The Atlanta Falcons’ suspended quarterback Michael Vick wrote a five-page letter to the U.S. District Court Judge Henry E. Hudson before being sentenced for dog-fighting allegations. The NFL star said he had been exposed to numerous illegal activities as a child, including dog-fights, which he didn’t think he could be accused and imprisoned for: “No one really cared or called the police so I grew up not knowing the severity of the crime.”

The letter was made public on Thursday together with 20 other letters from Vick’s defense team, pleading for leniency. Some of these letters describe the charitable work Vick has done for different organizations and churches.

Vick said in the letter to Judge Hudson that he was really not the bad person most people consider him to be, as everybody knows the football player Michael Vick, but no one Michael Vick the human being, which he thought to be unfair: “I’m a very humble, soft-spoken and carrying guy.” At the same time, Vick admitted that he was initially afraid to tell the truth because of his previous criminal record.

Referring to the whole situation, Vick also said that the most painful thing is to see how this whole situation affected his son’s life: “he says his friends in school make fun of the situation because we have the same last name.”

The suspended quarterback ends his letter by making a promise of never using another dollar that he earns for something else than helping people and he prayed for a second chance to show the world who Michael Vick really is, apart from what the media made of him.

The letter was written before Vick was sentenced to 23 months in prison for illegal dog-fighting, but according to Judge Hudson, it was not the only letter he received.  Thousands of angry people had sent him letters, disapproving with his involvement in blood sports.