Vick Will Never Play Football Again

Townhall.com ^ | August 23, 007 | Matt Towery

[libstripper]

It's been a hoot reading and listening to pundits and armchair legal analysts speculate on the fate awaiting Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick on charges of illegal dogfighting.

First the easy part: You can expect Vick to be handed a harsher sentence than the one year being bandied about by some observers.

The judge has already said the acts described by Vick's co-conspirators suggest "aggravating" circumstances. Often that means a sentence more harsh than lenient.

With Vick as the major, if not only, source of funding for the operation, it's likely the judge will view him as the ringleader of the enterprise.

The federal guidelines generally suggest a sentence of anywhere from 12 to 18 months for the crime to which Vick will plead guilty. My guess is that the judge may well hand down a longer jail term. Why? Because the men who pleaded guilty ahead of Vick will probably get the stiffer end of the suggested sentencing range, or about 18 months.

[libstripper]

As mentioned by other Freepers discussing this case, the key to whether Vick will play again is the gambling. Read the Federal indictment; it's replete with charges that Vick gambled on a number of dog fights and was deeply involved in setting up dog fights where gambling would occur. Indeed, gambling is integral to dog fighting, just as it is to horse racing. Any individual who creates a dog fighters' Disney World and is up to his eyeballs in the racket, as Vick was, is necessarily up to his eyeballs in illegal gambling and many of the other collateral crimes, like weapons and narcotics, that inevitably accompany dog fighting.

Because those activities are so vile, illegal, and immoral, they gave and will give any low low who knows what Vick did tremendous leverage to blackmail him into shaving points or throwing games. If the NFL wants to preserve the integrity of its sport, it's got to ban him for life.

[umgud]

The Vicks has been rubbed and is about to be vaporized.

[GeorgefromGeorgia]

It amazes me how so many Blacks support Vick. Just talking with guys at the gym or at lunch, they have a different view than most people.
Also, the NAACP came out supporting Vick! Of course, there is the allegation that he is being picked on because of his race.
Is this the OJ case all over again?

[gridlock]

Hopefully the NFL will come down with a Lifetime Ban. I’ll believe it when I see it, though.

They may have a much bigger problem than just Vick, though, if statements by other players are to be believed. They got to nip this in the bud. If it’s too late for that, they have to start hacking off branches.

[Fishtalk]

I heard some clueless pundit or another pontificating on Fox that Vick will likely be allowed to play football again.

This is when my female hackles got raised.

For....NOPE, I just don’t think so.

Now there’s plenty of men who think that what Vick did was reprehensible, the vast majority of men so don’t think this is my sexually biased opinion.

It’s just that females, more than males, tend to set standards in this society concerning violence, acceptable sexual behavior....that kind of thing. When something offends the female population overwhelmingly, such as this Vick thing, it will STOP.

I think to myself...if some fool football owner decides to re-hire Vick, not that he was any symbol of brilliance on the field and not that there aren’t plenty of others out there waiting for a chance....and my husband decided to watch a game where he was playing....well I don’t have the power to shut the TV off whilst the man watches his beloved sports, but I have enough vocal wrath to make him miserable.

Although, frankly, my husband anyway would not watch a football game with this guy playing. My husband absolutely loves animals.

But IF he did....I’d nag him to kingdom come.

[mbynack]

I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t turn up in the CFL, Arena Football, or European Football leagues. I wouldn’t even be shocked to see him back in the NFL in five years. The NFL doesnt’ really have a sterling record of enforcing their own standards.

[tflabo]

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. MLK

Attention NAACP. It's Vick's character being judged.

[edcoil]

Vick should have paid the mob its percent. This would have never surfaced -

Moral of the story: If you get in with the mob - pay them on time and on schedule.

[CoolPapaBoze]

This episode should remove any doubt that for the majority of blacks in the US race matters over everything else. They will defend the indefensible if the perpetrator is black. Remember this the next time you hear some leftist prattling on about how we should all be color blind. They want what they’re not willing to give themselves.

[massgopguy]

Larry Luchino, one of the owners of the Boston Red Sox, said this morning that Vick should be allowed to play football because the crime had nothing to do with the game.

[HamiltonJay]

If the NFL wants to preserve the integrity of its sport, it's got to ban him for life.

Hhahaha you're funny, if the NFL gave a damn about the integrity of the sport they wouldn't have been hiring these known thugs to begin with. The NFL doesn't give a damned about integrity of anything, just the cashflow to the owners pockets.

[wilco200]

You think that’s bad..

Stephon Marbury of the Knicks said that Vick is “a good person” and that “Dogfighting is just a sport” and that “people kill deers all the time” and we don’t get up in arms about that.

Sheesh

[AlexW]

“It amazes me how so many Blacks support Vick.”

How can it amaze you anymore then the way blacks vote?
If your really from Georgia, you should know.

[CMAC51]

You under estimate the ability of the American public to be turned by proper psychological management. If Vick tries to rehabilitate his image right away, he is done. If he starts discreetely and builds to a climax shortly after his release, the public will eat it up.

All it will take is reports on psychological counseling while imprisoned, a born again commitment to religion, contributions to animal protection groups (leaked, not announced), a few well placed statements of contrition; none of which is made public until 6 or 8 months after he is behind bars. The public will eat it up. They love a redemption story. Rehabilitation stories tug at the heart strings. He just has to wait long enough for the original fire to burn down. If he starts too early, it won’t work. Of course the people that are trying to play the race card aren’t helping him. He can’t begin his redemption until they cool it.

[bboop]

Blacks supporting him — it’s just like OJ. “Well, he may have done it, but WE WERE SLAVES and darn it, it’s Whitey’s turn.”

[NY.SS-Bar9]

As a white dog owner (of two white dogs) I have to say, this seems much ado about (almost) nothing.

These are DOGS - not people. Animals with as much value as chickens, cows and snakes. Chattel.

OK, he broke the law and should be punished, but sheesh, why the big deal?

[Beckwith]

It amazes me how so many Blacks support Vick.

They cheered when OJ was acquitted.

Now, Don Imus? That's another matter -- he should be lynched.

[poobear]

What’s good for the goose (Pete) is good for the gander (Vick).

2 cents lighter.

[libstripper]

The NFL doesn't give a damned about integrity of anything, just the cashflow to the owners pockets.

Continuing the cash flow to the owners' pockets requires that the game not be viewed as fixed by gamblers. Vick has hopelesssly compromised himself by being up to his eyeballs in a vile criminal enterprise, a major element of which is illegal gambling. Along with everything else, he's an ideal blackmail target, not somebody the NFL should want in a position where he can throw a game or shave points.