Here's to a Lions win over felonious QB

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Posted: Sept. 16, 2010


Here's to a Lions win over felonious QB

BY DREW SHARP
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST

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I usually don't care whether the local team wins or loses. When you have been in the sports-writing business as long as I have, you instinctively divorce yourself emotionally. It's usually just another game, another story, another deadline. But I'm making an exception to that code Sunday.
I want the Lions to win for one deeply personal reason:
Michael Vick.
He's forever the convicted felon who tortured and killed dogs, and he always should be addressed in such fashion.
It still offends me that, regardless of the heinousness of his deeds, he got the opportunity to return to the biggest entertainment stage in all professional sports. And it's equally appalling that there are those now actually rooting for his competitive success.
I don't care that he "paid his debt" to society after years of operating an illegal dogfighting and gambling operation, as well as the torturing and killing of helpless animals, all for the sake of some perverse definition of "entertainment." I refuse to buy into the popular plotline of redemption because the primary motivation for forgiveness in this particular regard is less about a religious imperative and more about Vick helping somebody win a fantasy football week.
If that makes me a hardened, unsympathetic cur ... so be it.
But Vick has done something unimaginable: He will have me wearing Honolulu blue and silver -- in spirit, anyway.
I hope the Lions embarrass him Sunday, in what probably will be the quarterback's first start since the end of the 2006 season. I hope Kyle Vanden Bosch pursues him with maniacal verve. I hope Ndamukong Suh treats him with the same attitude he showed Cleveland quarterback Jake Delhomme in the exhibition season.
I may recite under my breath the actual lyrics of "Gridiron Heroes," the traditional Lions fight song, during the game rather than one of my various revised versions like "Backwards down the field ... it is yardage they will yield ..."
Philadelphia coach Andy Reid told reporters Wednesday that Vick would take the bulk of the snaps with the first unit in practice at least through today. Starter Kevin Kolb suffered a concussion in the Eagles' 27-20 season-opening loss to Green Bay. Reid said that Kolb failed his concussion test Wednesday, meaning that the earliest he could return to practice would be Friday. And considering the additional attention on how NFL teams combat head injuries, it's unlikely that the Eagles will chance returning Kolb to the lineup this soon.
It likely will be Vick, 30, starting Sunday at Ford Field.
This isn't about revisiting the old argument of whether someone who tortured and killed defenseless animals should be held in greater disregard than those NFL players who accidentally took a human life through criminal drunken negligence.
This is about never forgetting. It doesn't matter how elusive he remains when scrambling out of the pocket, he should never evade the enduring scorn from those who will forever hold him in low regard.
But let's end this on a positive note, shall we?
It took Michael Vick to turn me into a Lions fan -- if only for one day.

Contact DREW SHARP: 313-223-4055 or dsharp@freepress.com. Catch "Shep and Sharp" 3-6 p.m. weekdays on WDFN-AM (1130).
Lions beat writer Dave Birkett will answer readers’ questions in a live chat at 3 p.m. Friday at freep.com/sports. Then come back Sunday for a live blog of the Lions-Eagles game, hosted by special writer Nick Meyer.






GREAT ARTICLE FROM THE CITY OF DETROIT WHO GAVE RON LeFLORE A SHOT....
 

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