After Eagles quarterback Mike Vick abruptly bailed last month on his commitment to appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Vick addressed the move only through others. On Friday, Vick talked for the first time about his eleventh-hour decision not to do the interview.
“I just thought the timing wasn’t right, based on everything that was going on with the contract, the CBA and certain things that I didn’t want to touch on at the time,” Vick said Friday, according to the Associated Press. “I felt like I needed to do more in order to be on the show to talk about the past and to talk about the present and how prosperous things are and how bad they were and how we can move forward. I think when I do go on, it’s going to be outstanding.”
If he’s truly planning to go on, he needs to do it before September 25, since after that day Oprah no longer will be doing the show.
And her first question should be why in the world did he think that she’d ask questions about the CBA? As to his contract, he had been answering that question whenever asked, during radio interviews and press conferences.
So it’s fair to conclude that the “certain things that I didn’t want to touch on at the time” were the reason for the move, and it’s also fair to conclude that he’s referring to: (1) his six-year lifestyle of dogfighting; (2) the ability of Oprah to asking probing questions like, “Do you think you’d still be doing it if you’d never gotten caught?” and to crack through any scripted response; and/or (3) the fear that other guests would have included people who adopted dogs rescued from his rural Virginia property -- and possibly one or more of the dogs themselves.
Of course, all of that could still happen during his eventual appearance on the show. And some would definitely regard that approach as “outstanding.” But probably not in the way that Vick was using the term.