This past week, as per post-Super Bowl tradition, many new Eagles fans have come out of the woodwork after they won. Being a non-sports person, most years I will choose a team to root for (pretty much at random unless one of the teams is from New York). This year, however, posed a completely new issue: one team was the Patriots (ick) and the other was the Eagles.

As an animal lover, I can not support a team that supports the abuse of animals, and I have felt this way since I was quite young and Michael Vick was found guilty of participating in dog fights and the Eagles were still willing to write him a check.

I can remember quite clearly that many people were anti-Eagles for quite some time after this decision, but since have disappeared. They say time heals all wounds, but that just simply cannot apply to the wounds of innocent puppies.

For the sake of background information, Vick had been running a dog fighting ring with some of his friends from the time he was 21 in 2001, which is the same year he was a rookie in the NFL. He became a registered dog breeder, getting dogs from Virginia and the using them for fights at "Bad Newz Kennels," the property he had purchased with his friends for this purpose.

Allegedly, the men tested dogs in fights, then murdered them in various gruesome ways if they did not perform well. This continued until 2007, when there was a federal investigation. Meanwhile, in 2006, during this horrible act, Vick was the NFL's highest-paid player.

After he was found guilty, he went to prison, but by July of 2009, he was reinstated to the Philadelphia Eagles with a salary of $1.6 million for his first season. By September of 2010, he became starting quarterback again with a salary of $5.25 million.

So, no, I cannot rally around a team that would even consider taking back a monster such as Michael Vick, even if it was years ago.

It is absolutely shocking to me that these horrors could be forgotten after less than a decade, and no one who truly loves animals can say that they are a fan of the team that supported him, regardless of the player's ability to throw a ball.