In the Clutch with Artem Altman
Michael Vick: The New Eagle Has Landed: Will a Fallen Falcon Fly Again?
Artem Altman
Issue date: 9/2/09 Section: Sports
How many athletes will have to go to jail before there are standards set for them to measure up to? Will Michael Vick have to be the turning point when people realize what life is worth?
I want to highlight the great incongruity between the kinds of things athletes are able to get away compared to ordinary people. How many times will we watch people walk away from serious crimes, some without any consequences, and others get only slight punishment for very serious offenses?
Case in point, Donté Stallworth, the Cleveland Browns wide receiver, back on March 14 struck and killed a pedestrian with his 2005 Bentley Continental GT. The pedestrian, Mario Reyes, 59, was killed as he was rushing to make a bus after ending his early morning shift as a construction crane operator.
A little over a month ago Stallworth was released from jail after serving 24 days of his 30-day sentence for the fatal DUI--a result of a guilty plea. As additional punishment, Stallworth received 2 years of house arrest on top of the brief jail sentence. On top of that, Stallworth will still be able to play football after serving a one-year suspension without pay. Afterwards he will still be able to play football while under house arrest.
This is not a knock on Stallworth, this is a fault with the disjointed judicial system of the United States that does one thing now and will do a totally different thing at another point in time. Case in point, Plaxico Burress. As most of you know, Burress is in legal trouble for shooting himself in the leg with an illegal firearm in a New York nightclub on November 28, 2008.
The disparity between the two cases has been summarized by Burress' lawyer, Benjamin Brafman: "To suggest that in Plaxico's case he should get a two-year sentence, when in [Stallworth's] case where someone ends up dead they OK a 30-day sentence, there just seems to be a real disparity there. Donté Stallworth, who I think a fundamentally decent man, took a plea in a DWI case in which someone was killed and the jail sentence there was 30 days. There are other components to the sentence - there'll be probation and community service and house arrest - but they gave him 30 days and someone ended up dying."
How is it that one person will simply walk away without much hard time served after killing a man and another will go to jail for a few years for shooting himself? Is that justice? Is Brafman right in saying about Burress that "if [he] was not a superstar or a well-known athlete, he just walks out of the club, no one ever knows who it is and the gun gets tossed in the river. Because he's Plaxico Burress, he turns in the gun, he gets identified and there's a case. If he was just a kid on the street there'd be no case here because he only shot himself." Would Stallworth get the same kind of deal is he wasn't in the NFL?
This kind of blind (sic) justice has been a trend that persists to haunt our justice system. It is one that celebrities have always enjoyed and a leeway that always escapes the ordinary person. Still, athlete's notoriety has transcended the playing field and seemingly the judiciary system.
However, I am not arguing for all the crimes to be persecuted. When someone is able to put something like marijuana in their body and still able to perform at a high level, as something close to what Adam Carolla said, they should get rewarded, maybe a medal. Now, weed is not cocaine or heroin. When it comes to cannabis, it is no more lethal than alcohol or tobacco (Not medical advice, consult your physician before consuming alcohol or smoking cigarettes - or use common sense). However, this is a topic for another day.
Getting back to Michael Vick, who signed with the Philadelphia Eagles-finally a team has shown some guts. Was this a serious deal when you consider that Leonard Little is still playing with the St. Louis Rams after his 1999 fatal drunk driving episode? When you think about it, Little has been playing for ten years after his stint in jail. So, the future is not looking that bad for Stallworth when you think about all the precedents.
If we value life, then we must value all forms of it. If we are to be firm in punishment, then mustn't we be consistent in how we deal with the transgressors? No matter what their status is within the social strata.
Will Vick enjoy the same kind of career recovery when history dictates that people will forget? But, will they forgive? Stallworth appears to already be set on the path of redeeming himself: "Regardless of the length of my suspension, I will carry the burden of Mr. Reyes' death for the rest of my life."
