"Use me as an example." That was one of the messages Eagles quarterback Michael Vick delivered to a class of about 200 at North Philadelphia Nueva Esperanza charter school in North Philadelphia on Tuesday morning. Vick spoke for nearly 10 minutes and appeared earnest in his message.
"It is easy to make the wrong decision and it's hard to make the right decision," he said. "I made the wrong decision."
Vick began by emphasizing the importance of education with the school's Class of 2013, opening with an anecdote about how his mother was instrumental in making sure he raised his grade point average during his junior year of high school to the level where colleges would pay attention and not walk away because of his grades.
"I had a 1.8 grade point average, which we all know isn't good," said Vick. "To make a long story short, my mom said I couldn't play basketball, I buckled down in school to the point where I got my grades up, studied, did all that preparation and dedicated myself to being successful in the classroom. Had I not done that, I would have never had a chance to go to college."
Vick told the kids to lean on their parents and their teachers for good advice and to apply themselves and stay on the right course for success. Of course, Vick also spoke of his poor decisions and how following the wrong advice landed him, ultimately, in jail for 18 months.
Vick has been working with the Humane Society for three months and is on a crusade to eradicate dog fighting and animal abuse. Programs in Chicago and in Atlanta have resulted in a large influx of signups to the organization, said members of the Humane Society. Vick was preceded in his speech by one from Humane Society President and CEO Wayne Pacelle and Tio Hareiman, who was in Chicago when Vick spoke there.
"With all of these great things I had going on growing up, I chose to do something that for the life of me now I can't understand why," said Vick. "It was very bad. It was outside of the norm ... I did all the right things, great job in school, listened to my mom because she told me right from wrong but when I walked out of that door, I had another side to me, a dark side to me."
-- Posted by Dave Spadaro, 1:06 p.m., September 8
