Last Saturday afternoon (the same day he received the AP Comeback Player of the Year award),Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick(notes) was given the key to the city of Dallas by Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway, an action that caused an uproar among local animal-rights groups … and the actual mayor of the city, Tom Leppert.
“The action taken was not sanctioned by my office and was not an official ceremonial honor on behalf of the City of Dallas,” Leppert said in a statement. “Official Keys to the City are presented by the Mayor, or an elected official designated by the Mayor, and reserved, on a limited basis, for an elected official of international status. Clearly, this was not the case in this situation and done without my knowledge or approval.”
When asked why he gave Vick a key to the city in a ceremony that apparently had no official sanction, Caraway spoke to the fact that Vick was addressing a children’s group at the time, talking about the trouble he got into when he was convicted of running a dogfighting ring and sentenced to 19 months in federal prison.
“He is telling kids and exchanging with them the rights and wrongs of the things that he did and encouraging kids to further their education and to not deal with the drugs,” Caraway said. “To obey their parents and pick the people they hang around. That’s a message I would challenge anybody to say that not one kid across America shouldn’t hear from people in notoriety such as Michael Vick
