Vick’s Atlanta-based attorney, Daniel Meachum, said there have been no discussions with the league in recent days about the length of any suspension, which probably wouldn’t take effect until the quarterback completed his sentence.
“There’s no promise or even a request of the league to make a promise,” Meachum said.
The attorney would not discuss what sentence Vick is expected to receive, though legal experts have speculated on anywhere from 12 to 18 months.
“I hope to be able to show the world that Michael is trying to piece his life together,” Meachum said. “He’s a good person, and hopefully he can play. But this is not about football. This is about a young man’s life. Football is secondary.”
This article talks about the falcon’s take on this whole thing in which the primary concern is…Money. The falcon’s are scrambling to find a way that they can deal with their cap woes and minimize the amount of money that they still have to pay Vick.
Through a spokesman, Vick said he’s sorry. Ironically, it was the same spokesman who stood near a courthouse a month ago and told us that Vick looked forward to clearing his good name.
Why is it I have a feeling that both statements were more than just a little disingenuous?
Vick apologized Monday, because he had no other good option. There’s nothing quite like a display of sincerity that has been made mandatory by events. Vick deciding to "accept full responsibility for his actions and the mistakes he has made’’ comes a bit late, if you ask me.
I ASKED MYSELF THIS SAME QUESTION:
Banks:I’m just wondering if we’re going to hear again from those wise men of all wise men, Deion Sanders, Emmitt Smith, Clinton Portis and the like? I seem to remember that Sanders told us Vick might love his dogs as much as any dog lover, it’s just in a different way. He loved them because they fought for him.
Now that we know Vick and two of his co-defendants killed some of those dogs by hanging them from trees in their backyard, I want to hear Deion’s latest take. And what about those dogs that just wouldn’t die by hanging, but had to be finished off by having their heads held in five-gallon buckets of water until they drowned?
If that’s the way Vick and his buddies "loved’’ their dogs, please explain it to us again, Deion. Because I’m just not getting it.
I personally thought that Deon’s statement was a bunch of nonsense myself.
Banks seems to really take a side in this article in that I get the feel that much like myself he doesn’t care too much about Mike Vick.
In closing, Banks gives a interesting angle on how Vick could make a comeback:
If Vick is back in the NFL some day, and I’d say the odds favor a comeback happening eventually, he’ll have to launch the mother of all public relations campaigns to help ease his way back into the public eye.
The most logical suggestion I heard of what that campaign might look and sound like came from ex-Bengals quarterback Boomer Esiason. Vick would have to become an outspoken advocate against animal cruelty, write a big fat check to PETA or the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and repeatedly offer himself as an example of the good that can come from having made grievous mistakes.
If it comes off being authentic, America loves a story of redemption more than anything. There’s a second chance waiting for him out there somewhere. But he’s got a long road to travel between here and there.
I agree that if Mike Vick does get a second chance, it’s not because he deserves it as his god given right, but because he is going to have to show in a big way that he has earned it.
Here are some older videos that I dug up. The Nancy Grace piece seems to be a bunch of garbage. However I didn’t know that Bill O’Reilly was jumping in on this. My only regret is that PETA took so much of the credit for this. I found the spokespeople from the Humane society to be much better representatives:
O�??Reilly
Nancy Grace
THIS IS THE PART THAT REALLY GOT ME! Upon further search I was able to find Clinton Portis’s original comments on the whole situation. I found these two chuckling Jackass’s to be very disturbing:
Clinton Portis
IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING WHO CHRIS SAMUELS IS. Turns out he is supposed to be a pretty good football player. It’s just his attitude in the above piece which pisses me off a little:
Chris Samuels
I found it interesting that the second the NFL got involved, these two chuckling dicks changed their tune pretty fast. Seems like a bullshit apology but whatever:
Did Michael Vick really blow it all �?? a $130 million contract and multiple endorsement deals �?? to pursue this barbaric hobby in the woods of Virginia?
“People are going to start looking at me with stupidity,” Vick told ESPN during the NFL draft, when he was still declaring his innocence. “That’s stupid.”
It’s beyond stupid. The NFL employs players who have been convicted of spouse abuse, involuntary manslaughter due to drunken driving and obstruction of justice in a homicide investigation, to name a few. It’s not called the National Felon League for nothing.
In Hollywood, we’ve come to treat troubled actors and actresses as theater. In Washington, D.C., political sex and bribe scandals are met with a yawn.
