Regarding the Nov. 23 letter “Vick more sick than slick”: The point of the sports page in any newspaper is to explain what is going on in the realm of sports. I do not think that Stars and Stripes is at all wrong for the report about Michael Vick. Michael is an outstanding athlete who is doing extremely well and deserves all the credit that he is getting for his outstanding play, regardless of his past criminal trespasses.

Although I think it would be nice if all professional athletes could possess good character, [remember] this is not the military [we’re talking about]. One should not watch or read about professional sports if worried about the athletes’ character. These professional, highly paid athletes are not being paid to be white-picket-fence, law-abiding citizens. The reason why these athletes get paid so much is to perform a game at a much higher level than any one of us can do. To think that you can have a group of 50-plus players [on an NFL team] playing a child’s game and not have any problems is ludicrous.

All Stars and Stripes is doing is reporting the news, Michael Vick was not given the Nobel Prize or any outstanding citizen achievement medal. He simply was being accredited for his extreme ability to play a game that no one else in the world can play like [he does] right now.

Sgt. Craig Miller

Contingency Operating Base Adder, Iraq