What Michael Vick did right.

After my recent string of irritating a whole lot of people who didn't deserve to be irritated, I set out today to say something nice. I figured I would just open up the newspaper('s website) and say something nice about the subject of the headline. What was it? Of course, it was that Michael Vick had been sentenced to 23 months in prison for his dog fighting ring. This was going to be tough.
But you know what? It wasn't. Compare Vick to recent athletes who have been in trouble. Barry Bonds. O.J. Simpson. The Bengals. So many others. Barry Bonds has just been indicted after what's been a disgustingly long and drawn out process in which he has continued to deny steroid use even though everyone suspects that he did, and even as evidence mounts, he still won't confess. Even ballplayers who have tested positive deny their intentional use. The scandal continues.
O.J. Simpson was somehow acquitted despite the fact that the world believes he killed his ex-wife and her friend. He is persona non grata across the country, and even though he has little to lose at this point, he continues to maintain his innocence, going so far as to have the audacity to say he is looking for the real killer, even though (in my opinion) he sees him in the mirror every day.
And the Bengals, Ron Artest, all those other hooligans that perpetually find themselves in trouble never take the blame. They are all victims of the environment they were raised in. They are all living the life, they claim. Did they do anything wrong? Of course not.
So that's what Vick has done right. After initially denying everything, (which is a natural human instinct. My mom still doesn't know about a detention I got in 5th grade, and I'd thank you not to tell her), he was met by mounting evidence against him. Rather than making himself a spectacle, it appeared that he recognized the error in his ways, and has been forthright and apologetic about his culpability, which is a refreshing change of pace when considering criminals. Perhaps the personal rehabilitation began before he went to prison.
I'm not going to applaud Vick for this, because his willingness to apologize indicates there was a transgression in the first place, and this one was particularly heinous. No, instead, I will simply acknowledge that he appears to know the direction his life needs to take from here on out.