FanNation - The Republic of Sport

I know, you've heard enough about Vick already. "What he did was wrong." I am not here to argue for or against that point. "What he did was immoral and disguisting." Once again, you will find no argument for or against that here. "He should be banned from the NFL for life!" Not on my priority list for this article. "He should have to give back every last penny he made to the Atlanta Falcons!" AHA! Now you have struck a chord deep inside my soul. This is not about Vick's doings and how disguisting or wrong or terrible they were, this is about a man who is doing, in my opinion, equally disguisting things, if not more so, than Vick has done. The one and only, Mr. Arthur Blank, owner of the Atlanta Falcons.

 My problem with Blank lies in how he has handled a couple situations. First off, when the allegations initially came out, he stood by his quarterback and did... nothing. I don't care if the Pope himself was your qb, if the federal government brings up allegations against someone with a profile of Vick, they are all but certain they can get a conviction. They would not have announced this if they were kinda sorta sure. Blank should have done his own investigation instead of doing nothing.

Secondly, when Vick finally admitted to his accusations, Blank took the moral high road that goes right over Mount Everest. He claimed that the thing that made him most angry was that Vick lied about the case. Duh, he lied. What was he supposed to do, say "Yes, Mr. Blank, I am currently fighting dogs in multiple houses, so in case i get convicted, you might want to start a case against me." I would lie if faced with that situation. Not saying Vick's lying was right, but in the situation he had put himself in, he really had no other choice. And also, is Mr. Arthur Blank, reallytrying to convince us that he has never lied to a player about anything? Has he never told a coach he will keep him on even if it means relocating, only to have fired him 6 weeks later. Leave the condescending nature to people who dont have as much limelight as you, so they can just be brushed aside, and they dont make Americans look terrible.

Thirdly (I know this is really long, but this is where I get FURIOUS with Blank), now Blank is trying to get most if not all of Vick's bonus money back on a clause that doesn't include the word "only", which apparently means that the money that Vick was promised as a bonus, wasn't "only" a bonus, or some legal mumbo-jumbo. Please. Your team sucked with Vick, you are really gonna suck without him, and he is the ONLY, and I mean only, reason you have sold-out your arena the past couple years. Vick has made the NFL, and namely the Falcons, uncalculable amounts of money. Without Vick, they would be the NFL version of Notre Dame, without the great history. A bad team that fires it's coaches every couple of years, blaming the teams misfortunes fully on the coach. Mr. Blank, please let your humiliated ex-employee, whom you once called, "like a son", go to jail, do his time, and try to make another attempt at his life. To take a word from Mike Gundy, don't downgrade him when he's already hurting. This is the country for second chances anyways.