NFL Should Dump Vick

[yesman065]

I was tryin to see if there was any news on the plea deal with him and found his Wiki info had some past allegations of dog fighting.
Personal

2001-2007: Minor controversies, troubles, and incidents

Between his selection by the Atlanta Falcons in the 2001 NFL Draft and early 2007, Vick was involved in number of smaller incidents or events:

* In 2007, Michael Boddie, his father, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that around 2001, Michael Vick was staging dogfights in the garage of the family's home in Newport News and kept fighting dogs in the family's backyard, including injured ones which the father nursed back to health. Boddie said his son had been urged to not engage in the activity, but continued. He stated "This is Mike's thing. And he knows it."

[smurfalicious]

As Falcons quarterback Mike Vick prepares to formally enter a guilty plea on Monday morning,{snip} some league insiders are wondering if/when team owner Arthur Blank will turn his eye toward the folks who were in a position to know (or, at a minimum, to find out) whether Vick was a disaster waiting to happen.

{snip}

In October 2004, Vick was involved in a strange incident at an airport, where two guys who were traveling with him (including Quanis Phillips) allegedly lifted a watch belonging to a luggage-screening employee. Two months later, the Falcons gave Vick a contract extension containing $37 million in bonuses.

So did anyone bother to ask whether Vick and his association with guys like Quanis Phillips was cause for concern before printing out the check for the initial $7.5 million installment? Should the team have looked more carefully at Vick's overall lifestyle before paying him that much money?

The easy answer is "hell yes."

But the bigger issue is whether someone should have raised these questions in advance, and whether anyone actually did. Rich McKay, the Falcons G.M., wasn't on the job when the team drafted Vick, and Blank wasn't the owner. So shouldn't someone have suggested a full background check on the guy before giving him that much money?

Maybe they did, and maybe the security staff couldn't find anything. Or maybe they did, and maybe there were red flags that McKay and/or Blank ignored.

Even if the ultimate reason for not taking a serious look-see into off-field habits of Vick, or for not paying attention to any warning signs that were found, is that Blank was sufficiently smitten with Vick to ignore the problems, someone should have told the emperor that he was butt-naked. In our view, that responsibility ultimately fell to McKay. But McKay might have been reluctant to make ways, or might have been distracted by his desire at the time to politick for the Commissioner's job.

Though we doubt that the Falcons will be flapping their dirty laundry to the press regarding one of the most embarrassing episodes in league history, we think it makes a lot of sense to keep a close eye on the front office over the next few months, because we're convinced that someone is gonna get fired over this.

It might just be McKay.

[smurfalicious]

Steve Wyche of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, who wrote this weekend that the Falcons will attempt to recover $22 million in previously paid bonus money. Pasquarelli responded, "I've actually got the contract sitting right next to me" and then added, "I believe they could probably go after closer to $28 or $29 million."

[jester]

Poor, poor V, now it's Weed

[binky]

Actually the most likeable thing about him is that he smokes weed

[xoxoxoBruce]

I heard a rumor last night, that an ongoing investigation will result in the indictments of several big names, in several different sports, over dog fighting.

[lookout123]

really? hmmm. i'll bet that's why rex grossman got benched.