Two months ago, animal rights activist group PETA demanded that the NFL subject beleaguered QB Michael Vick to a brain scan to test for psychopathy before allowing him to reenter the league. More on that after a brief summary of the events leading up to now.
Vick, once a perennial Pro-Bowler and one of the richest athletes in professional sports, has fallen on hard times as of late. After he was implicated after the bust of an underground dogfighting ring, he was suspended from football and sentenced to 23 months in federal prison. He filed for bankruptcy protection six months later.
It was recently revealed that Vick could be released in May to serve the rest of his sentence in home confinement. What's more, he has every intention of making a comeback in the NFL.
Enter the weird, brain-scanning stuff.
PETA's letter seems earnest enough. It asks, quite simply, that Vick should be tested for the capacity to express true remorse before being allowed to "be a children's hero again." Never mind how troubling the implications of treating the mind as a collection of springs and gears, rather than a complex, emotional, often irrational and easily misunderstood mystery, truly is.
Toni Monkovic, a writer for the New York Times' excellent Fifth Down Blog, couldn't help but wonder in an entry posted yesterday: has PETA gone too far?
Today, a guest commentator addressed that question. If given the choice between entrusting a beloved pit bull to PETA or Vick, he'd take his chances with Vick.
It's an interesting read.
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