“What Michael did was the exception, not the rule,” Luzinski said. “He didn’t have to do this. The law allows you to skate by and pay your creditors 10 or 20 cents on the dollar, but he thought this was the right thing to do.”

Vick said he could have filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy instead of Chapter 11, which he ultimately chose. The former would have meant most of his debts would have been forgiven.

“I didn’t want to stiff people who never stiffed me,” Vick said.

This is from Darren Rovell, “Michael Vick pays down his debt,” at ESPN.com. The article details how Michael Vick, who lost his football career at his peak performance by being imprisoned at Leavenworth, paid back his creditors in full–or at least will be close to doing so.

It’s heartening to see someone take such responsibility when the incentives go the other way. Of course, you could say that the incentive was to take responsibility in order to get his football career back, as reporter Darren Rovell points out in the linked interview. Ok, then. Good for incentives. So this story is either a feel-good story about Michael Vick or a feel-good story about incentives. My guess is that it’s a bit of both.

HT2 Joseph T. Salerno.

By the way, I think Joe Salerno goes way too far in calling Vick a “hero.” But Vick did do something admirable. That doesn’t speak at all to the horrible things he did that landed him in prison. But I’m a “glass 30 percent full” person, as regular readers of this blog know.