In Defense of Man's Best friend

The start of Pro Football's 2009 regular season is only a few weeks away and like a lot of American males I can hardly wait. Being a Dallas Cowboy fan, about the only thing I need to keep my guard up for is a season ending injury during the pre season or a blonde bombshell latching onto one of the Cowboy's players.
God forbid if I were an Philadelphia Eagles fan, injuries and bombshells would be the least of my worries because most warning signs would read "Hide your Beagles, Vicks an Eagle". That's right Michael Vick the convicted dog killer is now on the roster of the Philadelphia Eagles football team. I guess if I were an Eagles fan I would have to add getting hit in the head by an Animal Rights Activists to the list of my worries every time I entered Lincoln Financial Field for an Eagles game. What in the world was the Eagle Organization thinking when they signed Vick to a 1.6 million dollar one year contract? Oh I know, "their self"! Of all people, Jeffrey Lurie the Eagles owner is a self professed "extreme dog lover" so how could he allow not only someone who killed and tortured man's best friend but who had complete disregard for any definition of human decency to be on his team? Yes, Michael Vick is only one player on a football team in a league of thirty two teams but people have such emotional and strong feelings for their pets that any dynamic element added to an offense will always be over shadowed by an act that is cruel, unethical and inhumane.
Everyone deserves a second chance but Mr. Vick will have a hard time convincing me he's been transformed and will help save more animals than he has harmed. I don't sense real remorse from Mr. Vick. True regret and complete understanding of how reprehensible his torture and murder of dozen of dogs over a period of six years is probably years off for him. Darkness in a human's soul is years in the making and takes years to undo. Enlightenment does not happen over night just because of the sound of a prison cell door clanging in the darkness. Can we demand remorse? Yes, but we would be foolish to expect it in every attempt at transormation. For his sake I hope he can convince me because there is no room for error and no third chances.
I am not a dog owner and have not been for a very long time but if I were, I would buy my dog a "I hate Michael Vick" T-shirt and hope it would help prevent cruelty to animals. I don't endorse Vick's return to the NFL but I'll somewhat willing give him a chance to fulfill his pledge to be apart of the solution rather than part of the problem. The Eagles play the Cowboys a couple of time every year so boycotting the Eagles Organization because of one player is out of the question because I almost never miss a Cowboys game no matter what. Well almost no matter what! If I had man's best friend laying at my feet when the game started I would hand the TV remote to the dog and say "Go ahead, change the channel" because I never want to live in a doghouse who's address is Cruel Unethical Inhumane Ave.