Does athletic talent trump misbehavior?

Marcus Vick is unquestionably a very talented athlete. Some have said he has more potential to excel at quarterback than his older brother Michael Vick of the Atlanta Falcons. However, for all his physical gifts, the younger Vick seems sorely lacking in good character. His career at Virginia Tech has been marred by several incidents. He has been charged with reckless driving and possession of marijuana. In 2004, he was suspended from the team for an incident which started out as statutory rape of a 15 year old but was reduced to a misdemeanor convictions for giving alcohol to a minor. When he was reinstated from that suspension the school president said he was on his last chance. Since being given his "last" chance, he has failed to represent his college positively at least twice. Earlier this year he saluted the fans in West Virginia with his middle finger. His most recent transgression was one of the worst acts of poor sportsmanship I have ever seen in college sports. In Monday's Gator Bowl game, after a play had ended Vick looked down at at an opposing player laying on the ground and then spiked the player in the back of the knee. A Large Regular has a link to the video of the spike. The spiking actually looked even more obvious from the other direction.

This morning the Virginian Pilot is rightly asking whether he has a future with the team (there is a poll if you're inclined to weigh-in). My own view is Virginia Tech would be best served by pulling his scholarship. Restoring the schools reputation should be more important than the number of games they win or lose next year. As far as Vick's future goes, caveat emptor is a Latin phrase NFL teams should remember before they turn this thug into a rich thug.