"There is no way to explain the hurt and guilt that I felt," said Vick, who was released from the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth (Kansas) in May and finished supervised home confinement on July 20. "And that was the reason I cried so many nights. That put it all in perspective."
Brown asked, "You cried a number of nights? About?"
Vick replied, "About what I did. Being away from my family. Letting so many people down. Letting myself down. Not being out on the football field. Being in a prison bed, in a prison bunk, writing letters home . . . All because of the so-called culture I thought was right, I thought it was cool, I thought it was fun and exciting. It all led to me lying in a prison bunk by myself - with nobody to talk to but myself."
Brown asked Vick whom he blamed for what happened.
Vick said, "I blame me."
The "60 Minutes" piece recounted the downfall of Vick, who bankrolled and participated in an interstate dogfighting operation called Bad Newz Kennels on a farm he owned in rural Virginia. Police removed 66 injured dogs and exhumed the bodies of eight more. Vick pleaded guilty to being part of an operation that engaged in a litany of cruel acts upon animals that included beating, shooting, electrocuting and drowning them.
Brown said pointedly, "Horrific things, Michael."
Vick said, "It was wrong, man. I don't know how many times I got to say it. I mean, it was wrong. I feel tremendous hurt [by] what happened. I should have [taken] the initiation to stop it all. And I didn't. And I feel so bad about that now. I didn't step up. I wasn't a leader."
Brown asked if he agreed or disagreed that it showed "a lack of moral character" that he did not stop it.
Vick said, "I agree."
Brown asked Vick why he had been drawn to dogfighting, asking if he had been gripped by an "adrenalin rush" or "sense of competition."
