The 10 Best Redemption Stories in NFL History

It's hard for most animal lovers to truly forgive this guy for what he did, but in the end, he served his time and has not been caught doing anything bad since then, so you have to give him his due.

Mike Vick redeemed himself on the football field by becoming an even better passer after being away from the game for four years.

In fact, Vick's career renaissance is in a league of its own. Nothing more than a bit player for the Eagles during the 2009 season—his first season back in the league after serving almost two years in prison because of his dogfighting conviction—Vick electrified the NFL in 2010. 

Yes, he was a three-time Pro Bowl quarterback for Atlanta, but since his return from jail, Vick has elevated his game to a new level.

He has been more accurate than he was before, and more of a real, honest to goodness QB.

Oh, and since he served his time, no one should begrudge his return to the NFL. Even convicted felons need employment, and while most do not sign multi-million dollar contracts like Vick has, as long as he keeps his nose clean and plays well, that's all that matters.

Football and professional sports in general is a business that entertains, and Vick does seem genuinely sorry for what he did.

Vick can never undo the horrific things he allowed to happen to those poor animals, and many people simply will never forgive the man. And that's OK.

His redemption has come on the playing field.  

Smith is a running back who looked to be a future star, someone who could be the featured back for the Lions for a long time.

After all, he ran for almost 1,000 yards in his rookie season, averaging 4.1 yards per carry with eight touchdowns.

The next season, he missed three games, and his production fell off, as he averaged only 3.4 yards per carry.

He suffered knee and ankle injuries, and it appeared his career might be over. In 2010, Smith appeared in just six games, and many said that he could not return from the significant injuries he had suffered.

Early this year, the Lions declined to offer Smith a contract, and suddenly this once-promising RB was out of the NFL.

Then when Jahvid Best went down, the Lions called him and just two weeks later Smith ran for 140 yards rushing on 16 carries and two TDs, with 61 yards on four receptions.

For the season, he has averaged 5.7 yards per carry. He was carted off the field with an ankle sprain on Nov. 24, but after what he has come back from before, does anyone doubt he can return?

I don't think so.

Detroit, after the team’s first 4-0 start since the Carter administration, was the talk of the NFL earlier this season. Part of that is the mere fact that the team is winning, which is a novelty, and part of it is that we’re looking for that redemption story.

The Lions are symbolic of the city of Detroit itself and so the revival of the NFL team is something the city is hoping will spark a return to better days for the economically-challenged city.

Meanwhile, at least on the football field, and despite the suspension of Ndamukong Suh and Matthew Stafford's slump, the Lions are 9-5 and assured of their first winning season since 2000. 

Over the last 14 seasons leading up to 2011, the Lions had only two winning years.

They were 0-16 just three years ago and since then have steadily climbed. In 2009, they won two games. In 2010, they won six. Now, this year, they will win anywhere from nine to 11 games.

With a strong front line and a talented young QB in Stafford, the Lions are poised to be good for a long time.

It's certainly a feel-good story, even if the success of the football team may not actually have anything to do with the revival of the city.

Who has redeemed themselves more times in a career than Kurt Warner? The grocery-store-employee-turned-three-time-NFL-MVP has had a great career.

The former Northern Iowa Panther, Green Bay Packer, Iowa Barnstormer and Amsterdam Admiral became one of the all-time feel-good stories in sports history in leading the St. Louis Rams to the NFL title in 1999 (and almost to a second in 2001).

But his time with the Rams would end on a down note, losing his gig as starter to Marc Bulger after fumbling six times in the 2003 opener. Cut loose by the Rams in 2004, he signed on to be the mentor to rookie Eli Manning with the Giants.

That experiment lasted just one season, and finding himself unemployed yet again, Warner signed with Arizona in 2005, eventually losing his job to journeyman Josh McCown. The Cards' drafting of Matt Leinart in 2006 signaled the direction of the franchise, but a few Internet photos later, it's starting to look like that might not pan out as planned.

Once again he became a starter in 2008, and he responded with 20 touchdowns, over 3,000 yards passing and the unprecedented result of leading the Cardinals to some degree of prominence.

Do you remember when Ray Lewis was the NFL’s public enemy No. 1? Back before Lewis started his own charitable foundation, starred in commercials or had his own clothing line, he was a pariah to many.

It's not that everyone has forgotten his past, it's just that he not been in trouble since and has played at such a high level and has been a wonderful mentor to so many kids through his foundation that it seems the man has really changed.

Just after Super Bowl XXXIV in 2000, Lewis was arrested and indicted on murder charges. Later, he accepted a deal that forced him to instead plead guilty to obstruction of justice. He was sentenced to 12 months probation, then fined $250,000 by the NFL.

“When an NFL player engages in and admits to misconduct of the type to which Mr. Lewis has plead here, the biggest losers are thousands of other NFL players, present, past and future,” then-NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue said when levying that fine. “Such admitted misconduct clearly contributes to the negative stereotyping of NFL players.”

Eleven years later, Lewis is one of the league’s more respected and promoted players. And amazingly, he’s made that transformation without ever softening his personality.

