Finally Free (29 page)

Through nine games, we were 6-3—tied for first with the New York Giants in the NFC East Division.

The next game, on November 21, was huge—at home against the Giants. With seven games remaining, and two of those against each other, playoff positioning and winning the division were foremost on our minds.

We beat the Giants 27-17 to take sole possession of first place in the division with a 7-3 record.

Increasingly in interviews, I was getting asked more about life than football. After a game, a reporter asked me if I was at peace because everything was going well for me. I said I was at peace the season before, even when I was on the bench, and that I was just happy to be playing football.

I doubt that's the answer he expected.

One thing I've noticed is that reporters are going to be reporters. Their job is to make a story sound good or to make a story sound extremely bad. You just have to anticipate both good and bad questions and know how you're going to respond.

Judges generally don't talk about football players, but the 2010 season was an exception. Much to my amazement, the man who sentenced me in 2007 spoke out publicly to compliment me.

In early December, the
Washington Post
was working on a story about the legal challenges to the health-care law and interviewed Judge Henry Hudson, who was hearing the case. While they were asking him about that, they also asked him about my on-field success and off-field progress. “He's an example of how the system can work,” Judge Hudson said of me. “He's having a terrific season. I'm very happy for him. I wish him the best of success.”

It meant a lot coming from him.

He made a decision in my life that was pivotal, at a time in my life when nothing really mattered to me. He was probably the only one who thought that a twenty-three-month prison sentence was what I needed to get my life turned around. To see what he said in the paper was gratifying since it demonstrated that I was changing the minds of people who once felt differently about me. It definitely showed me that I was on the right track and doing the right things.

When I first got sentenced, I felt like it was a harsh punishment, but I also had to think about the things that transpired during my pretrial release period. I wasn't respectful to the courts; I wasn't respectful to the public. Judge Hudson knew why he put me in prison for that long, and it's great for him to see me come out and have success, knowing that he did it for a reason. I commend him for that, and I'll continue to make him proud.

It's just the beginning. It won't stop here. I'll have to continue to make great strides.

Judge Hudson was the first of several high-profile people who would comment on how a second chance had helped me and what they thought about it. In between, though, I was still playing football and trying to help the Eagles secure a playoff berth and, hopefully, a Super Bowl title.

After a win over Dallas, we had another signature game.

On December 19, at the Giants' new stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey (the Meadowlands), we trailed 31-10 with seven and a half minutes remaining, and came from behind to win 38-31. Like any other game, we went into that one thinking we were going to win, but obviously, when you fall that far behind, there is a sense of doubt and you start thinking ahead to next week.

I'll never forget that game, though. DeSean Jackson and I were on the sidelines talking, and he was kind of discouraged. I encouraged him to stay in the game and stay focused and keep fighting. I told him that, regardless of anything else that happened, we were going to leave there with some pride and some dignity about ourselves and be able to say we gave it everything we had. Right after that, we scored a touchdown on our next possession. Then a second and a third and a fourth followed and, before you knew it, we had won the game.

DeSean came up with the game-winning punt return for a touchdown as time expired. It was like a walk-off grand slam
home run to win the game. It was amazing! I just couldn't believe it happened the way it did.

I was blessed to throw three touchdown passes in the game, and to run for 130 yards and another score. Fox TV announcer Jimmy Johnson was among those who felt I was a leading candidate for the MVP award, which eventually—and deservedly—went to Tom Brady.

The win over the Giants essentially clinched the NFC East for us. It was called a “comeback for the ages” and was dubbed “the New Miracle at the New Meadowlands.” At the old Giants Stadium, the Eagles had beaten the Giants 19-17 in November 1978, in a game called simply “the Miracle at the Meadowlands.” In that one, Philadelphia scored a touchdown on a bizarre fumble return to win. This win seemed just as unlikely as that one.

We were 10-4; we owned the tiebreaker for the division title over the Giants because we had won both games against them; and things seemed good.

Just before our next game, a report by
Sports Illustrated
writer and NBC broadcaster Peter King opened up a firestorm. King reported that President Barack Obama had called Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie to discuss alternative energy that he was pushing for at Lincoln Financial Field, and my name came up in the conversation.

