Michael Vick may prove me wrong yet.

Three weeks ago, I talked about how pathetic it was for black organizations like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to scavenge role models from the ranks of disgraced athletes like Vick.

In essence, I said that it was silly to heap role model status upon the embattled NFL quarterback, who pleaded guilty to a dogfighting conspiracy charge, when he didn’t think enough of the title to avoid smearing himself with the stain of criminality.

But Vick may turn out to be one of the most instructive role models of all.

After all his lying and denying Vick, in a statement that had the ring of regret and resignation, said that he was sorry. He apologized not just to his National Football League bosses, but to the young children who saw him as someone to emulate.

Most of all, Vick didn’t blame his impoverished childhood, or his trifling friends for his decision to build an enterprise off of animal cruelty. Nor did he blame some racist plot for his downfall.

He blamed himself.

“I’m totally responsible, and those things just didn’t have to happen,” Vick said. “I feel we all make mistakes. It’s just that I made a mistake in using bad judgment and making bad decisions…those things, you know, just can’t happen.”

“…If I’m more disappointed with myself than anything it’s because of all the young people, young kids that I’ve let down, who look at Michael Vick as a role model…I hope that every young kid out there who is watching this interview right now who’s been following the case will use me as an example to using better judgment and making better decisions.”

Since I’m not clairvoyant, I’m not going to get into whether Vick was following his attorneys’ advice when he made his statement or if he was following his heart. Nonetheless, if Vick indeed relished the role model gig, those words will go a long ways toward helping him to get it back.

I say this because many times, the youths who look up to athletes and entertainers see them using their talent as a ticket to indulge excesses. From the rappers who pay homage to the school of bling, to the athletes whose one-night stands lead them to dot the map with baby mamas – too many seem to think that stardom bestows some sort of invulnerability upon them.

What the kids don’t see, however, is the real price those athletes and entertainers pay for their excesses. They don’t see the astronomical lawyers’ fees that are paid out to deal with silliness, or the bank accounts that are teetering on the red.

And because they don’t see that, the kids get the idea that fame is a license to act irresponsibly -- when it ought to be an obligation to act more responsibly.

Then the excesses of someone like Vick are exposed -- excesses that are poised to ruin him.

Vick is looking at 12 to 18 months in prison. Animal rights activists and assorted pundits still aren’t satisfied; some are upset that his apology stopped short of groveling. Some are screaming not only for him to be punished, but to afterwards be cast into the abyss of society.

They need to get a grip.

As a dog and cat lover, I was appalled that Vick valued dogs only for their ability to kill and maim, rather than love and protect. But while dogfighting is a heinous crime, it isn’t one that calls for him to serve a life sentence. Once Vick has paid his debt to society he, like every other felon, ought to be able to start over.

And he ought to be able to start over in the NFL -- if he still has the stuff.

Of course, on the other side, there are black people who believe that racism is ruining Vick; that the dogfighting charges wouldn’t be hyped as much if Vick were white.

Me, I rather doubt that.

Race plays a role in many things. But it’s a stretch to say racism destroyed Vick when it’s clear that he destroyed himself.  One of his first acts during his 2001 rookie season was to set up an illegal enterprise with his loser buddies – thereby giving anyone in authority who might be a racist a legal claw to tear away at his success.

That’s also a lesson that many young blacks can learn from Vick’s plight.

It is my hope that when Vick gets out of prison, his experience of having it all and losing it will make him learned and not bitter. But if nothing else his apology ought to help black youths understand what can happen when wealth and fame becomes a ticket to indulging dark obsessions rather than overcoming them.

And in uttering that apology Vick did, at least for a moment, rejoin the role model ranks again.