Posted on 06/12/2009 10:23:09 AM PDT by lewisglad
The Atlanta Falcons and Michael Vick are set to move on after the team issued the quarterback’s unconditional release on Friday.
The team had been seeking to trade Vick even though he remains suspended by the NFL for his conviction on dog-fighting and gambling charges. He last played for the Falcons in 2006.
“We spent a significant amount of time this off-season trying to trade him to another NFL club, and we had some conversations with a few teams, but nothing materialized,” general manager Thomas Dimitroff said on the team’s Web site. “At this point, we feel releasing Michael is best for him and best for us.”
Vick is now free to pursue any playing opportunities that come forth. No one could say if or when Vick might be reinstated - “that’s up to [Commissioner Roger Goodell],” Dimitroff said — but NFL rules allow teams to sign suspended players.
Vick still has other legal issues to resolve before a return to the NFL. Vick must conclude his prison sentence — he is currently serving the final five weeks of his federal sentence in home confiement — to be reinstated to the league and clear up remaining bankruptcy issues and a new pension fraud case.
Vick will also have to explain why he lied to Goodell about the dogfighting operation and show remorse.
(Excerpt) Read more at ajc.com ...
Vick is the poster boy for the convergence of several trends. PETA has found they can raise a lot of money by demonizing people. They struck gold with Vick. When Roger Goodell took over the NFL, he realized that although the NFL is by far the most popular professional sports league in the US, the thuggery of many of the players could destroy the popularity of the game. Under the previous commissioner, the only question was, could they get the handcuffs off prior to the start of the game.
In today's NFL, I don't think there's any way someone like Ray Lewis would have avoided far more censure from the league. In the NFL of ten years ago, I don't think there's any way Pacman Jones would be out on the street.
The NFL looked at the NBA, where over half the teams now lose money, and realized that much of the problem was that many of the players were thugs, and that the game was attracting a fan base composed of hip hop thugs, and that other fans had started staying away.
I don't know how many Freepers saw the NFL draft, but I'll guarantee you the NFL has started going to college players and telling them, "You want to play in the NFL and we expect a certain image." Every player that stepped up to the podium after being selected was in a suit and tie. There weren't any hoodies and shades.
Vick did a lot of bad stuff, but the NFL is serving notice that no matter how good a player is, if he creates too many problems off the field, he's out.
The NFL has instituted new policies that if a team has too many players getting into trouble, that the team may be penalized, including fines (no big deal to most of the owners) and loss of draft choices (huge deal to the owners.)
Vick will have a difficult time playing anywhere because there's too much money to be made demonizing him. PETA views him as a cash cow. That means anybody who picks him up will have their team name smeared. NFL teams can't afford that.
No, no, no. He wasn’t that great a QB to begin with, and he hasn’t played in 3 years, give or take. I could see someone picking him up on the cheap as an RB.
That’s why the Vikings would pick him up. He wasn’t THAT good and he hasn’t played for a while....
Interesting question, though.
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