My Take On ESPN's "Michael Vick Town Hall Meeting"

Will over at Deadspin has a decent rundown on the "event" with links to commentary by Fynal Cut and Nation of Islam Sportsblog.

This is what I took away from the whole thing.

First, the crowd was overwhelmingly pro-Vick. This point was made even more obvious when one of the panelists(Chuck Smith I believe) compared Vick to a person who committed murder because they both knew what they were doing when they perpetrated their crime. The crowd did not like that one bit, and their loud boos conveyed that quite clearly. However, he did have a good point because Vick had to know that what he was doing wasn't in his best interest but he did it anyway, and now he has to pay the price for it.

Also, former Falcons player Terrence Mathis was there, but all he seemed concerned with was letting everyone know that he's forgiven Vick for what he's done. Great insight there Terrence, thanks.

Anyway, it does appear that there will be some support for Vick should he ever be up for reinstatement into the NFL. This is may be the best thing he's heard in months because public support could influence Roger Goodell one way or another. Just as some have accused Goodell of coming down too harsh on Vick because of public opinion and the Humane Society's outcry for justice, he might be more apt to let him back into the league if it appears that a majority of people have forgiven him.

In any case, the town hall meeting last night came across as a pretty big trainwreck to me because the panelists seemed to be genuinely interested in voicing their opinions, but the audience didn't want to hear any of them. Unless they were saying that Vick had been unfairly targeted, then they probably would have stood up and cheered for half an hour. Once again, ESPN presented us with something that in theory could have worked, but ended up crashing down in flames.