General

Michael Vick Becomes Jeffrey Lurie’s Social Experiment

Aug 14, 2009, 4:35 PM UTC

I was all set to sit down and write about how contrite and sincere Michael Vick came off during his media debut with the Eagles. Then about mid-way through my post, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie sat down in front of the microphone with this opening statement:â†µâ†µ“I’m just going to speak from the heart and speak from the hip because there’s nothing really to prepare.”â†µ

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â†µâ†µI’d heard and read that Lurie was a big animal lover. He went to great lengths to reiterate that very fact on Friday. And if you’ve got any doubt about how Lurie feels about this signing, well, sample some of these tasty choice nuggets from the first few minutes of Lurie’s presser:â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥-- “Sometimes in life you have to make extremely difficult and soul-searching decisions, where there’s no right answer. There’s probably a lot of wrong answers, but there’s no clear path and right answer. This was one of them.”â†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥-- “I don’t even have words to describe the cruelty, the torture, the complete disregard for any definition of common decency.”â†µâ‡¥
â†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥-- “Sometimes if you take somebody who created horrendous behavior in any field, creating the atomic bomb and then become an anti-nuclear activist, whatever it is, you have an opportunity.”â†µâ‡¥

â†µâ†µâ†µSo yeah, I realize Lurie is speaking in generalities on that last one, but to essentially put Vick in the same sentence with Robert Oppenheimer ... well, Lurie seems less than thrilled with what he’s done here. It leads me all to one thing: Lurie doesn’t give a damn if Vick plays a single down. â†µ

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â†µLurie, as an animal lover is in a position of power over Vick, someone he clearly reviles. Vick is now essentially Lurie's toy for amusement. Vick will sit, stand and roll over in the off-the-field world or else. Think that's a stretch? I'll leave you with this one last thought from Lurie:â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥My own measurement of Michael Vick will be a hundred-percent, is he able to create social change in this horrendous arena of animal cruelty. Whether he’s successful with us on the field? Sure I hope he is. But his legend and whether we are giving him a second chance will be successful if he can diminish the level of animal cruelty. That’s it. â†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥[...]â†µâ‡¥
â†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥If he is not proactive, he won’t be on the team, because that’s part of the agreement.â†µâ‡¥

â†µâ†µâ†µSo basically what he’s saying is “Sit Michael, sit. Good QB.“â†µ

â†µâ†µAnd not that any of us here at TSB are body language experts, but if you watched Lurie (or even looked at the screen cap above) it’s clear both from the way he looked and the way he spoke that Lurie is begrudgingly letting this all happen. There’s a reason this deal is for one year with an option. As Dan Levy points out, Lurie seems fed up with letting Reid dictate the direction of the franchise. If he doesn’t like what he sees this year, there will be hell to pay. Judging from the way he spoke today, I would guess Vick wouldn’t be the only one on the way out of town.
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â†µUPDATE: Here are some of Lurie's comments from today's presser:â†µ

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