Forgiveness for Vick?

Jason Whitlock writes about our need to forgive Michael Vick and let him return to the NFL, (if he can still play) once he is done serving his time. He writes:

Some people want Michael Vick locked out of the NFL forever. I don't.

You take away a man's dream forever and you create a hopeless, dangerous man. When you do it to a group of young men (black and brown men), you create a hopeless, dangerous culture.

Vick has lost at least $100 million, his freedom for 23 months and his reputation. I'm not trying to minimize dog fighting and/or the torturing of animals, but Vick will pay more than a fair price for his stupidity and cruelty.

The federal government punished Vick. I'd like to see him rejoin us in a couple of years as a better person than when he went away. The chance of that happening is improved if we all take Arthur Blank's (Falcons owner) approach. We can recognize the odds are long while keeping an open mind about Vick.

What won't help is continuing to find ways to turn Vick into a victim or vilifying Blank for suggesting Vick use basic common sense and avoid fried chicken and french fries. What won't help is Vick's former teammates wearing "Free Mike Vick" T-shirts and pretending the Falcons have committed some sort of crime against Vick.