As a child, my dad took us to Falcons games. We had season tickets and my mother made us dress up to go to the games. Like I had to wear pantyhose dressed up. We sat in the end-zone behind the aptly chapeau’d guy we called “backwards hat” who drank beer poured into a two-liter Sprite bottle.

The Falcons were never very good, but there was the occasional glimmer of hope. The “grits blitz” was fun, in a “Po’ Folks” kind of way and Steve Bartkowski could throw the ball a really long way. There were rarely guys where he threw the ball, but every once in a while, he’d get it right.

More often, they’d hand off to the fullback for two yards in three consecutive downs and punt. It reminded me of that handheld electronic football game I had.

When I left for college, I mostly left football behind me. I went to a university without a team and lived in a city with a team I couldn’t bring myself to like very much.

Lately, I’ve been enjoying football more. Between the excitement that Mr. Vick brought to the Falcons and the naked hilarity of Blogleague football, it’s back in my life. Not enough to prompt me to wear my hat backwards or drink beer out of large plastic containers, but around in a pleasant way.

The other issue in Vick situation, of course, is animals. Let me go on record. I like them. Not all of them, mind you. I’ve encountered unpleasant ones here and there, but as a rule, I like animals. Dogs especially. In my adult life I’ve owned a dog for all but about a year and a little.

Aside: Scout’s mother claims that she heard that Vick used kittens as bait in training fighting dogs. I’m opposed to people making up things that aren’t true. Also to kittens as bait.

Anyway, this morning I was listening to Vick’s apology. I was waiting for the obligatory part. Not the apology to the kids, or the league, or the owner. Nope, I was waiting for the shout-out to Jesus. About halfway through he said,

“I’m upset with myself, and, you know, through this situation I found Jesus and asked him for forgiveness and turned my life over to God. And I think that’s the right thing to do as of right now.”

Whew, I thought, Took him a while to get there. But get there he did. Here’s the thing. If he didn’t do the shout-out, I would have been disappointed. It’s not that I don’t buy it (though I kinda don’t), it’s that I don’t want the apology speech without it. It’s like having a full breakfast without grits. Sure, it still “counts” as breakfast, but I KNOW there’s something missing.

Here’s the primer:

I like:

Football=ok

Blogleague fantasy football=a lot

Getting the Jesus shout-out in when facing prison=obligatory

Dogs=a lot

Kittens=a lot

I don’t like:

Dogfighting=at all

Kitten baiting=at all

Vaguely racist stories about kittens=at all

Oh, and what do I think about Vick? I hope he meant what he said today.

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