Vick On Dog Fighting In GQ

The first time Michael Vick(notes) talked about the dogfighting that cost him two years of his life in a federal penitentiary, it was February of 2010, and he was opening up for a TV show called the Michael Vick Project. Back then, Vick made it seem as if the man who ran and financed a large Virginia dogfighting operation called Bad Newz Kennels was someone out of his own body.

"I was living a double life," he said then. "The dogfighting operation was getting bigger, and it was spiraling out of control. I would fly home to Virginia every Tuesday on my off-day, just to check up on my dogs and fight the dogs."

The remorse may still be real, but judging from quotes that hit the internet on Wednesday, Vick isn't quite as penitent about what he did. In a brilliant story written by Will Leitch of Yahoo! Movies for GQ.com, Vick talked more about the cultural aspect of the dogfighting trade, and how some folks just wouldn't understand where it comes from.

"[The media is] writing as if everyone feels that way and has the same opinions they do. But when I go out in public, it's all positive, so that's obviously not true … You got the family dog and the white picket fence, and you just think that's all there is. Some of us had to grow up in poverty-stricken urban neighborhoods, and we just had to adapt to our environment. I know that it's wrong. But people act like it's some crazy thing they never heard of. They don't know."

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