Mike Vick Indicted

[Kiwon]

Idle, your animation there almost put me in a hypnotic state. Very sly on your part.

Here let me try.

Everyone...follow the flying crap....just keeping staring.........watch the crap....

YOU'RE A HUNGRY CHICKEN LOOKING FOR FOOD!

[Scott Campbell]

Reeves says he would 'do anything I could to help Mike'

ATLANTA -- Former Atlanta Falcons coach Dan Reeves told Michael Vick several weeks ago he would help the troubled quarterback in any possible way.

That offer still stands, even though Vick is now under federal indictment for allegedly hosting dogfights and brutally killing pit bulls.

"Sure, I'd do anything I could to help Mike," Reeves said Friday. "I think he's basically a good person. Unfortunately it just seems like he's made some bad choices over the years with the company he keeps."

Vick's problems aren't just about football. Public outrage ensued after he and three others were charged with competitive dogfighting, procuring and training pit bulls for fighting, and conducting the enterprise across state lines.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell spoke Friday with members of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals while approximately 50 activists with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals protested outside his office in New York.

Nike announced this week that it would suspend release of Vick's latest signature shoe, prompting the National Humane Society to demand that the shoe and apparel company pull all Vick-endorsed products from stores.

The indictment and ensuing uproar has "shocked and saddened" Reeves, who initially called Vick earlier this summer to invite him to play in a charity golf tournament. But the former coach also wanted Vick, a three-time Pro Bowl selection, to know that many people could help him clear up his image.

"Like most everybody else, I'd heard a lot of the things that could've happened in his life over the last year or so," Reeves said. "I was shocked and saddened to hear about the dogfighting. Unfortunately, when you look at it, it seems like he's had the same circle of friends he had as a kid."

Vick hardly helped himself or the Falcons when he gestured obscenely to fans at the Georgia Dome following a lopsided loss to New Orleans last year. He promised the next day that he would never embarrass Atlanta fans again.

"I don't know where it came from," Vick said last Nov. 27, "but the people who know me know that's not me and that's not my character."

Vick was a 20-year-old Virginia Tech sophomore six years ago when Reeves drafted him No. 1 overall in the NFL.

During his three seasons with Vick, Reeves considered him as a person who earned respect in the locker room but usually kept to himself once he left the team's complex.

"Maybe that's because he kept hanging out with a few guys he grew up with instead of making more friends on the team," Reeves said. "During the first two years, Mike prepared as hard as anybody. He never left anything on the field, and he had the kind of speed most people never saw at his position."

After Vick made two starts in eight games as a rookie behind Chris Chandler, the Falcons named him their starter in 2002. He led them to the playoffs and a stunning wildcard win at Green Bay.

Team owner Arthur Blank fired Reeves after Vick broke his ankle the following preseason and missed 12 starts. Atlanta went 3-1 when Vick returned, but his slow recovery all but ruined a season that finished 5-11.

Neither Vick nor his legal representatives has spoken publicly since the indictment was released.

The quarterback and his four associates will enter pleas Thursday at the U.S. District Court in Richmond, Va. The Falcons begin training camp the same day, but football seems the least of Vick's worries.

If convicted of both felony charges, the four face up to six years in prison, fines of up to $350,000 and restitution.

"When look at the big picture, you're talking about a quarterback who's had all the ability in the world, a guy who could've accomplished great things," Reeves said. "Maybe he still can, but it seems like he's made it awfully tough on himself."

Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press

[Scott Campbell]

Dan: Mike, can I do anything to help you out here? Anything at all?

Mike: Well, can you put $12K on Brutus in Saturday's feature bout for me? And would you mind making sure all my buds have a great time so they keep coming back? And don't forget to clean up all the blood. Thanks Dan.

Dan: Uhhhh....that wasn't exactly what I had in mind.

[Tarlam!]

This guy seems to share a lot of people's opinions:

Here's the 'right' that matters: Vick should sit in '07
July 18, 2007
By Gregg Doyel
CBS SportsLine.com National Columnist

Michael Vick can't play this season. You know that, right? He cannot play. Not for the Atlanta Falcons. Not for anybody, not anywhere, not at any time. Not until he is clear of the charges leveled against him by the federal government.

And if he's not cleared of those charges? If he's found guilty of sponsoring a macabre dogfighting ring? Then the NFL has seen the last of Michael Vick.


Distractions will follow Michael Vick and the Falcons every step of the way if he plays. (Getty Images)
Don't give me "due process." Look around you. Do you see a court of law? Do you see a judge, a jury, a lawyer, a bailiff? The NFL is not the U.S. judicial system, and for the sake of this argument, Michael Vick is not a defendant. He's a football player who has been accused of something so serious, something so heinous, that the NFL cannot in good faith allow him to represent the most popular sports league in this country.

Don't give me "innocent until proven guilty." Michael Vick has no inalienable right to play football this season or any season for the Atlanta Falcons. Our colonial militia didn't throw tea in the Boston Harbor so Michael Vick, some 230 years later, could play football for the Falcons. U.S. soldiers have not died in wars all over the world, and are not dying right now in the Middle East, so Michael Vick can throw a football.

Don't give me "the presumption of innocence." The NFL isn't deciding whether Vick will spend the rest of his life behind bars. The NFL only has to decide whether Vick should, or should not, be allowed to play while the most sordid sports story in years plays out.

Michael Vick simply cannot play this season. Surely you understand that. His first court date is July 26, the same day the Falcons are scheduled to begin training camp. That's a nice touch, but think further ahead to when the Falcons are getting ready for their season opener Sept. 9 at Minnesota. At the same time he will be trying to prepare his offense for the Vikings, Vick will be helping prepare his defense for a nasty court case that will decide his freedom.

