’s Wildcat attack.