9/5/07
Being neither a football fan nor a resident of Atlanta, I’d never heard of Atlanta Falcons’ quarterback Michael Vick before the dogfighting scandal that broke last month. Needless to say, he hasn’t made the best first impression, even with last week’s belated confession. Actually, it was his public statement after pleading guilty to a variety of dogfighting-related charges that made me sit up and take notice.
In his remarks, the first people Mr. Vick apologized to were the elite group of millionaires and billionaires who hold his career in their hands, the team’s owners and managers; he was careful to apologize to each of them by name. Not the millions of sickened Americans he horrified and repulsed when the news of his crimes began circulating, but appeasing the moneychangers in the temple was Mr. Vick’s first priority.
He then proceeded to apologize to his fans. He explained that he had been “immature.” And while it’s hard to argue that his actions were not immature, that certainly skims over the surface of the facts in this case to say the least. People who torture and kill house-pets for fun and profit have left “immature” behind a long time ago. He went on to say that the worst thing he did was “let down [his] fans.” The worst thing he did? After his crimes, freely admitted to in a court of law? That would be like Hitler apologizing for the VW bug’s substandard crash safety ratings.
Having then apologized to no one except his financial backers (the owners and fans), he moved on to the subject of greatest apparent interest to Michael Vick — Michael Vick.
He began to speak with the first real passion he’d demonstrated that morning, talking about “Michael Vick, the person” and being “totally disappointed” in himself and it’s all about him, him, him. He then pled guilty to using “bad judgment and making bad decisions.” The record, however, suggests that hosting and profiting off of to-the-death dogfights was a pretty good decision for Mr. Vick until he got caught.
He ended his rambling mea culpa by again swearing to make “Michael Vick a better person.” Then he served up the sparkling cherry he had been saving for the top of this delicious confection of equal parts career damage control and self-absorption: he announced that “Through this situation, I’ve found Jesus.” By “this situation,” I’m assuming he means “getting caught.” Torturing and killing animals for sport didn’t shake him up enough to find Jesus, but boy, getting caught sure got the job done quickly.
Finding Jesus has always been as popular as rehab for celebrities caught with their hand in the cookie jar, and Mr. Vick reliably went to that well right away. Even in the unlikely event Mr. Vick’s revelation is accompanied by a genuine religious conversion, most Christians will agree that it is a sinner’s sins that ought to bring him to his knees — not getting caught committing them.
In both his words and his deeds, Mr. Vick demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of the sheer wrongness of his crimes. And it is that lack of understanding that leads one to observe that Mr. Vick exhibits characteristics consistent with a sociopathic personality, also known as antisocial personality disorder, or APD. Symptoms of a person with APD are described by the University of Illinois Medical Center Health Library online thusly:
Persons who have APD act in cold and insensitive ways. At times, they can seem charming but are often cunning and insincere. …
As a result, these persons tend to have a general lack of regard for rules, laws, and customs, thinking that they are somehow exempt from them. This causes frequent problems at work or with the law.
General symptoms include:
• disregard for safety and responsibility
• impulsiveness
• irritability, aggressiveness, and/or violent behavior
• lack of conscience or remorse for consequences of behavior
• lack of empathy
• lack of honesty
The first three symptoms are all necessary requirements for any respectable professional football player and are not by themselves symptomatic of any psychological disorder; it’s only when you take away the humanizing effects of conscience and empathy that you create a sociopathic personality out of merely a violent, impulsive and irritable one.
For Mr. Vick’s personal path to redemption to be truly successful, at some point he will likely require pharmacological treatment for the areas of dysfunction in his personality that have resulted in his recent downfall. He doesn’t just need the forgiveness of his fans, a 12-step program and the best legal defense all the money in the world can buy, he needs medical intervention and 24-hour supervision until the most effective treatment regimen can be worked out. And needless to say, a lifetime of careful, professional monitoring, lest his demons loose themselves on society again.
© 2007 thecomptonbulletin.com
