The Right Rev. Jesse Jackson, known to have spoken about, (off mike) his desire to cut Barak Obama's nuts off!Surprise, surprise.
As for Vick. He has paid his debt to society. He has done his time. He has paid a stiff price for his idiocy. He should be allowed to play for whoever wants him in accordance with the stipulations of the NFL.
As for the team owners. They have every right to be hugely cautious about signing Vick. He has shown terrible judgement. He's gangsta on top of that, apparently. He's damaged goods. He's a potential liability waiting to happen. (That last line is from the department of redundancy department.) After proper deliberation they will decide team by team. Some won't even consider the guy. The ten foot pole theory in operation. The Oakland Raiders probably dream about having him, bad ass rep that they have.
This is all from a guy who couldn't give a rip about pro football really.
As for the Rev. Jackson: Nobody has to hire Vick. Just like, in a free market, nobody has to hire anybody. But Jesse has probably never seen that fact as clearly as I do, and probably never will. As for JJ making the absurd allusion to Jackie Robinson's entry into the Bigs: that was about race. The Vick case is not.
From the cheap seats folks. From the cheap seats.
Money shot from the formerly great NYT story on the matter:
“Democracy does not guarantee success,” Jackson said. “Democracy guarantees an opportunity. It’s not fair to de facto try to lock him out of his right to compete. If he can’t make the team, don’t let him play. If he can, let him work.”
Jackson, born in 1941, has been a civil rights activist for most of his adult life. He said that in some ways, Vick’s attempt to re-enter the N.F.L. was similar to Jackie Robinson’s entering Major League Baseball.
Although their situations were drastically different, Jackson said, the challenge was the same: Which owner would have the courage to make a controversial signing?
Viewed from a 2009 prism, that comparison seems blasphemous. Robinson became an American icon because of his courage and perseverance. The only thing he did wrong — in some eyes — was to be born African-American.
Your friendly blogger had a close brush, almost literally, with the Rev. Jackson back in the early summer of 1984 in New York City. He walked within about two feet of me, there in my dress whites. Eyes straight ahead. Looking awfully serious. JJ was running for the highest office in the land and he just might have wanted to make a point that day on the USS Iowa, a restored battleship that NYC was considering homeporting at Staten Island. There was a rumor that he might just want to chain and lock himself to the ship to protest the presence of nuks (which we could neither confirm nor deny that the Iowa had them.) Made for a interesting day. He did board Iowa with some other protesters but there was no chaining that day.
The Navy. It's not just a job, it's a blow job. Oops, I mean an adventure!
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