vick on "60 minutes"

Board fave Gregg Doyel says he seemed remorseful. And willing to take blame!

http://www.cbssports.com/columns/story/12074224

Freeman took the opposite view: http://www.cbssports.com/columns/story/12074225

I think Doyel comes off as a company shill ("I really hated him, but now I see I was wrong all along! Thanks, CBS!" (and yes, I said this to him earlier tonight, so I'm not shredding him anonymously)). Freeman, whom I normally just roll my eyes at, hits this one on the head to me. Vick played the part. He read the book of what to say, and he said it. Doesn't mean he meant a word of it.

I hope Doyel's not wrong. I hope his naivete doesn't come back to bite him in the ass. I hope Vick really has grown a heart. But Christ...I'm not buying it just because he says he did.

 

I don't think Vick is jonesing to get back into dogfighting, but I think he came across as a smoker who now has to go outside. He'll do what he has to do. Say what he has to say. About the only person I think is truly sincere in the whole thing is Dungy. I've always liked him, but for him to put his credibility on the line like this, he's the only one who has more to lose than gain from this thing.

 

agreed. i truly hope i'm wrong but i fear tony may look like vick got over on him when all is said and done. i fear that both tony and reid are trying to rescue vick in a way they failed to rescue their own sons -- to get down to some amateur psychobabble of my own.

 

Absolutely. Here's a great column a friend e-mailed me tonight kind of hitting on what anyone else's reason might be behind this deal.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/breaking/sports_breaking/20090816_Have_Eagles_become_a_halfway_house_.html

 

Somehow, you make a great point.

 

hey, blind squirrels, acorns, etc.

 

I think that is what makes Dungy the man he is. He probably knows that and probably doesn't care. He's willing to take that risk to "save" someone that many folks feel isn't worth saving.

 

no question as i've said before, dungy is without question the most sincere, incredibly gifted human being i've had the pleasure -- honor, really -- to cover and get to know a bit. no doubt he is doing this for all the right reasons, with absolutely no concern that it might not turn out well if it becomes clear vick has simply gotten over on everyone.

if so, i'm sure dungy does not care in the least that he was played. the potential reward to him far exceeds the risk.

i can still be concerned on his behalf, though.

 

Seriously? I thought his performance was dreadful. He didn't pin Vick down on any details - how long were you involved? How did it begin? Even if dog fighting is part of your "culture", what was behind the torture of the dogs you killed? All I heard was a bunch of platitudes from Vick wrapped around 87 closeups of Brown's "serious face".

 

I was surprised they only made it one segment, though I wonder if it was planned to be two segments, but they lopped one off because the PGA ran over.
Mostly it seemed set up for Vick to say he was sorry. If you're James Brown and you work on getting this interview for months, don't you open up the interview, do a remote at where the kennels were and have Vick talk you through what he did? Instead it played like ARod's ESPN interview.

 

I was hoping for more 'drama', DanOregon but, let's not forget...

James Brown is The Man of No Opinions.

Which must make his radio show a real must listen, probably like the replaced Mike Tirico Show, The Show of No Opinions.

I'll definitely take a 'wait and see' approach on Vick as he hardly showed ANY leadership skills in Atlanta. Even throwing out the dogfighting, Vick had his entourage that turned off teammates, flipping off the fans, the MySpace pic with the blunt. In other words, not out of the Brady/Manning/McNabb/Warner way of leading a team.

 

What was the deal with the AP including every single "you know" in the quotes they ran in the story on the interview? I've never seen them include every "uh," "um" or "like" before. It was terrible trying to read it. When people speak it, it doesn't sound so bad because it's almost like a placeholder - instead of silence, it's 'you know' - but in print, it was very distracting.