Michael Vick knows a thing or two about getting the public back on his side after making unpopular decisions. Vick is now trying to help Ray Rice with a little bit of wisdom.
Michael recently came out and talked about the incident involving Ray Rice and his now fiance. Vick was referencing the event where Rice apparently physically assaulted his then girlfiend when he said that Rice has to “continue to make amends.”
NJ.com was the first to report Vick’s comments. Michael has gone from being the starting quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles to the backup quarterback for the New York Jets.
Despite that turn in events, it appears that Michael understands he’s a bit lucky to have a job at all in the NFL these days. As NJ.com, this isn’t a situation where Michael Vick is trying to compare the two situations.
Instead Vick is simply trying to lend some advice to a fellow football player. Michael is aslo five years removed from his incident (training and fighting pitbulls.) It appears the quarterback feels he has learned from that situation and now wants to try and help players like Ray Rice get through their own issues.
“I think you have to show people that you’re trying to help yourself and bring awareness to that situation to help others, to prevent it. You’ve got to become an advocate.”
Vick added during the interview with the New Jersey paper. One of the big differences between the price Michael has paid and the one Ray has paid, is that Rice hasn’t had nearly the public scorn.
That could be more of a statement on society on a whole, or it could merely be that the former Falcon and Eagle actually took a couple of canine lives. Rice, for all his shortcomings, never really approached that level of violence.
The Baltimore Ravens running back does seem to be taking advice from someone, if he isn’t actually listening to Vick. After initially giving an apology that made him sound more like he was sorry he had to talk about it at all, his latest apology seemed quite a bit more contrite.
Michael was likely sitting in his own training camp nodding his head and agreeing that the second apology was the way this situation has to be handled, if the running back ever really wants to put the situation behind him.
Now, only time will tell if Michael Vick and Ray Rice can eventually put their issues forever in their past.
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