Time Will Tell

I can't resist the topic of Michael Vick coming to the Eagles. Hard as I tried it just kept coming back. I thought I had something on Tuesday night when Jamie Moyer came in after a rain delay and picked up for Pedro Martinez. It's a great story and supports the professionalism of Jamie Moyer who I was critical of last week. He did a great job! Time will tell who pitches and when, but this week if off to a much better start.


Back to Michael Vick. I was shocked when the Eagles announced they had signed him for two years. I hadn't thought much about him after the commissioner gave the conditional approval to play. I never thought about him coming to Philadelphia. His signing has polarized the city in some respects. Without question, what he did was horrible! We have a dog and I can't imagine anyone treating another animal the way he and his cronies did. He claims he was caught up in it and been part of him most of his life. He's got a big PR campaign going which I'm not fond of either. Time will tell if he has turned the page. I hope he has. What has happened is that he paid his "debt to society." He was caught, put on trial and sent to prison. He was not able to earn a living and his extravagant life style was traded for prison garb. He did not lie on his "job application" as the Eagles knew exactly what they're getting. Based on all this, the question is whether he can contribute to this team. Apparently, the Eagles believe this to be the case. Time will tell.


We had an interesting follow up to this story earlier this week. An employee of the Eagles was fired earlier this year for posting to Facebook and being critical of the Eagles. At first blush, it appears that the Eagles have set a double standard. Upon further review, this is not the case. It was clear in the news report I saw that the employee flagrantly went against the Eagles' policy. It sounds like he was warned and continued to post. The Eagles terminated his employment. In my mind, he had a second chance and chose not to change his behaviors.


All we can ask of our employers is that they're fair, communicate policies and be consistent in the application of those policies. I don't know enough about the Eagles organization to know if they fit this fairness standard, but in the two cases mentioned, they have to me. Each organization must define appropriate behavior and hold all employees (especially management) to that standard. This is how a high performance culture is established. The real question for the Eagles is whether the hiring of Michael Vick challenges or enhances the culture. Again, time will tell.