I dunno, maybe because it's instructive to meet and speak with people who have had major adversity in their life and have turned their life around and found new success through change.
I'm also going to throw out there that Beane and McDermott aren't shy about their Christian morals and part of that (the part people like to forget) is forgiveness and not lying in judgement of others. Vick paid his debt to our society and will be judged by a higher power after his passing.