Mr. Lurie told King: “The president said, ‘So many people who serve time never get a fair second chance.' He was passionate about it. He said it's never a level playing field for prisoners when
they get out of jail. And he was happy that we did something on such a national stage that showed our faith in giving someone a second chance after such a major downfall.”

I was just ecstatic when I heard that. After all, it's the president of the United States, and it doesn't get any better than that. I was very surprised he would mention my name.

I was so grateful to have such a prominent person commend me in front of the entire world about everything that I had worked for and tried to accomplish. It kind of showed that I was on the right track and I was doing the right thing. I hope those comments reverberated around the world to people who are trying to make a comeback and have been given a second chance—to those who are trying to do things right the second time around.

A lot of people don't get that opportunity. I was one of the ones who did, and I'm thankful and blessed. For those comments to come from President Obama was big. For a lot of kids who come from broken families, or who may not be as confident or as fortunate as others, those comments will convince them to strive harder in what they're trying to do in life. If they feel they're not making progress, or if they have been in some trouble and they're trying to climb out of the hole they dug for themselves, knowing that someone believes they're able to do it gives them a sense of hope.

Though the phone conversation really didn't have anything to do with me, I think the statement shows how strongly the president feels about people getting second chances. Obviously he does, or he wouldn't have said it.

President Obama's comments didn't sit well with everyone, though. The whole issue became very political and polarizing. Feedback from a wide range of commentators—conservative and liberal—showed that people thought prison, bankruptcy, and more than three years of being removed from a bad situation wasn't enough.

The most prominent critic was Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson, who was hosting a panel on December 28, 2010, the same night we played the Minnesota Vikings. He was filling in for conservative talk-show host Sean Hannity. Carlson said I should have been “executed” for what I did to dogs.

Carlson said he was a Christian, that he had made mistakes, and that he fervently believes in second chances—but not in my case. “Michael Vick killed dogs, and he did it in a heartless and cruel way,” Carlson said on the air. “I think, personally, he should've been executed for that…. The idea that the president of the United States would be getting behind someone who murdered dogs [is] kind of beyond the pale.”

“I'm all for forgiveness,” Carlson continued. “[But] I think there are some things that are unforgivable, and Michael Vick did one of those things in hurting dogs. However, why is the president weighing in on this?”

The fact that Carlson would make such an emotionally charged statement showed the depths to which the subject had affected people.

Carlson didn't have everyone's support. Doug Schoen, a Fox News contributor on the show, felt differently.

“Bottom line, he did a horrific thing,” Schoen said. “He paid; he went to jail; he is speaking for the Humane Society … he has turned his life around. The Humane Society has said even Michael Vick may well be able to have a dog at some point in the future, and the president acknowledged that this is a country of second chances with a high-profile felon who has acknowledged his foibles. And, you know what? The president was right to make this point, because it's a metaphor, Tucker.”

After being interrupted, Schoen said, “This is about redemption, not a policy decision you don't like…. At Christmas[time], to talk about redemption is not the worst thing in the world, Tucker.”

I stayed out of the whole issue and didn't respond. But I can tell you now that I was stunned by what Carlson said. When I first heard it, I was like,
Wow!
I mean, wishing death on another person? I think for me not to respond at the time was the best decision, because it's foolish and irrelevant when someone says things like that. But the statement put me in the position to do what I've been talking about—to forgive someone.

I forgave him when he said it, but some people won't forgive you when they feel like you've done something wrong. Everybody's heart isn't the same; everybody doesn't think alike. Some people forgive, some people don't. I think people let their emotions get the best of them in situations, and their true inner feelings may show.

After a huge backlash, Tucker later apologized and said he got “too emotional” and that he “overspoke.” He said he was
“uncomfortable with the death penalty in any circumstance. Of course I don't think [Michael Vick] should be executed.” I appreciated that.

One of the things that really blessed me was receiving support from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Previously, PETA had not shown the same support for me that the Humane Society of the United States demonstrated. Ingrid E. Newkirk, the president of PETA, told
Washington Post
reporter Perry Bacon Jr. that Obama's comments concerning my getting a second chance after spending time in prison were “appropriate.”

“Obama's a sports guy, Vick's a sports guy, and comebacks and redemption can happen,” Newkirk told Bacon. “We all want a president who can lift us up and move us forward when ugly things happen, but that cannot let us forget … [we must] remain watchful to avoid future abuses.”