Friday August 17th at 9:00 AM will be decision day for Michael “Ookie” Vick. He will have to decide whether to accept a guilty Plea Bargain or continue to fight a mounting legal battle.
August 2007
I don't know what August 17th will bring for Michael Vick, but I
do know the play call is in his hands according to The Norfolk Virginian-Pilot.
The newspaper said that federal prosecutors have offered Vick a plea deal that
would recommend he serve at least one year in prison on a felony dogfighting
conspiracy charge. Vick can choose to accept the plea causing him to serve a
much smaller sentence than the maximum of 5 years, but by accepting the deal he
will thus end his NFL career. According to a story in The New York Times, his
lawyers for are advising him to accept the deal. The Times report also said that
if Vick does not accept a plea deal on Friday by 9:00 AM, then prosecutors plan
on bringing more charges against him (including racketeering charges via the
RICO act).
Michael Vick deadline also ties into the early morning scheduled court
appearance by his co-defendants Purnell Peace and Quanis Phillips. Each
co-defendant is expected to appear and strike their own deals, which will most
likely include testimony against Vick. The two former alleged business
colleagues of Vick, 27, in the interstate dog fighting enterprise known as "Bad
Newz Kennels", have decided to follow the same suite as third co-defendant Tony
Taylor, who pleaded guilty to his role in the dog fighting conspiracy on July
30th (his sentencing has been set for December 14th) and Vick will be solely by
himself. If Vick chooses to continue onto his November 26th trial date, he may
be facing a case that is so daunting that not even the game’s most mercurial
quarterback can out run the mounting evidence even with his 4.2 speed.
The government’s prosecution team knows that they are in the driver's seat in
terms of Vick’s case and Vick would be best served to take his legal advisors
advice to accept the deal and start to rebuild an image that has been sullied
probably beyond repair in the NFL's and public's eyes. Vick first will need to
fix his legal problems and the worry about football a distant second.
If Vick does accept the deal, it is hard to believe that he will ever put on a
NFL uniform again. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has given Vick a “leave of
absence” while the league has their own attorney and investigator Eric Holder
snooping into the case. If Vick accepts the deal, Holder's report will probably
only cement Vick's fate in the eyes of Roger Goodell, because it was leaked by
Yahoo.com last week and later denied by Goodell that the Commish had already
decided to suspend the Falcons quarterback for the whole season for conduct
detrimental to the league. Vick apparently has already lied to Goodell at the
NFL Draft in April about his involvement with dogfighting and he also has been
implicated to the NFL's biggest taboo "gambling". With gambling being involve
Goodell has the right to suspend Vick for life. I am not sure the Commish will
enact that long of a suspension, but I do know if Vick accepts the deal, don't
expect to see him near a NFL team for at least 3 years. After the commissioner
blesses the suspension, then look for the Falcons and their owner Arthur Blank
to forget about an ordinary 4 game suspension and outright release Vick, who was
once described by Blank as “The Face of the Atlanta Falcons” when the
quarterback signed a 10-year; $130 million contract extension in 2003 that
included a then NFL-record $37 million dollars guaranteed. The team would have
to eat $6 Million dollars in 2007 and $15 Million in 2008 on the salary cap, but
that amount will be well worth it to get rid of probably the NFL’s biggest legal
headache ever.
The Falcons and their new Head Coach Bobby Petrino have already moved on with
Joey Harrington at quarterback and after 3 years expect the machine that is the
NFL to continue to roll on without one of their once promising showstoppers. The
NFL has almost 1600 players including Reggie Bush, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning,
and others all with their own unique talents and stories, so the league is going
to make sure that their overall product (the NFL) is marketed and no one player
will be bigger than the league. If Vick does take the deal and is released from
prison a year later, I still don’t think teams will want to sign him suspension
or not, even rogue owners Al Davis (Raiders) or Jerry Jones (Cowboys) and
respected GM's like Ravens GM Ozzie Newsome will not take a chance on Vick due
to the public’s outrage and Vick being the "face" of the despicable practice of
dogfighting.
We will have to wait and see if Vick accepts the deal before the deadline, but
if he does decide to accept the deal, first he will have to face prison and then
after that he better be thinking Arena Football and not the NFL. I think the AFL
will be his only option, because the NFL after getting rid of Vick will close
their doors for good and he will even have a problem going to the CFL, because
of the problem of a felon getting a passport or a visa.
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Submitted by Lloyd Vance
