Vick's Plea Bargain

#1
Sabanocchio

Sabanocchio

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#1
It is being reported on ESPN that Vick is being advised to accept a plea bargain proposed by the prosecution that will see him spending a year in jail.
 
#3
#3
It really is amazing how almost abruptly it's played out. Less than six months ago, the Falcons were confident enough in the quarterback position to trade away their overvalued backup. Today, Vick is looking at spending a year in a federal prison, and in any case he'll almost certainly never suit up for the Falcons again.

What a colossal waste.
 
#4
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If I were Arthur Blank, this would only be the beginning of Michael Vick's problems. I'd sue the daylights out of him to get the signing bonus back.
 
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GAVol said:
If I were Arthur Blank, this would only be the beginning of Michael Vick's problems. I'd sue the daylights out of him to get the signing bonus back.
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You have to be real careful about that. How many impact free agents have the Dolphins been able to lure to Miami since they sued Rickey Williams? NFL players consider their signing bonuses guaranteed money. Screw one of them on that issue, the rest will avoid you like a process server.
 
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I would too. Nothing like a betrayed billionaire with about 1000 lawyers on retainer to make your life as an ex-convict interesting.

I've been wondering what the salary (and cap) implications of all this is. If he is indeed to found to have Violated The Personal Conduct Policy, do the Falcons have any way to get out from underneath the cap implications of his contract?

(I know almost nothing about football contracts and the salary cap. It's all I can do to keep the arrangements in baseball straight.)
 
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Vercingetorix said:
I would too. Nothing like a betrayed billionaire with about 1000 lawyers on retainer to make your life as an ex-convict interesting.

I've been wondering what the salary (and cap) implications of all this is. If he is indeed to found to have Violated The Personal Conduct Policy, do the Falcons have any way to get out from underneath the cap implications of his contract?

(I know almost nothing about football contracts and the salary cap. It's all I can do to keep the arrangements in baseball straight.)
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If the league suspends him, the contract should become void. That would get the Falcons out from under his contract.
 
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hatvol96 said:
You have to be real careful about that. How many impact free agents have the Dolphins been able to lure to Miami since they sued Rickey Williams? NFL players consider their signing bonuses guaranteed money. Screw one of them on that issue, the rest will avoid you like a process server.
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That is a very valid concern, but do you really think players and agents would hold it against a team for recouping a bonus after somebody was convicted of a felony and served significant jail time? There's just not much of a precedent to compare this to.
 
#9
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GAVol said:
That is a very valid concern, but do you really think players and agents would hold it against a team for recouping a bonus after somebody was convicted of a felony and served significant jail time? There's just not much of a precedent to compare this to.
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Just remember what Clinton Portis said about all this when the story first broke, before Drew Rosenhaus got on the phone and read him the riot act. A considerable portion of the guys in the League will see Michael as a Vicktim of overzealous prosecution. Clinton's nuts, but so is a considerable portion of the guys who suit up on Sundays.
 
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hatvol96 said:
If the league suspends him, the contract should become void. That would get the Falcons out from under his contract.
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Thanks. Obviously that would help the team out.

And hey, from a football standpoint, maybe this actually ends up helping the Falcons out a little bit. They weren't going to the playoffs this year anyway, Vick or no Vick. Petrino has said that he expects a quarterback in his system to complete 65 percent of his passes, and given what we've seen from Vick the last few years, that probably wasn't going to happen. So instead of having to decide whether to dump Vick and his salary in a year or two, the team can cut ties now, free up some cap room, and begin to figure out what kind of team they're going to be in 2009. (Although all this talk of drafting Boehm can't help but make you think of Spurrier-Wuerffel II.)

I don't know. It's hard to think about the football part of it because the whole thing is just ugly and sad. I've run out of sympathy for Vick, certainly, but it's astonishing to watch such a supremely talented man throw his whole life away so stupidly.
 
#11
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hatvol96 said:
Just remember what Clinton Portis said about all this when the story first broke, before Drew Rosenhaus got on the phone and read him the riot act. A considerable portion of the guys in the League will see Michael as a Vicktim of overzealous prosecution. Clinton's nuts, but so is a considerable portion of the guys who suit up on Sundays.
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A lot of NFL'ers are weird and sometimes anti-social in their behavior.

Goodell is going to suspend Vick for the season the second he enters the plea bargain, alleviating the Falcons from their financial ties to the situation.

As for his career... Strange as it may sound, I wouldn't rule out Vick playing in the NFL again some day.
 
#12
#12
This is a little off-topic, and I'm against dog fighting, and agree it should be illegal; however this country euthanizes thousands of dogs every year because they have no home.

