Saturday, January 07, 2006
Sports columnist Aaron McFarling: Happy ending in Vick's hands and still is
Aaron McFarling
Recent columns
"The only person I have to blame is myself. The only person who can fix this is myself."
-- Marcus Vick, via written statement, Aug. 3, 2004.
That's the long and the short of it. Right there, in 18 words.
Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer repeatedly said that he wanted the Marcus Vick story to have a happy ending. He gave Vick numerous chances to make this happen.
It didn't. Vick was kicked off the team Friday because the university said it could no longer tolerate the "cumulative effect of legal infractions and unsportsmanlike play."
Tech did the right thing. For the school. For the team. For the fans. And yes, even for Vick.
For most everyone, really.
We say "most everyone," because the shock and finality of this will no doubt send some people, believing they're doing the compassionate thing, rushing to Vick's defense. The media were out to get him. He was a victim of his surname. If Beamer had pulled Vick at halftime of the Gator Bowl, this would have never happened.
Maybe some of that is true. But remember Vick's statement. At least on Aug. 3, 2004, he understood the conditions of his return and where the ultimate accountability lay.
And if people really want what's best for him, they'll wish him well in the NFL -- and hope the folks there hold him to his word.
Now, let's keep some perspective here. It's never easy to do that when a local story becomes a national one, but let's give it a shot.
The following has been said before, but it is worth repeating, very slowly:
This ... is ... football.
Vick said it himself, after the Elvis Dumervil incident. It was an accident, he said, and "football is football."
He was using it as a defense for the stomp, but whether he realized it or not, he was making the basic argument Tech needed to render this decision.
Football is football. Football is not life. Football is not even a metaphor for life.
Football is a game.
And most importantly, playing football is a privilege.
Telling a young man after repeated warnings that he can no longer play football for you is not destroying his life. If anything, it is an attempt at helping him. It is sending a message about consequences, even if those consequences seem harsh.
Somewhere along the way, somebody had to take a stand.
The stand came from Tech President Charles Steger. It was his statement announcing the dismissal just before the workday ended Friday.
But really, how much more of this could everybody take? After the Dumervil incident, fans who had supported Vick through every turn were suddenly having doubts. Tech alumni who don't even care about football were writing letters to administrators and newspapers expressing their outrage. Donors and former players chimed in, asking for something swift and meaningful to be done.
How much longer could one man, talented though he is, stand in one corner and a university in the other?
And then came Friday. News broke that Vick was stopped for allegedly speeding and driving with a suspended license in Hampton on Dec. 17.
On their own, these charges are minor. A couple of traffic violations that haven't even gone to court yet? Big deal.
But the standards that apply to everybody else do not apply to Vick, and he knows this better than anybody. He knows this because he has stood in front of a judge before, a judge who gave him a stern but caring lecture, a judge who told Vick that if the quarterback didn't put his life in order, he would "put [Vick] in jail, no questions asked."
And he knows this because of the guidelines laid down by the university on Aug. 3, 2004.
"If there is any more trouble, his Virginia Tech career is effectively ended," Steger said that day. "But just as important, this offers a compassionate, last-chance opportunity for Vick to get his personal life in order."
Now, that second part is not entirely true. There is no such thing as "a last-chance opportunity" to get your personal life in order. Vick still has that opportunity. Whether he seizes it is up to him.
The truth is, all of this was up to him. He made his choices, leaving the school with only one.
We can all still hope for a happy ending. That optimism doesn't have to change.
The only thing that has changed is this: If a happy ending occurs, it will have to occur someplace else.