He won't be ready to play for the Falcons. Not at quarterback, where the mental side is so critical. It wouldn't be fair to Vick to ask him to play with this court case hanging over his head, and if it sounds like I'm being sympathetic to Vick's plight, I'm not. He has been accused of crimes that offend me greatly, and if he's found guilty, I hope he spends so much time in jail that he dies there. Dog fighting? Dog killing? Only the scum of the earth partake in such an atrocity.

Think ahead to Sept. 16, when the Falcons visit Jacksonville. There are also trips to Tennessee, New Orleans, Carolina, St. Louis, Tampa Bay and Phoenix. In every city, Michael Vick will bring the circus. Animal cruelty foes will picket stadiums. Fans will be ugly, maybe cruel, possibly even criminal. Things will be thrown at Vick. Things will be yelled.

For those eight Sundays on the road, Michael Vick will be hated like no visiting player has ever been hated.

Baseball villain Barry Bonds thinks he has it tough when he goes on the road? Bonds is only accused of being a jerk and a cheat. Vick has been accused of killing dogs, which ought to earn him the malice of even the home crowd. Any idea how many NFL fans own a dog? Me neither, but it's a large number. And every last one of them should hate Vick. At this moment I do, and he hasn't even been found guilty yet.

But he has been charged, and not just anywhere. He has been charged in federal court, and for those who don't know what that means, let me tell you: It means Vick is almost certainly guilty. According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 99 percent of the people indicted by the federal government between 2000 and 2005 were convicted.

Did you catch that number? It was 99 percent. Guilty. How can that be? This is how: The U.S. government doesn't indict just anybody, and certainly wouldn't indict Vick or anyone else for headlines. The government is far too busy and far too cheap to waste its time and money pursuing a trial against a defendant that has even a remote chance of winning. The U.S. government only indicts you if it believes it can and will convict you.

The NFL has to know that percentage. So does Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank. They have to know that Michael Vick, in all probability -- say, 99 percent -- will be convicted of masterminding a dogfighting operation. And if he is convicted, he will go to jail for a long, long time. Which means his NFL career is finished.

So why let him play now? This isn't a guy who deserves the benefit of the doubt. He has shown horrible judgment over and over, from the Ron Mexico herpes incident to the middle finger he showed the home crowd to the James Bond water bottle he used in an unsuccessful attempt at sneaking marijuana jewelry onto an airplane. None of those cases led to any sort of conviction in a court of law, but Pacman Jones is serving a one-year suspension from the NFL and as of today, he has been convicted of nothing. He hasn't even been indicted by the federal government, as Vick has.

The Falcons deserve some relief, too. They would take a huge salary cap hit for releasing Vick, but that hit should be waived. The Falcons should not be forced to keep a poisonous person because of NFL salary cap ramifications. That is not the way anyone should want the NFL to operate. It's in the best interests of everyone in the NFL for Michael Vick to never again wear a uniform, so the Falcons should be cut some slack for releasing him.

The bleeding hearts among you -- the Vick fans, the gullible, the blind -- want to know how the NFL can keep an innocent man off the field.

I've got a better question:

How could the NFL possibly let him play?

http://www.sportsline.com/columns/story/10260902

[Scott Campbell]

I agree with that article.

[Tarlam!]

I agree with that article.

Yeah, I had you in mind when I read it.

[Rastak]

But he has been charged, and not just anywhere. He has been charged in federal court, and for those who don't know what that means, let me tell you: It means Vick is almost certainly guilty. According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 99 percent of the people indicted by the federal government between 2000 and 2005 were convicted.

Did you catch that number? It was 99 percent. Guilty. How can that be? This is how: The U.S. government doesn't indict just anybody, and certainly wouldn't indict Vick or anyone else for headlines. The government is far too busy and far too cheap to waste its time and money pursuing a trial against a defendant that has even a remote chance of winning. The U.S. government only indicts you if it believes it can and will convict you.

This is pretty much what I've been trying to say. If he isn't guilty then he'll have his day in court to show that but I'm pretty sure the evidence is gonna prove he's an asshole of the first order and he's gonna be alot sorrier than he probably already is that he didn't learn right from wrong when he was a little kid.

[Tarlam!]

Yup, Ras, that helped me understand a lot more about it myself.

[Scott Campbell]

I agree with that article.

Yeah, I had you in mind when I read it.

Just so you understand how I got worked up earlier.

I believe this country has a fierce pride in the enormous price that it paid to gain it's freedom, and keep it's freedom. It was not handed to us, it was hard earned. And keeping that freedom is not a given, as there are people around the world that hate us and our way of life and would do anything in their power to destroy us. Nobody hates Aussies like that. Nobody hates Canadians like that.

So if I see someone from outside this country wrap themselves up in our flag, and our constitution, and tell us how were supposed to be nicer to Mike Vick to keep in line with the principals of our country - it pisses me off. Mike Vick has been and will be treated better by this country than by any other country on the face of the earth. Do you think that kid could have earned a $130M contract for throwing a football anywhere else?

I think people outside the US typically understand us much better than we understand them. Were a pretty high profile country. Our culture gets inspected and disected under the worlds microscope, and I can understand how people might think they know what it's like to be an American. But even though you have that better understanding, you're still not an American.

[Kiwon]

Jason Whitlock on Vick......well worth the reading

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/columnists/jason_whitlock/story/195760.html