The Jets are scheduled to head to SUNY Cortland for training camp again this summer, but more than 2,500 people have signed a petition in an attempt to keep quarterback Michael Vick from joining them.
Posted on change.org, the petition calls on SUNY Cortland president Erik J. Bitterbaum to bar Vick from stepping foot on campus as a result of his conviction on charges related to dogfighting. Vick served 19 months in prison after the conviction in 2007, halting his playing career and eventually leading him to sign with the Eagles once he had completed his sentence.
“If we welcome Vick onto our campus, we are complicit in his crimes. We are sending the message that, for money and publicity, we will turn a blind eye to the horrors of dogfighting. I don’t want to be that person, and I don’t want SUNY Cortland to abandon its principles so easily,” the petition reads.
The Jets declined to comment when reached by the New York Daily News, although it is hard to imagine that they’d go up to Cortland to train with one of their players barred from participating in camp. The school did not respond to a request for comment.