Vick offers guilty plea
He faces one year to 18 months behind bars
Christian Red - McClatchy-Tribune
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Atlanta quarterback Michael Vick will sidestep gambling charges with his plea.
RICHMOND, Va. -- After signing Michael Vick to the richest contract in NFL history almost three years ago, Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank joked he had once told the quarterback, "You understand that the only way you're going to leave Atlanta will be in a box."
Vick hasn't left the Falcons "in a box," but his precipitous fall from the NFL's upper echelon reached its lowest depth on Monday when the No. 1 pick of the 2001 draft agreed to plead guilty in a federal dog-fighting case.
The 27-year-old Vick, who dazzled crowds for six seasons with his scrambling (3,859 rushing yards) and passing (11,505 yards), will appear before U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson in Richmond Aug. 27 to enter his guilty plea. Hudson gave a brief status hearing on Monday on the first floor of the federal courthouse, but said, "No details of the plea agreement are available at this time."
Sources believe that Vick is facing a year to 18 months behind bars.
Vick's defence team saved him from the possibility of being slapped with a superseding indictment -- something prosecutors leading the case were pressing for -- including equally serious gambling charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.
In an 18-page indictment handed down July 17, Vick was portrayed as a ringmaster of the "Bad Newz Kennels" operation on a rural Smithfield, Va., property he owned. The document outlined how Vick helped execute dogs deemed unfit for the ring by drowning and hanging, carried out dog fighting across state lines and entered into illegal gambling schemes with three other men, Quanis Phillips, Purnell Peace and Tony Taylor.
Taylor was the first to turn on Vick, pleading guilty four days after the July 26 court appearance in which all four entered "not guilty" pleas. Peace and Phillips pleaded guilty Friday. Had Vick gone to trial and been found guilty, he was looking at up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines.
"Mr. Vick has agreed to enter a plea of guilty to those charges and to accept full responsibility for his actions and the mistakes he has made," Vick's attorney Billy Martin said in a statement. "Michael wishes to apologize again to everyone who has been hurt by this matter."
legal experts and pundits were left to speculate what is to become of Vick's football career -- the deal he inked Dec. 23, 2004, was for $130 million US over 10 years -- now that prison time is almost certain. A league suspension is sure to follow and most likely would not run concurrently with the sentence. -- New York Daily News
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He should never play pro football again. When he gets out of jail, if a CFL team makes noise about bringing him to Canada, I think I will join the protest lines.
Vick offers guilty plea
Moderator: Team Captains
Why wait for Vick? Go protest Kyries Hebert playing in the CFL.WestCoastJoe wrote: He should never play pro football again. When he gets out of jail, if a CFL team makes noise about bringing him to Canada, I think I will join the protest lines.
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Toppy Vann
- Hall of Famer
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I heard an interesting interview on the Team 1040 with an NFL reporter (forgot the name) shortly after this stuff broke.
He said how much he liked Michael Vick, etc and how highly he thought of him when he interviewed him. He did not see the guy regularly and when he came back to interview him he said a source with Vick's team said that the guy he used to respect is not the same Michael Vick. This team source said something like he had not been the same decent guy that that reporter had remembered for quite some time.
The irony in all of this is that the love humans have for dogs seems even greater than mankind's love for humanity itself! I love dogs too and think that what Vick is alleged to have done is disgusting and depraved, but I do found it odd at times at how little outrage we feel for those in Darfur or other parts of the globe where hunger and poverty reign supreme or how natives in Canada live on reserves. Yet we can get all fired up about dogs and Saddam Hussein who was a bad man and then rejoice when the state executes the guy...lol..
I hope that this very talented young football player can learn from this and turn his life around and do something positive to rectify the harm and wrong he has done to these animals and to himself. Maybe the delayed recognition rather than an early PR mea culpa and rolling on his co-accused will help him become a better person and gain some redemption in the eyes of others. I say this as most observers feel he should have copped a plea immediately just to save his own skin. Yes, he will still have his friends and supporters - even OJ has his. But to win back the hearts of the average citizen means he has a lot of atoning to do. It will take a major change in his life to overcome the wrong he has done as there is hardly a non-dog lover out there who is not sickened by this guy.