Yet this one shocked America, in part because of the viciousness of the crime and in part because of its senselessness.
Vick isn’t some talentless starlet or a hack politician. He was a true star with true ability, and in his prime at 27, set up to be a top player in America’s top sport.
And now he has virtually nothing; just a cautionary tale of waste.
Soon, Vick will be headed to prison, and if there is justice, he’ll spend his time there as alone and frightened as those dogs he and his Bad Newz Kennels crew fought, tortured and killed.
There is no sympathy for a guy whose hobby was so depraved. No excuse for someone who soothed his internal rage by laying waste to lesser creatures.
Vick still has his supporters, some who claim the unusual amount of resources and resolve the federal government deployed to pursue this case as unfair. A federal dogfighting prosecution is rare, after all.
But that’s the downside of fame. Authorities believe that a high-profile conviction will curb the crime among the average citizen. To whom much is given, much is expected, and Vick was given it all and only expected to obey the law…
Michael Vick, just five years ago, was poised to redefine football, set to take his place in the hallowed pantheon of sports greats.
Today he is nothing but a hollow, heartless criminal, done in by his own base stupidity in one of the most astounding and ugly falls from grace in modern American sports.
Vick confesses his guilt.
‘With three associates prepared to testify that he brutally executed dogs and bankrolled gambling, the NFL star agreed Monday to “accept full responsibility” for his role in a dogfighting ring and plead guilty to federal conspiracy charges’.
I’ll speculate that he’s gonna get less that a year in jail, plus one year suspension from the NFL. Despite not being a fan of this douche bag, I think he’ll come back to with comeback player of the year.
lol comeback player of the year. Highly doubt it, unless he just studies how to be a quarterback in jail.
Nobody still hasn’t weighed in on the fact that neither his owners, or the league had a clue for 7 years that he was doing this? I find that very suspicious.
[quote]JokerFMJ wrote:
I believe environment has as much, if not more, to do with it than genes, although I know many disagree.
And if you knew anything about the area they grew up in, you’d know it wasn’t exactly the best area, heh.[/quote]
Here is the Wikipedia web page about New Port News. This will give everybody some information about whatJoker FMJ is talking about.
Turns out New Port News is a somewhat large city (180,000+) with a very diverse environment. Most of the crime occurrs on the East end of the city. I presume this is the area that Vick grew up in.
To defend your point, here are the 2004 Crime stats from Newport News, Virginia:
Here is how where Michael Vick grew up, compares to where I live now (Princeton, N.J.):
Latest 2005 Crimes per 100,000 People:
Newport News, VA/ Princeton, NJ/ National
Here are some details that do not support what you are saying. These are both quotes from the video link provided below. Both were spoken by Michael Vick.
�??I was fortunate to grow up there.�??
�??I grew up with a lot of support there�??
Sadly enough, he was probably given a lot more support than the average kid who grew up there due to his athletic talent.
Joker, I am also a big believer in the effect that one�??s environment can have on them. That is why I choose to date the woman I date and befriend the people befriend. Being the fact that I do so in Princeton, N.J. obviously makes that much easier to do so than in the East End of Newport News Virginia.
Still, Mike Vick had his opportunities, claiming himself that he had an excellent mother to raise him and as is supported in the video above, he had a lot of people outside his family pulling for him too.
The crimes he committed were done so long after he moved from that area, with people whom he chose to bring a long with him.
He had several years in Blacksburg and several years with almost unlimited access to funds in Atlanta to change his environment at a time in his life when he may have been young enough to not be completely ruined by the shit he grew up in.
He had several years in Blacksburg and several years with almost unlimited access to funds in Atlanta to change his environment at a time in his life when he may have been young enough to not be completely ruined by the shit he grew up in.
[/quote]
I’ll agree with you on that and add that fact that there is some disconnect with him as well. I think when Vick says he loves animals, he truly does. It’s been mentioned that he pretty much has a zoo at his own home. But the dogfighting creates a type of disconnect.
The animals in the ring were a part of the business. It seems like most involved with dogfighting actually love other animals as well, but they somehow manage to separate the feelings of their pets at home from the dogs in the ring. Not saying it’s right or wrong, simply what it could be.
People will want to see him humbled and accept full responsibility in order for him to even return to public society, let alone the NFL. It remains to be seen if it’s believable or not if he possesses that type of disconnect.
