NealIsGod wrote:Mark my words.
There is no way Michael Vick will be a starting QB in the NFL this season.
this guy says the same thing as you..2 days after..
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19889120/
Take it from me — Michael Vick is done with the Atlanta Falcons. And he
is certainly finished in the court of public opinion.
Vick may need Hail Mary to escape indictment
Falcons QB has incurred wraith of feds, public with dogfighting allegations
New MSNBC.com podcast
JT the Brick
Enough with the “These are the dog days of summer” jokes.
This will be remembered as the week of Michael Vick. Typically, this is the slowest time of the sports year, but then the Atlanta Falcons quarterback was indicted by the federal government. This story will dominate the sports pages and talk radio for much of the near future. And it will likely get worse before it gets better.
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I relish talking to sports fans on my radio show. It's refreshing to talk to passionate fans. And it's a tough job when it comes to taking calls from a PETA member in San Francisco, go next to an emotional Falcons fan and then read every word from an 18-page federal indictment that accuses Vick of taking part in a dogfighting operation.
This elicits heated reaction from fans all over America because they either own a dog or hate these types of thuggish activities. One listener cried on my show because he recently had to put his dog to sleep and could not imagine someone dousing a dog with water and then electrocuting them. An Illinois woman screamed that she continually called the Falcons' executive offices only to get an answering machine and had to leave a message for team owner Arthur Blank to release his star quarterback.
Take it from me — Michael Vick is done with the Atlanta Falcons. And he is certainly finished in the court of public opinion.
Even if Vick has the best legal team money can buy, he seems to have little chance of clearing his name. He may spend millions to keep himself out of jail — I have seen plenty of high profile celebrities and athletes pay their way out of trouble and get on with their careers — but he has to get cleared first. It's clear his legal team is already trying to figure out how to discredit any of the government's witnesses and as long as these witnesses have a prior convictions or a shady past, Vick has a good chance.
What type of evidence does the government have? Can they prove Vick transported dogs across state lines for the purpose of dogfighting? Do they have video showing Vick was at dogfights? He owned a house that housed and trained dogs, but his lawyers can likely prove he didn't spend much time, if any, at that residence because his primary residence is in Atlanta.
The government must think they have enough proof through the witness testimony. But it's not an easy task to prove he ordered the death of several dogs that were not able to fight or agreed to their deaths. After all, how credible can the witnesses be when they would have had to have been at the fight as well?
And what about Falcons owner Arthur Blank? He must contact the NFL to discover his options before his star player reports to training camp on Thursday. Blank reportedly may ask Vick to take a leave of absence in order to focus on his legal defense and to take Vick out of the limelight so the Falcons' sponsors aren't dragged through the gutter by association. A leave of absence won't be easy to arrange because of the league's salary cap structure, nor would a release. (Why do you think the Tennessee Titans have held on to the services of Adam “Pacman” Jones through all of his legal woes?)
The government usually gets involved in high-profile cases because lesser courts and local prosecutors cannot always get a conviction because they are overmatched to high-priced defense teams. Vick’s legal team may very well have to pull off a “Hail Mary” to get Vick out of trouble.