Boy, did Paul Tagliabue pick the right time to retire.
According to published reports, a federal grand jury has indicted Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick in connection with a recent dogfighting probe. The indictment accuses Vick and several other co-defendants of sponsoring illegal dogfighting, dating as far back as 2001, Vick’s rookie season. Federal authorities searched the Scurry, Virginia property owned by Vick where the alleged dogfights took place. This search recovered 54 pit bulls from Vick’s property as well as pit bull training and mating paraphernalia. According to ESPN, ” Fights would end when one dog died or with the surrender of the losing dog, which sometimes was put to death by drowning, strangulation, hanging, gunshot, electrocution or some other method,”. Some other method? Is there another method? Sounds like they pretty much covered them all…
In addition to the indictment for dogfighting, Vick and his co-defendants are accused of performing “testing” sessions to determine which dogs would be suitable for fighting. Those who were deemed worthy lived to fight another day; the ones that failed the test were “hanged, drowned and/or slammed to the ground and killed.” Ah, slamming them to the ground. I guess that’s the “other method.”
And you thought Pacman Jones was a thug.
This story is far from finished. But if you’re NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, what do you do? Suspend Vick? Kick him out of the league? What if you’re Falcons owner Arthur Blank? Is this the guy you want representing the face of your franchise? And what about poor Bobby Petrino? Looks like you picked a bad time to deal away the best backup QB in the game. What if you’re Nike? Do you terminate your endorsement deal with Vick? When Kobe was indicted, everyone dropped him faster than you can say Eagle County, Colorado. Granted, the charges were more severe, but still.
I guess it could be worse. At least Mikey’s not as boneheaded as his brother, Marcus. But then again, that’s not saying much.
already & not yet 
When will it actually stop? When will all of these guys stop their idiot ways? Its absolutely ridiculous. Now you’ve got Ron Artest in the news again…because the NBA can’t be downplayed for too long. Oh, and shameless plug, I’m back on track on my blog again.
It really has been incredible the recent run-ins with the law that several NFL players have had. Of course, everybody knows about Pacman Jones. Then there was the Tank Johnson issue. Now Vick. They should trade all three of them to the Bengals. They’d fit right in there.Glad you’re back in the saddle again.
I suppose the days of the Raiders being the outlaw team of the NFL is over. Now, its the Bengals? What gives NFL? It will be interesting to see how the commissioner handles Vick. Is dog fighting as bad as what Pacman has done?
I heard that Vick had been indicted(sp?) while I was driving around this morning, and thought-“why were they doing such stupid stuff?” and-“of course he’s gonna say family was staying there and he had no idea.” and-“poor guy…he could get up to six years in prison.” then I realized that I was showing the same characteristics of most of the rest of our celebrity crazed nation! For goodness sakes…when ‘normal’ people do stuff like DUI or embezzle or lie or fight dogs or ‘you fill in the blank’, we are all about justice. But why do we feel like actually applying a consequence to famous people is such a bad thing? Or so undeserving? Cuz we don’t want a week to go by w/out seeing them on TV? Or we don’t want our team to have to do w/out them?I feel like celebrities, if nothing else, should be held to an even HIGHER standard. Our society, and one day my children, will look up to people in the spotlight, and I don’t think people who act in such a riduculous and/or inappropriate manner should be passed over when it comes to taking responsibility for their actions.Whew! Ok…official end of rant…Wow, Jason, I feel like I have just released weeks of tension! Thanks for the topic…
I say you set all 54 dogs recovered loose. Give Vick a football. If he can get around all 54 of ’em he goes free.
NFL = National Felon LeagueThis makes me so angry! We have four dogs – three of which were rescued. I can’t imagine how anyone can do such cruel things to animals.
Pacman has had multiple run-ins with the law, and this is Vick’s first offense. That’s the line of reasoning some are using to say Vick shouldn’t be reprimanded. If I’m the commish, I come down heavy on this one. This whole ting is cruel and inhumane, not to mention illegal. Stacy brings up a valid point: playing football (and the celebrity that comes with it) is a privilege, not a right. If I’m Roger Goodell, I’d say, “You just forfeited the privilege to play in my league.”Or we could always go with Scott’s idea. 🙂
Scott: That would not be non-violent 🙂 but would be funny.I have always thought of Vick as a thug. He has all the abilities in the world and an IQ of about 6…