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Animal rights extremist group PETA is speaking out against Norfolk State University after news broke that the school had hired convicted animal abuser and former NFL player Michael Vick as head coach for the school’s football team.

PETA chief Ingrid Newkirk has put out a statement calling Vick a “psychopath” and recounting her experience with Vick during his 2007 trial for participating in an illegal dog fighting ring, Fox News reported.

“After interviewing him at PETA’s office in Norfolk, Virginia, while his sentence was under consideration, and hearing him tell me bold-faced lies about his poor dogs, I came to believe that he’s a charming, charismatic, psychopath, but since I believe he won’t fight dogs ever again, PETA is focusing on working with law enforcement to bust those who still do,” Newkirk insisted in her statement.

Vick was outed by his own father, who told the media that the then-Atlanta Falcons quarterback was engaged in dog fighting. But it wasn’t until police executed a warrant on Vick’s property for an unrelated incident that they discovered evidence of dog fighting and arrested the NFL player for the offense.

He eventually pleaded guilty in 2007 to the charges of “Conspiracy to Travel in Interstate Commerce in Aid of Unlawful Activities and to Sponsor a Dog in an Animal Fighting Venture.” He spent 21 months in a federal penitentiary.

After serving his time, Vick tried to begin making amends by publicly backing a Pennsylvania anti-animal cruelty bill.

“When I was in Leavenworth, I wanted to change everything about the direction of my life. There is no excuse for my past, but it would be even worse if I did nothing about it. I can reach people that most activists can’t reach,” he explained at the time.

Despite his attempts to reform his image, PETA expressed doubts that he was sincere and continued berating him over the issue for years afterward.

Regardless, Vick resumed his NFL career in 2009 with the Philadelphia Eagles and had stints with the New York Jets and the Pittsburgh Steelers, but her career was over by 2015. Since then, though, he has moved on to coaching and, in 2019, became an offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Legends. Now, he is jumping in with both feet as head coach for Norfolk State.

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