His is quite the redemption story.  

You can hate him for his brash, cocky persona on the field. You can still hold against him that fateful January night in 2000 when two Atlanta party-goers died. But you can’t deny that he’s made the most of his second chance in the league.

Santonio Holmes has gone from bad guy to good guy, and it has happened despite playing in the public spotlight of New York City.

the story goes something like this: Holmes wins the Super Bowl MVP. He then trips up repeatedly and loses his roots in Pittsburgh. Then he moves to New York, but he still isn't cooperating.

He hates talking to the media about anything other than playing wide receiver, and has no interest in being known as a redemption story.

But the fact of the matter is that he turned around his reputation and is now considered a feel-good story instead of a jerk.

Holmes has never been the type to allow you to peel away the layers of the onion, and that hasn't changed. But what has changed is his behavior in the locker room.

He used to be considered selfish, but now is known as a good teammate.

His troubled past and his own mouth has gotten him in trouble. He confessed just before Super Bowl XLIII that he sold drugs as a kid.

There was a domestic violence incident in 2006 that was later dismissed, an arrest in 2008 for possession of marijuana and a lawsuit from March that alleges Holmes threw a glass at a woman in an Orlando nightclub.

His suspension for violating the league's substance-abuse policy was the last straw for Pittsburgh, and they traded Holmes to the Jets. That was the best fifth-round pick the Jets ever used.

When he participated in New Orlean's first Super Bowl championship a couple years ago, it was the highlight of a tough road to prominence for Anthony Hargrove.

The former Georgia Tech lineman overcame an impoverished childhood and personal problems early in his NFL career to earn the 2009 Saints' Ed Block Courage Award for serving as a role model of inspiration and courage.

Many Saints fans know Hargrove’s story. On Aug. 11, 2007, Hargrove was suspended by the NFL for the first four games of the regular season for breaking the NFL's substance abuse policy.

It was reported on Jan. 18, 2008, that Hargrove had failed another drug test. Due to past violations of the NFL's substance abuse policy, Hargrove received a one-year suspension on Jan. 24, 2008.

He was reinstated in 2009 and picked up by the Saints, who moved him to defensive tackle where he thrived.

He is a tremendous example of overcoming incredible odds, to become a solid NFL player and, more importantly, an inspiring role model.

This is a kid who lived in homeless shelters and was addicted to drugs but changed his life and has been clean ever since.

Hargrove will always be one of the great redemption stories of the NFL. .

Tommie Campbell was a highly touted high school prospect who failed to make the best of an opportunity at a Division I school. After literally throwing away his football career, Campbell found himself taking a janitorial job at a Pittsburgh airport in order to support his two kids.

But he was granted one more chance to play the game that he loves so much.

Campbell is a native of Aliquippa, Pennsylvania where he attended high school at Aliquippa High School. But academic issues caught up to him multiple times.

With kids to support and opportunities behind him, he decided that he needed to get a regular job, so he took a full-time job at the Pittsburgh International Airport to make ends meet.

He got an offer from Cal U and did not throw away this third opportunity. He excelled at Cal U where he played 12 games, starting four at cornerback. He recorded 29 tackles and added two interceptions, both of which came in the playoffs against Bloomsburg. Most importantly, he stood out for professional scouts.

Earlier this year, Campbell was drafted in the seventh round by the Tennessee Titans which meant that he had an outside shot at making the team.

Again, he took full advantage and made the team.

Coming into 2011, Plaxico hadn’t touched a football field since 2008; he was 33 going on 34 and had character issues. After a slow start in which he caught three passes in four games, the hindsight crew were out in force suggesting the signing seemed to have been a mistake.

However, he began making the most of his opportunity and formed a bond with Jets QB Matt Sanchez.  

For anyone that doesn't know the story, Burress had a 2008 to forget. On two occasions police were called to his residence to answer a domestic disturbance call, and on both occasions temporary restraining orders were issued.

But the big news was that he was sentenced to two years in prison for accidentally shooting himself in the thigh at a Manhattan nightclub with an unlicensed fire arm, and consequently not reporting it to the necessary authorities.

By all accounts, the time he spent in jail helped him sort his life out, and he took an anger management course and was released early due to good behavior.

Like Vick, he has another chance and seems to be taking advantage of it.

Say what you will about his performance as an NFL QB, and yes, it hasn't been pretty. But the man is a winner and has led the Broncos back to respectability by winning several games late, using his feet and his penchant for great fourth quarter comebacks.

Coming out of college, where he was insanely successful, pro scouts said he simply couldn't play QB in the NFL. For one, the option can't work in the NFL, it was said, and for another, his throwing motion was awful.

And yet, while he has been mostly awful, he has been winning, so you would have to say that his is a story of redemption in a way.

Tebow's completion percentage is 48.6 percent. Take away his magical fourth quarters and the number is closer to 30 percent.

Yet he wins. And he is playing QB in the NFL, both of which the so-called experts said wasn't possible. While it may not last, it is something to behol