In countries like Korea they eat dog and raise them for food. Drug companies in this country does drug testing on animals like dogs. It seems their is no outrage over any of that.
 
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Well, if you were outraged, you'd be agreeing with PETA. If I were ever on the same side as PETA on anything, I'd euthanize myself.
 
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oklavol said:
This is a little off-topic, and I'm against dog fighting, and agree it should be illegal; however this country euthanizes thousands of dogs every year because they have no home.

In countries like Korea they eat dog and raise them for food. Drug companies in this country does drug testing on animals like dogs. It seems their is no outrage over any of that.
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You have a point on some level, but the big problem I have with it is that in dog fighting animals are actually bred specifically to maim and kill each other. As human beings, we should just be more evolved than that IMO.
 
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What it comes down to is the gambling charge. If Vick does not accept the plea on this lesser charge, within one week the superceding charge with gambling involved will be dropped on him. The fact that his three buddies turned Fed means he's out in the cold all alone. So don't dwell on the dog abuse issue. Vick would be smart to just accept this deal and not have to worry about the weight of adding gambling and any evidence his buddies are dropping in on the case. But insiders are saying Vick actually thinks he can fight this. His attorneys have asked him to accept a deal but Vick truly thinks himself invincible. Every interview he's done he's had this arrogant attitude.

If Goodell wants control of the league, he'd make an example of this as well. But to save face, he'll sit back and let the Feds be the bad guys and he can say because Vick was prosecuted or is going to jail that league rules call for him to act. Goodell and Blank have been made complete fools. Lesson learned from this is trust no one and make sure contracts are worded differently.
 
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I think you're right Cspin. The dog fighting charge could be just the tip of the iceberg if he doesn't plea out. It's the superceding indictment they are threatening to file which could include anything from gambling to tax evasion to perjury that will nail him to the wall for a lot more jail time.
 
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I think the Feds pushed these smaller charges to get the smaller fish to talk. So essentially Vick gets the easy charges to walk away from with more options on the future or has the real charges backed up by his boys turning on him that could really damage his chances of a future.

Again, he'll be eligible for NFL play but he will be damaged goods. Unless he receives a jailhouse conversion, he will be the same arrogant Vick who thinks he can get away with anything. He's had quite a few issues come up that his status and Blank's pull have kept him untouched. This puts him out there with no help this time. Knowing his history, who's to say when he got out he wouldn't be doing the same thing again? That's quite a bit of risk for a position drawing a lot of payroll. The QB is a position that you might not want to risk potential issues in the future to come up.
 
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milohimself said:
Well, if you were outraged, you'd be agreeing with PETA. If I were ever on the same side as PETA on anything, I'd euthanize myself.
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Well if there are 2 sides here, the Vick side and the PETA side, it really is not that hard to roll with PETA on this one.
 
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allvol123 said:
Well if there are 2 sides here, the Vick side and the PETA side, it really is not that hard to roll with PETA on this one.
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I choose to believe that it's PETA siding with me and not vice versa. :crazy:
 
#21
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milohimself said:
Well, if you were outraged, you'd be agreeing with PETA. If I were ever on the same side as PETA on anything, I'd euthanize myself.
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Obviously it's possible to be repulsed by the same thing as PETA without buying into an inch of PETA's animals-are-morally-equivalent-to-people agenda.

The fact that the PETA idiots keep being brought up in this whole discussion just proves how successful their whole shock-the-public campaign has been. We should have been hearing reaction and opinion from mainstream groups like humane societies, not a fringe group like PETA. But PETA's brough enough attention to itself that the media just accepts them as being the voice of all animal lovers.
 
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well, well, well........just sad really.

i was watching real sports last night and they did an expose on dog fighting all over the country.......brutal stuff. they were in on an investigation in GA and had some video of the fights, euthanization of the dogs, doggie steroids, etc, etc, etc........

absolutely brutal. the culling of the "weak" dogs, steroids, and training they do to these dogs is ridiculous. taping dogs mouths shut, so as the sparring partner for the fight dog, they can't fight back. goal being to get the dog used to killing.

awful stuff.

good riddence to Mike Vick.
 
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Man I don't know how you watch that stuff Jake. I have to turn the channel whenever they start showing actual footage. Makes me sick.
 
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it was like watching a car wreck.....couldn't help but watch, but it also gave me a better understanding of the mindset of these people and how this "sport" really is. this isn't just a fight between two animals.

it's sedistic and cruel, and so are the people that carry on with activities such as this.
 
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Based off my experience.....Vick had better take whatever deal that is presented to him....not to say that his attorney can't try to broker a better one but take whatever is left on the table. If not.. he will get hammered! There is a reason for the Feds 95 % concviction rate and he does not want this in front of a jury.
 
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