East Coast Bias has an important reminder about the Michael Vick plea that's supposed to go down. Any deal would only apply to U.S. federal charges -- the Commonwealth of Virginia apparently has "every intention of prosecuting (Vick's) case once his witnesses are freed up from the federal proceedings."
Bottom line, Vick screwed up royally, he pissed away his football career, and yet that doesn't fully excuse the element of the population which thinks it has a special claim on moral high ground.
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According to an AP story that was posted on the Globe & Mail at 4:44, Vick, as you and I and everyone else believed will plead guilty according to one of his lawyers.
Next up, lifetime ban by Goodell. I suspect that if Vick keeps his nose clean he will be reinstated but not until his career is past it's prime.
Combined with Tim Donaghy, Tour De France, Rick Tocchet, Pac Man Jones, soccer shit that I don't really know anything about...it's a really bad time to get caught.
The only 2 people I have seen defending Vick publicly are the head of the NAACP and Deion Sanders. According to William Houston not so reently, Sanders "wrote" in a newspaper column that he knew ( I'm paraphrasing ) a lot / or a number of NFL players who were into dogfighting. The NFL quickly threatened to end his gig with the NFL Network if he didn't shut up, and I think he has complied. I think Neon Deion spoke the truth though, evidence is plentiful that Vick is not the only one but he is the superstar and the trophy on the wall.....having said that I can't feel sorry for him.
Dog fighting gets a whole lot more attention when a superstar pro athlete is caught than when white trash southern rednecks are doin it....but I digress.
I'll have to go back and add it to the post, but Michael Silver of Yahoo! Sports had a good column calling general hypocrisy on this.... of course, reality is it's a non-starter for most people.
One point is to wonder how much the Commonwealth of Virginia and other U.S. states are going after dogfighting operations that don't involve celebs.
I thought from the initial bust of Vick's cousin on pot charges and the subsequent search of his residence that the Animal Rights people were all over this. They were TOO prepared for it, they were lockstep with the cops and had their spinners and press releases ready immediately, as opposed to the search of the home happening one day and the press releases coming out the following day,
My point is Vick's cousin was pinched peddling pot because the Animal Rights folks had rightly convinced the authorities that Vick was into dogfighting and the pot bust was their ticket to search the property. Vick had a big bullseye on his ass. We also know how politicized justice is in the US ( Duke lacrosse for example ) and Vick is certainly an inviting target.
Again, I can't feel bad for him but there is a lot of subtext to this story.
I still think you guys are barking up the wrong tree, pardon the pun, in trying to use the Vick case as evidence of hypocrisy and double standards in "the system". The evidence is now clear that Vick was one of the biggest figures in dogfighting circles, bankrolling a huge breeding and fighting operation, killing the dogs himself, and taking part in gambling. This makes him radically different from some scruffy hillbilly who only has one dog that he fights. With Vick, prosecutors had the opportunity to get a kingpin in the dogfighting world, not just some underling. In addition, from what I gather in the news reports, he will be sentenced right in line with federal guidelines for this crime, no more and no less.
The only subtext I can see to this story is how obtuse the NFL and the Falcons were in not knowing about Ron Mexico's little "hobby" earlier.
Fair enought Dennis, I reiterate that I don't feel sorry for Vick, he's guilty as hell.
You're right, the NFL did turn a blind eye, as Deion said, Vick ain't the only player in their league that's into dog fighting.
The Animal Rights people knew that Vick was a dog fighting kingpin and they played the politics correctly and nailed his ass to the wall. It sure brings a lot more publicity ( awareness? ) to dog fighting than nailing a backup player. I won't follow this story through but in the end will Vick's conviction lead to a decrease in dog fighting? Will it lead to an increase in donations to Animal Rights groups to protect animals? In a nutshell, will good come from it or will we all forget about it once Vick is imprisoned?
I have always believed that sunlight is the best disinfectant. Now that more people are aware of just how horrifying dogfighting actually is, I can only see that as a good thing. Just look at the chill that has no doubt spread through every NFL dressing room - every guy who ever dabbled in dog fighting has no doubt been scared straight by the Vick story.
You will get no argument from me on the contention that the authorities are quite enjoying the opportunity to nail a high profile athlete. They always do, as they can do the whole, "no one is above the law" thing. They also get to mollify the animal rights activists, who complain, not without justification, that the efforts to prosecute animal cruelty are generally a joke. Mexico has been making bad choices for years now, though -- it was only a matter of time until one of those choices caught up with him.
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