Michael Vick will "be a better man" because he spent 18 months in federal prison, his father said in an interview.
Michael Boddie told The Daily Press of Newport News, Va., that he knows firsthand what being locked up can do.
"You have a lot of time to reflect," he told the newspaper. "Looks like he came through it in one piece. I think he'll be a better man for it."
Boddie, 47, and Vick have a strained relationship, but they visited for 10 to 15 minutes last Friday at the Hampton home where Vick is serving two months of home confinement.
"I told him, 'Son, what don't kill you will make you stronger,'" Boddie told the newspaper.
Boddie, who has had problems with drugs and drunk driving, was harshly critical of Vick in 2007 despite repeatedly asking the former Falcons quarterback for money.
They wrote letters to each other while Vick served his prison sentence for running a dogfighting operation.
"They did exchange letters," Vick's mother, Brenda Boddie, told the newspaper. "My son, Michael, he just has a good, forgiving heart. And that's his father, so he talked to him.
"They don't have a good relationship or nothing like that," she added. "My son has a good heart."
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