Sounds like a warmup for a suspension.
Michael Vick was ordered by commissioner Roger Goodell on Monday to stay away from the Atlanta Falcons’ training camp until the league reviews the dogfighting charges against him.
“While it is for the criminal justice system to determine your guilt or innocence, it is my responsibility as commissioner of the National Football League to determine whether your conduct, even if not criminal, nonetheless violated league policies, including the Personal Conduct Policy,” Goodell said in a letter to the quarterback.
The NFL said Vick would still get his preseason pay and Goodell told the Falcons to withhold any disciplinary action of their own until the league’s review was completed.
Look, I think dog fighting is barbaric, but am I the only one who thinks the league is being hypocritical?
I mean they make their living off pitting men against each other.
I mean they make their living off pitting men against each other.
And of course they kill those who lose games.
And of course they kill those who lose games.
Well, no.
But occasionally a player dies. They’re frequently injured, sometimes seriously. Many will end their playing careers by way of a serious injury.
And both winners and losers are pumped up with drugs that damage their health and shorten their lives. Lyle Alzado anybody?
I agree. In that vein, lets lock VIck in a cage with two angry hungry beaten dogs.
No harm no foul.
Every NFL player, unlike the dogs who are victimized here, had a CHOICE.
Call me crazy, but I think if I were to have a huge salary like Vick, my tastes in “entertainment” would be a little more upscale than watching two pit bulls maul one another. I mean, with that amount of money think of all of the other things he could explore. Pathetic.
I’m sorry to see the Commissioner cave to the pressure from the sports media.
Late night sports talk shows have been howling for Vicks blood and bones since this story broke. Daytime commentaries have been more temperate, but the tone has been “get rid of Vick”.
I’m no fan of Vick. But c’mon, people! We are seeing a man’s livlihood and reputation destroyed based on allegations.
Did we learn nothing from the trashing of Richard Jewell, who the media all but declared was the Olympic Park bomber. It was all Jewell all the time, like it is with Vick today on in the sports media. Till it turned out that Eric Rudolph was the bomber.
That “of course he did it” attitude from the media is destructive. And Goodell should not have caved in to it. Goodell has no conduct to look at, unless he has access to the grand jury information. There is nothing on which to base his barring Vick from camp, other than media reports.
Let me spin off on Oliver’s post. I believe that dog fighting is sadistic, in the clinical sense.
Dog fighters and fans like the blood and suffering of others.
I wonder how many of them go on to do serious harm to other people. After all, we do keep hearing that one of the marks of a budding serial killer is the torturing of animals.
They have a Personal Conduct Policy? Who knew?
Zak, Goodell doesn’t need for a conviction to be secured against Vick in order for him to make a move. I don’t buy that Goodell caved in to anything. Remember, he’s the guy that dropped the one year suspension on Pacman Jones, and he hasn’t been convicted of a thing.
The feds don’t indict unless they have a very strong case and it is clear that Vick had a much larger role in this operation than he let on, even if he’s not guilty of everything in that indictment.
Guy inked a contract that pays him $13 million a year. Cripes, go buy a racehorse or something. Leave dogfights for degenerate gang members and other assorted losers.
The feds don’t indict unless they have a very strong case
Who are you and what have you done with Jay?
Guy, I know Goodell doesn’t need a conviction to act.
Let’s remember that Vick is hardly the bad-boy-in-the-news that Pacman was. He’s not a threat to the NFL brand-yet.
My argument is that it’s an allegation. I didn’t say the Feds don’t have a good case. I argue that Goodell should not destroy Vicks reputation and his livlihood based on an allegation, given that Vick does not have a bad reputation.
And you’re going right along with it, saying “it is clear that Vick had a much larger role”. No, it’s not clear. It’s alleged, but by no means “clear”.
If I had Vicks money, I wouldn’t be involved in dogfighting either–but I’m not inclined to that kind of thing, which I consider a form of the sadism that is often a precursor to crimes against people.
How does Vick not have a bad reputation?
“Ron Mexico”? The double-bird at Falcons fans? The way his family and posse tormented Chris Chandler’s kids?
Look, either he’s in this dogfighting shit up to his ears or he’s so oblivious that I don’t know why you’d trust him to read a defense or look for downfield receivers.
As for Goodell, I think this decision was in the best interests of both Vick and the Falcons, who otherwise have to deal with the media circus on top of their own internal stresses. Their season is toast, and their money is wasted, unless Joey Harrington suddenly has some kind of personal renaissance.