He said how much he liked Michael Vick, etc and how highly he thought of him when he interviewed him. He did not see the guy regularly and when he came back to interview him he said a source with Vick's team said that the guy he used to respect is not the same Michael Vick. This team source said something like he had not been the same decent guy that that reporter had remembered for quite some time.
The irony in all of this is that the love humans have for dogs seems even greater than mankind's love for humanity itself! I love dogs too and think that what Vick is alleged to have done is disgusting and depraved, but I do found it odd at times at how little outrage we feel for those in Darfur or other parts of the globe where hunger and poverty reign supreme or how natives in Canada live on reserves. Yet we can get all fired up about dogs and Saddam Hussein who was a bad man and then rejoice when the state executes the guy...lol..
I hope that this very talented young football player can learn from this and turn his life around and do something positive to rectify the harm and wrong he has done to these animals and to himself. Maybe the delayed recognition rather than an early PR mea culpa and rolling on his co-accused will help him become a better person and gain some redemption in the eyes of others. I say this as most observers feel he should have copped a plea immediately just to save his own skin. Yes, he will still have his friends and supporters - even OJ has his. But to win back the hearts of the average citizen means he has a lot of atoning to do. It will take a major change in his life to overcome the wrong he has done as there is hardly a non-dog lover out there who is not sickened by this guy.
"Ability without character will lose." - Marv Levy
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pinkfreud
When I first saw the headline on CNN I thought, "how did he get access to a fighter jet?"
I agree Toppy that our perspective seems out of whack when we get more upset over dogs and disoriented whales than we do humans. But then again, from an evolutionary psych perspective, we compete with humans but not animals for resources (unless you're Ben Affleck going up against a Disney movie of course). On some unconscious level I'm sure we're wired to assume the fewer the better.
I agree Toppy that our perspective seems out of whack when we get more upset over dogs and disoriented whales than we do humans. But then again, from an evolutionary psych perspective, we compete with humans but not animals for resources (unless you're Ben Affleck going up against a Disney movie of course). On some unconscious level I'm sure we're wired to assume the fewer the better.
Save watching the Lions feast, then the more the merrier.pinkfreud wrote:When I first saw the headline on CNN I thought, "how did he get access to a fighter jet?"
I agree Toppy that our perspective seems out of whack when we get more upset over dogs and disoriented whales than we do humans. But then again, from an evolutionary psych perspective, we compete with humans but not animals for resources (unless you're Ben Affleck going up against a Disney movie of course). On some unconscious level I'm sure we're wired to assume the fewer the better.
Entertainment value = an all time low
Toppy Vann wrote: ...The irony in all of this is that the love humans have for dogs seems even greater than mankind's love for humanity itself! I love dogs too and think that what Vick is alleged to have done is disgusting and depraved, but I do found it odd at times at how little outrage we feel for those in Darfur or other parts of the globe where hunger and poverty reign supreme or how natives in Canada live on reserves. Yet we can get all fired up about dogs and Saddam Hussein who was a bad man and then rejoice when the state executes the guy...lol..
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Bang on. I notice these types of things all the time. I remember something about a 'artist' that was claiming to crush a rat (Sniffy the Rat-IIRC) using a large cinder block onto a canvas claiming it was art. He was chased down the street by a mob of angry people and he really showed how 'civilized' some of us think we are. I may sound out there but one casualty I don't want to see is some of the changes Vick was causing in NFL football. His style of quarterbacking was causing some changes (they will STILL happen). Hopefully another Vick-style QB without the baggage can expand upon the changes.
I think this has been a really BAD time for all the pro sports. Gambling touching NBA (some say possible organized gambling is the bigger of the reasons the NFL is choked with Vick).