HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — In his first extensive interview since being released from federal prison after serving 18 months for running a dogfighting ring, Michael Vick took full blame for his actions.
"I was disgusted, you know, because of what I let happen to those animals," he told James Brown in a "60 Minutes" interview that aired Sunday night. "I could've put a stop to it. I could've walked away from it. I could've shut the whole operation down."
Vick said he initially lied about his role in the dogfighting ring because he realized his career was in jeopardy.
"I felt the guilt and I knew I was guilty, and I knew what I had done," he said. "And, not knowing at the time that, you know, actually telling the truth may have been better than, you know, not being honest. And it backfired on me tremendously."
Vick said on the day he walked into prison, he realized "the magnitude of the decisions" that he had made, leading to several lonely nights of crying in his cell.
"And, you know, it's no way of, you know, explaining, you know, the hurt and the guilt that I felt. And that was the reason I cried so many nights. And that put it all into perspective," he said.
"I let myself down, you know, not being out on the football field, being in a prison bed, in a prison bunk, writing letters home, you know," Vick continued. "That wasn't my life. That wasn't the way that things was supposed to be. And all because of the so-called culture that I thought was right -- that I thought it was cool. And I thought it was, you know, it was fun, and it was exciting at the time. It all led to me laying in a prison bunk by myself with no one to talk to but myself."
Vick was reinstated by the NFL in July and signed with the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday.
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