ED BLOCK COURAGE AWARDS AND NFL COMMIT PERSONAL FOUL

A couple of weeks ago, the team recipients of the annual Ed Block Courage Awards were announced. This is an NFL-supported award that recognizes the achievements of players for their good deeds off the field and commitment to sportsmanship and courage. It is named after the longtime late Baltimore Colts’ trainer who provided physical therapy for children with physical disabilities. It is voted on by each team’s players and training staff.

The Philadelphia Eagles 2009 Ed Block Courage Award winner … Michael Vick. As you will recall, unless you were under a rock the last two years, Vick was arrested, convicted and sent to federal prison for two years for running an illegal dog fighting ring. He personally murdered many dogs and participated in what is widely regarded as a brutal, inhumane activity.

Since his release from prison earlier this year, he has done a lot of things right. He has faced the media and the scrutiny on multiple occasions, he has done stellar community service work and he has apologized time and again for his terrible decisions and horrifying actions.

The NFL and the Eagles had done a great job of flying under the radar with Vick and avoiding most public scrutiny…until now.

Why in the world would you even make him eligible for such an award at this time? If you wanted to cling to the notion that all players should be eligible then the Eagles, the National Football League or the people at the Ed Block Awards should have had the foresight to have seen this prior to the announcement and revisit it with Vick and the Eagles players who elected him.

A member of the Ed Block Awards board of directors stated that they were “taken aback” by the reaction and that the organization was “innocent in all of this”. Really? A child would have the ability to see that this was not a good idea and needed to be addressed before it was ever announced.

Players are going to look after their teammates and I am sure this was a gesture of support that they sent for him. Players generally will not look at the consequences that might come out of such a gesture…that is what the PR people and marketers for the league, the team and this award are supposed to do. Someone needed to see this coming, understand that they have done a fine job of lying low and spoken to the team about this long before it became public.

This has now reopened the wounds that were starting to heal and subjected Michael Vick to the well earned scrutiny once again.

Now is a time for Vick to do something in his best interest and respectfully decline the award. Thank his teammates for the support and state that he is not deserving of an award and that he has a long way to go before he would be.

This should not fall to Vick and should have been halted from the start but it wasn’t. Vick can earn a lot of points from the media and football fans – and the public at large - by stepping up and refusing the award. This should not have occurred, but now it needs to be undone.

***