( CNN ) -- Disgraced former NFL star Michael Vick declared that `` I am not the bad person or the beast I 've been made out to be '' in a letter to a judge asking for leniency . Michael Vick wrote he was `` forever a changed man . '' `` I have been talked about and ridiculed on a day to day basis by people who really do n't know Michael Vick the human being . They only knew the football player which is unfair , '' Vick said in a handwritten letter released this week . U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson sentenced Vick on Monday to serve 23 months in prison for financing a dogfighting ring and helping to kill pit bulls that did not fight aggressively . Vick wrote the judge that he had accepted responsibility for his actions , would pay restitution and never again use `` a single dollar that I have earned for anything but to help people . '' Read letters from Vick , his mom , sports stars » . The former Atlanta Falcons quarterback said he grew up not knowing the severity of the crime of dogfighting and asked Hudson for `` a second chance . '' Other letters supporting Vick were sent by his mother , his seventh-grade teacher and children he had met since becoming a star and one of the NFL 's most highly paid players . Brenda Vick Boddie said her son fell victim to friends who took advantage of Vick 's inability to `` say no . '' `` PLEASE Your HONOR give my baby Michael another chance . [ H ] e 's never been in trouble with the law before , PLEASE ! PLEASE ! one more chance , '' she pleaded in her own handwritten letter . Former Falcons teammate Warrick Dunn , Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and two sporting legends -- former home-run king Hank Aaron and former two-time boxing heavyweight champion George Foreman -- also wrote letters on Vick 's behalf . E-mail to a friend .
Vick wrote one -page letter to judge seeking leniency . Former NFL star said he was wrong and promised to make amends . Vick 's mom , U.S. mayor and sports legends also sent letters to judge . Michael Vick sentenced Monday in prison in dogfighting case .