Frankly, the legend of Michael Vick will be determined as we go forward. It won't be determined on the field of football. His life, he will never ever be able to recover from what he criminally and murderously took part in, but he has an opportunity to create a legend where maybe he can be a force in stopping the horrendous cruelty to animals, the dogfighting. A lot of us probably have our heads in the sands, and I know I have, when it comes to what really goes on in inner cities and around the country with dogfighting and cruelty to animals. It's not a good picture.

That's Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie, from Mike Lombardi's Sunday at the (Football) Post column (which you should read all the way through for more, and every Sunday if you like both football and management.) I don't care about Vick as a football player, though as a Giants fan I'm worried about the two games we play them. But I spent some of my earlier years working on animal welfare issues, managing a foster dog care network for abandoned animals. Mrs. S is more the animal rights person than me, but marriage to her means seeing so many depressing pictures of cruelty. It's not the only reason I've been vegetarian for more than 20 years, but as I try to balance my diet more lately I still think about eating things with faces, and shudder.

Labels: football, Gratitude