“Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick accepted a plea deal Monday and lengthy prison sentence to avoid additional federal charges in a dogfighting case that has driven his NFL career to a halt.”
Word on the street is that the sentence is likely 18-24 months. Ouch. I think this pretty much seals the deal: Vick will never again play in the NFL. How quickly the mighty have fallen. Two years ago, he was a poster boy for the NFL. A month ago, he was the starting quarterback for an up-and-coming NFL team. Today, he’s a criminal with no future to speak of.
I’ve always liked Vick — he’s an incredible talent and a joy to watch on the field. But, he’s made some really stupid mistakes. Between flipping the fans off, the whole water bottle incident, and (apparently) executing dogs with his own two hands, he definitely deserves this sentence. Even though i’ve been a fan of his, I can’t say I feel bad for him, at this point.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2983121&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines
001 // Matt Robin // 08.20.2007 // 5:03 PM
I also don’t feel bad for him one bit Jeff. The NFL is better off without him in it (regardless of his highly-rated playing skills). There’s no excuse for what he’s done - and certainly no place for someone like that in Professional Sport.
Is it just me, or does the NFL seem to be attracting some really bad people these days? Seems like there is non-stop news of players being arrested for nasty stuff all the time at the moment.
002 // Sean Madden // 08.20.2007 // 5:20 PM
This has been a really fascinating story for me to watch. From the beginning, my stance was always something along the lines of, “I don’t know if he’s guilty or not and I hope he gets his due process. However, if he is convicted I will loathe him to the best of my ability (I say this as a dog owner).”
Then I read some really interesting pieces at ESPN.com from the perspective of native Atlantans, most of them black. From the start, there have been outcries of racism in this case and the articles intelligently lay out some well-articulated arguments supporting it (in addition to some pretty startling poll results that clearly displayed a racial division surrounding his presumed guilt). However, at the core of each article was the statement, “give the man his due process, and if he’s convicted I will break my allegiance with him as well.”
Now that he has plead guilty I will be very curious to see how these people will react. Will they believe he got due process? I’m not sure, but it will certainly provide fascinating insight into the modern state of racism and feelings on both sides. Strange that athletics seem to be such a catalyst for these issues (see also, Bonds, Barry).
003 // Vernon Walker // 08.20.2007 // 9:23 PM
No sympathy for him here either. It’s truly a shame when someone with so much God-given ability that they can become a millionaire from it, chooses to throw everything away by breaking the law in such a disgusting manner.