After watching the “60 Minutes” interview with Michael Vick, I’ve hesitated on commenting on it. Now I think I might have a grasp of what this dog and pony show was all about.
Vick’s interview was brave. He was humble, appropriate, and apologetic. Jim Brown asked during the interview, in a round about way, does Vick get it? Does he get that what he did was wrong? In Vick’s own way, he admited that “the culture” was wrong.
But for those waiting for that teary apology, the light bulb moment of total admission or what he did was horrid, that really didn’t come.
You know what? Who cares?
I don’t care what Vick feels about dogfighting because his arrest and imprisonment has done more to help bring light to this ugly sport that any campaign ever presented by the Humane Society. In fact I think the smartest man out there is Wayne Pacelle of the Humane Society of the United States, who managed to wrangle Vick into doing a series of appearances and presentations against dog fighting. Talk about a public relations dream come true.
One the truisms of advertising is that people remember the bad commercials too. People will remember the terrible acts of Vick every time he speaks out against dog fighting. He may do more for the humane movement that even he realizes.
I don’t need apologies or genuflecting to the holy grail of the humane society and I don’t care what Vick thinks. He doesn’t matter. It’s always been about the animals.