I don’t see Vick as a let me be humble now type of guy.
Mike, I could be wrong speaking for somebody but I think JokerFm was referring to Marcus more than Mike with the environment comment. As you get older you should grow up and Vick has had the opportunity, however his brother did alot of things that young people his age in his enviornment do(besides the stomping).
If you take a honest look at college students alot of them are smoking weed and drinking alcohol with minors, and unfortunately bragging about and carrying guns is popular in rap music and youth in Newport Newz.
As far as Michael Vick goes, I don’t think anybody ever argued that he wasn’t stupid. Just how guilty is he and if he could get a fair trial.
[quote]MikeShank wrote:
JokerFMJ wrote:
I believe environment has as much, if not more, to do with it than genes, although I know many disagree.
And if you knew anything about the area they grew up in, you’d know it wasn’t exactly the best area, heh.
Here is the Wikipedia web page about New Port News. This will give everybody some information about whatJoker FMJ is talking about.
Turns out New Port News is a somewhat large city (180,000+) with a very diverse environment. Most of the crime occurrs on the East end of the city. I presume this is the area that Vick grew up in.
To defend your point, here are the 2004 Crime stats from Newport News, Virginia:
Here is how where Michael Vick grew up, compares to where I live now (Princeton, N.J.):
Latest 2005 Crimes per 100,000 People:
Newport News, VA/ Princeton, NJ/ National
Here are some details that do not support what you are saying. These are both quotes from the video link provided below. Both were spoken by Michael Vick.
�??I was fortunate to grow up there.�??
�??I grew up with a lot of support there�??
Sadly enough, he was probably given a lot more support than the average kid who grew up there due to his athletic talent.
Joker, I am also a big believer in the effect that one�??s environment can have on them. That is why I choose to date the woman I date and befriend the people befriend. Being the fact that I do so in Princeton, N.J. obviously makes that much easier to do so than in the East End of Newport News Virginia.
Still, Mike Vick had his opportunities, claiming himself that he had an excellent mother to raise him and as is supported in the video above, he had a lot of people outside his family pulling for him too.
The crimes he committed were done so long after he moved from that area, with people whom he chose to bring a long with him.
He had several years in Blacksburg and several years with almost unlimited access to funds in Atlanta to change his environment at a time in his life when he may have been young enough to not be completely ruined by the shit he grew up in.
[/quote]
He grew up in Hampton, which is considerably worse than the rest of the Newport News area.
And you can’t expect someone who grew up in a poor environment to recognize that.
I’m not blaming the environment Vick was raised in for his behavior. With his talents and abilities, he was given so much money that I don’t think there’s any excuse for him doing what he did. Money doesn’t change a man, but he had access to change from all sorts of resources a vast majority of people will never be able to access.
I believe he should pay for what he’s pleading guilty to, I was just trying to provide a little perspective from the opposing view point.
[quote]JokerFMJ wrote:
He grew up in Hampton, which is considerably worse than the rest of the Newport News area.
And you can’t expect someone who grew up in a poor environment to recognize that.
I’m not blaming the environment Vick was raised in for his behavior. With his talents and abilities, he was given so much money that I don’t think there’s any excuse for him doing what he did. Money doesn’t change a man, but he had access to change from all sorts of resources a vast majority of people will never be able to access.
I believe he should pay for what he’s pleading guilty to, I was just trying to provide a little perspective from the opposing view point.[/quote]
I liked your statement Joker.
I think he should have to realize whatever penalties awarded to hom by the courts.
A question completely off the subject of the posts and not really relevant now that he’s taking a plea, but why is it they say his friends flipped on him but not that he was leaving his friends out to hang? Wasn’t he cutting them loose to take the blame?
Because people (in the general sense) proclaim loyalty above all else, and as they were making plea bargains the logical legal train of thought was that the Prosecutors were making deals with them to testify against Vick.
[quote]JokerFMJ wrote:
Because people (in the general sense) proclaim loyalty above all else, and as they were making plea bargains the logical legal train of thought was that the Prosecutors were making deals with them to testify against Vick.[/quote]
EXACTLY
where was Vick’s loyalty to his friends? Why wasn’t he taking the fall and using his money to cover it up for the little guy? Where was his loyalty? He said “NOOOOOO I had nothing to do with anything. It was all THEM.”
