Tuesday, August 14, 2007

An Open Letter to Michael Vick

Dear Mike,

I am not your PR person or in your circle but I wish I were. Today you stand alone against the world but you have an AMAZING opportunity through all of this.

I believe that not only can you resurrect your football career but also your name.

Here is my plan, feel free to use it:

1. Go into court and take the plea your attorney's are negotiating.
2. Speak for yourself and from your heart. Here are some high level bullets
a. apologize - to your family, your fans, the City of Atlanta, Va. Tech and especially pet owners.
b. admit what you did was wrong, however limited your involvement (but don't say that)
c. Talk about change - how you will use the time to be a better person, how you can help people understand that violent and poor treatment of anything living is wrong. Discuss how your role as a high profile athlete can now be used for the greater good and to educate those that feel that dogfighting is a 'cultural thing' need to re-evaluate that culture.
d. Donate, donate, donate! You still have a lot. Give 1 MILLION dollars to PETA now! Give a million to the NFL Charities and go to Arthur Blank and ask him to distribute a million through the Blank Family Foundation and the Falcons Charities.
3. Serve your time well. Take the time to re-evaluate your life and come out better because of it.
4. Cut the PSA's we know you will have to but do more! When you get out there will be even more opportunity to do good.


Mike, you are young and still have so much to look forward to. We all make mistakes and in America we love it when someone makes a mistake, takes accountability for their actions and then makes a change.

Twenty years from now you could be more of an icon for what you have done for society than you ever would have been for football.


Sincerely,



Gil Wolchock




*On a personal note, I am not a pet owner, I'm a fairly moderate guy. I do live in Atlanta but I am not a Falcons fan per se so none of this is motivated through what is going on, simply one guys take on what could be done to help out so many :)

Just my .02 cents I guess

1 comment:

Sherry Heyl said...

Great suggestions, but they would only work if he is sincere. If he were to take such actions just to get his career back and make a better name for himself, he ultimately will end up making the same mistakes again and truly be ruined, don't you think? So first he has to do some serious thinking about himself and then take action. My 2 cents.