THE PHOENIX

Merriam-Webster defines the phoenix as a bird that "burned itself to ashes on a pyre, and rose alive from the ashes to live another period." After a season that saw him come from hell and back, it is safe to say Michael Vick can be compared to the mythical bird.

This season, Vick reached career highs in passing yards, touchdowns, and quarterback rating en route to being named as a starter to the Pro Bowl and winning the NFL Comeback Player of the Year.

Michael Vick rebuilt his fan base in just three short years with performances such accounting for six touchdowns on Monday Night Football against the Washington Redskins on Nov. 15 and engineering the Miracle at the New Meadowlands on Dec. 19.

Yet, there will forever be people that oppose the re-existence of Vick in the NFL or even society.

A former Facebook "friend" of mine commented on one of my statuses saying "I would love to see him seriously injured...it's disturbing to see how many people still support a piece of shit like that."

Fox News correspondent Tucker Carlson went one forward and said in December that Vick should have been executed for killing dogs.

Now granted, as I have said before, killing dogs is immoral and inhumane, but does it warrant the execution of one's life?

One word: No.

The man did his time and he deserves a chance to walk in a straight and narrow path. Whatever Vick did, let God handle that. Plain and simple. Man is not perfect.

I repeat: MAN IS NOT PERFECT!

People make mistakes, but they learn from them.

So far, Vick is heading back to the popularity where he was at before his jail sentence, but this offseason will be the toughest test.

One social mess-up could ruin this comeback story and it nearly happened last year with a club shooting during a birthday party in his honor.

However, having faced the lowest of lows, one can only hope that this instance is a minor hiccup. Vick is finally reaching all of his potential as an NFL quarterback and if he continues his progression, we could be seeing him hoist the Vince Lombardi trophy one day.

After going to jail in 2007, chances looked bleak on if Michael Vick would be a starter and the face of an NFL franchise again.

However, after a marvelous 2010 season. Vick has given supporters and Eagles fans hope for the future.

PLAXICO, VICK, & STALLWORTH: A BREAKDOWN IN THE LEGAL PROCESS (OR LACK THEREOF)

On August 20, 2009, Plaxico Burress was given a two-year jail sentence that began on September 22, 2009. Let's think about that for one minute. A man goes to jail for two years for accidently shooting himself? Again, the keywords in statement are accidently and himself, and that warrants someone to get the same jail time as Michael Vick and far less than Donte Stallworth? God forbid if he tried to shoot someone else in that nightclub, he might would have gotten much, much more.

First of all, setting all personal feelings aside, but Michael Vick's 18-month sentence was fair. He took part in an illegal activity where he bred dogs with the intent to kill other dogs, and if they did not perform well to expectations, the dogs were tortured to death. The legal process seemed to do good for him, however, as he is trying to rebuild his image to pre-2005 status (before Ron Mexico, the water bottle incident, and giving Falcon fans the new meaning of "Dirty Bird" by flipping two middle fingers to them), again, one can only hope that he recovers fully from this.

Next, the Plaxico Burress case was unfair from right off the bat. He was going to actually get three years of jail time, because he was going to be made an "example" out of? Seriously, be real...how do you make an example of someone who shoots himself? That's basically adding insult to injury (sorry for the pun). Granted, he had an unlicensed gun in New York, but no one would have known about it if it go off. Also, I do not think that he was going hunt someone down in the club either, he was using it for protection from himself. Come on, he caught the game-winning catch in Super Bowl XLII and is one of the more famous athletes in New York City. Obviously, he was being smart because anyone could have robbed him.

Last but not least, is the Donte Stallworth ordeal. People instantly knew that he was going to get major jail time after having alcohol in his system and striking a pedestrian in the streets of Miami. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail and only served 24? What a joke of the legal system! Killing dogs gets you 24 months, but not paying attention and killing someone gets you 24 days? Granted, the pedestrian did not cross the street at the assigned spot and essientially jaywalked, but Stallworth was clearly drunk (0.12 BAC), speeding (doing 50 in a 40), and was not paying attention. At least, he claimed to warn the man, or it could have been much worse.

MICHAEL VICK DID HIS TIME, SO HE DESERVES TO PLAY

In April 2007, Michael Vick's football career was in jeopardy after allegations surfaced about his role in a dogfighting ring. What would follow would be a guilty plea in August 2007 and the beginning of his 23-month jail sentence in December 2007, and the knockout blow in his fall from grace after being an icon from 2001 to 2004.

Even before the trials, Vick's questionable moves have ranged from receiving a civil lawsuit in 2005 after a female contracted an STD from him to flipping off the Atlanta Falcon faithful after a 2006 loss to the New Orleans Saints. Those moves, including a paltry completion percentage and a "look at the tight end, and he's not open, then run like hell" mentality, questioned many sportswriters on will Vick ever be a "prototypical" quarterback like Tom Brady or Peyton Manning. This was two years after the Falcons went all the way to the NFC Championship Game against the Philadelphia Eagles, and four years after he became the first visiting quarterback to defeat the Green Bay Packers in Lambeau Field in a playoff game.

However after his guilty plea, Vick lost EVERYTHING. Endorsements from corporations such as Nike and EA Sports were dropped, he was ordered to pay back some of his signing bonus money to the Falcons, and he was suspended indefinitely by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. He even lost fan support as Atlanta became a city divided, and eventually after the Falcons selected Matt Ryan third in the 2008 NFL Draft, that support became further suppressed as slowly but surely Ryan won the hearts of Atlanta fans.

With that being said, Vick became the MC Hammer of this decade by essentially dropping from millionaire to bankruptcy, but yet he could face another four-game suspension from the league? This man deserves to play again and deserves to make enough money in order to get out of debt. Plus, I believe that even the HINT of a possible suspension would be unfair. When former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue gave Ricky Williams a four-game suspension in 2004 for violating the substance abuse policy, Williams retired and missed the 2004 season. However, when he came back in 2005, the suspension was upheld. The difference between Williams and Vick though, was that Williams ran away from the punishment and Vick met his crime head-on from the law. Besides, don't you think two years is enough for someone to think about what he has done? One thing will be true though, some team will pick him up amidst the negative fan reactions, work him into the system, and try to pick up the pieces of a broken Vick as he heals his wounds.