Michael Vick will never learn. No matter how much money a team throws at him or how much time a judge gives him… he will NEVER learn.

I have written in the past that it is difficult to forgive, much less forget Vick’s actions as a dogfighter. Those actions, which as GQ reports again this month, included the killing of seven dogs who lost their fights. What kind of man can do this? It is incomprehensible to me.

But, that is history. I have friends who say it’s time to give Michael Vick another chance. He served his time, more time that the average dogfighter. He has spoken publicly through PSA’s and lobbying efforts in Washington, DC against dogfighting. He has rehabilitated his career and for the most part he has stayed out of trouble since his release from federal prison.

But, just as I was considering giving Michael Vick a second chance he does an interview and shows just how little he has learned, how little he has grown. In the GQ article, Vick gave excuse after excuse for his behavior.

He blamed poverty, saying: “Yeah, you got the family dog and the white picket fence, and you just think that’s all there is. Some of us had to grow up in poverty-stricken urban neighborhoods, and we just had to adapt to our environment. I know that it’s wrong. But people act like it’s some crazy thing they never heard of. They don’t know.”

He blamed race. When asked if “white people simply don’t understand that aspect of black culture,” Vick replied: “I think that’s accurate. I mean, I was just one of the ones who got exposed, and because of the position I was in, where I was in my life, it went mainstream. A lot of people got out of it after my situation, not because I went to prison but because it was sad for them to see me go through something that was so pointless, that could have been avoided.”

He blamed the media and the public, saying: “For a while, it was all ‘Scold Mike Vick, scold Mike Vick, just talk bad about him, like he’s not a person. It’s almost as if everyone wanted to hate me. But what have I done to anybody? It was something that happened, and it was people trying to make some money.”

Finally, he blamed bad timing, saying this about when he was caught: “I was walking away, just totally refocused on something else…. I just happened to get caught out in the yard trying to help out.”

Everything that has happened to Michael Vick is someone else’s fault. He was a dogfighter because he was raised in a poor neighborhood or because he was black. He didn’t really fight the dogs, he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Of this he is sure. And he’s quite sure about something else: he’s one of the best athletes to play football.

Again, he told GQ this: “I have always been an outstanding football player, I have always had uncanny abilities, great arm strength, an immense ability to play the game from a quarterback standpoint.”

On this one point, I would agree with Michael Vick. He is a tremendous football player and athlete. It would just be nice if someone else said this about him, other than himself. Can you imagine Peyton Manning or Tom Brady bragging in such a way?

For all Michael Vick has been through, he hasn’t learned a thing. He hasn’t learned how to take responsibility for his heinous acts. He hasn’t learned the virtue of humility.

His career is a story of redemption. Unfortunately, I am afraid his character is far from redeemed.

Finally, there is this one last line from Vick in the GQ article. Vick said, “I miss dogs, man. I always had a family pet, always had a dog growing up. It was almost equivalent to the prison sentence, having something taken away from me for three years. I want a dog just for the sake of my kids, but also me. I miss my companions.”

I wonder if he misses the dogs he killed as well?