Richard von Weizsäcker, former President of the Federal Republic of Germany, said that "seeking to forget makes exile all the longer; the secret of redemption lies in remembrance." In order to make right with the past, those who are seeking to amend it must not seek to erase all the connections to it. They must work at making sure that the past won't comeback and show itself again.
I want to highlight the great incongruity between the kinds of things athletes are able to get away compared to ordinary people. How many times will we watch people walk away from serious crimes, some without any consequences, and others get only slight punishment for very serious offenses?
Case in point, Donté Stallworth, the Cleveland Browns wide receiver, back on March 14 struck and killed a pedestrian with his 2005 Bentley Continental GT. The pedestrian, Mario Reyes, 59, was killed as he was rushing to make a bus after ending his early morning shift as a construction crane operator.
A little over a month ago Stallworth was released from jail after serving 24 days of his 30-day sentence for the fatal DUI--a result of a guilty plea. As additional punishment, Stallworth received 2 years of house arrest on top of the brief jail sentence. On top of that, Stallworth will still be able to play football after serving a one-year suspension without pay. Afterwards he will still be able to play football while under house arrest.
This is not a knock on Stallworth, this is a fault with the disjointed judicial system of the United States that does one thing now and will do a totally different thing at another point in time. Case in point, Plaxico Burress. As most of you know, Burress is in legal trouble for shooting himself in the leg with an illegal firearm in a New York nightclub on November 28, 2008.
The disparity between the two cases has been summarized by Burress' lawyer, Benjamin Brafman: "To suggest that in Plaxico's case he should get a two-year sentence, when in [Stallworth's] case where someone ends up dead they OK a 30-day sentence, there just seems to be a real disparity there. Donté Stallworth, who I think a fundamentally decent man, took a plea in a DWI case in which someone was killed and the jail sentence there was 30 days. There are other components to the sentence - there'll be probation and community service and house arrest - but they gave him 30 days and someone ended up dying."
How is it that one person will simply walk away without much hard time served after killing a man and another will go to jail for a few years for shooting himself? Is that justice? Is Brafman right in saying about Burress that "if [he] was not a superstar or a well-known athlete, he just walks out of the club, no one ever knows who it is and the gun gets tossed in the river. Because he's Plaxico Burress, he turns in the gun, he gets identified and there's a case. If he was just a kid on the street there'd be no case here because he only shot himself." Would Stallworth get the same kind of deal is he wasn't in the NFL?
This kind of blind (sic) justice has been a trend that persists to haunt our justice system. It is one that celebrities have always enjoyed and a leeway that always escapes the ordinary person. Still, athlete's notoriety has transcended the playing field and seemingly the judiciary system.
However, I am not arguing for all the crimes to be persecuted. When someone is able to put something like marijuana in their body and still able to perform at a high level, as something close to what Adam Carolla said, they should get rewarded, maybe a medal. Now, weed is not cocaine or heroin. When it comes to cannabis, it is no more lethal than alcohol or tobacco (Not medical advice, consult your physician before consuming alcohol or smoking cigarettes - or use common sense). However, this is a topic for another day.
Getting back to Michael Vick, who signed with the Philadelphia Eagles-finally a team has shown some guts. Was this a serious deal when you consider that Leonard Little is still playing with the St. Louis Rams after his 1999 fatal drunk driving episode? When you think about it, Little has been playing for ten years after his stint in jail. So, the future is not looking that bad for Stallworth when you think about all the precedents.
If we value life, then we must value all forms of it. If we are to be firm in punishment, then mustn't we be consistent in how we deal with the transgressors? No matter what their status is within the social strata.
Will Vick enjoy the same kind of career recovery when history dictates that people will forget? But, will they forgive? Stallworth appears to already be set on the path of redeeming himself: "Regardless of the length of my suspension, I will carry the burden of Mr. Reyes' death for the rest of my life."
Richard von Weizsäcker, former President of the Federal Republic of Germany, said that "seeking to forget makes exile all the longer; the secret of redemption lies in remembrance." In order to make right with the past, those who are seeking to amend it must not seek to erase all the connections to it. They must work at making sure that the past won't comeback and show itself again.
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