Michael Vick, the star quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons, agreed Monday to plead guilty to dogfighting charges in a deal with federal prosecutors that will probably land him in prison while he is in the prime of his N.F.L. career. Michael Vick’s plea deal likely calls for prosecutors to recommend a lighter sentence as long as Vick cooperates with the government’s investigation.
The National Football League, which has barred Vick from the Falcons’ training camp, will probably not announce its punishment for Vick until he accepts the plea in a hearing next Monday. As part of the deal, Vick agreed to plead guilty to the felony charges of conspiring to travel in interstate commerce in aid of unlawful activities and conspiring to sponsor a dog in an animal-fighting venture.
He faces at least a year in prison. United States District Judge Henry E. Hudson, who announced the plea agreement in a meeting with reporters in his courtroom, will probably sentence Vick at the end of November.
Vick, 27, is in a small group of elite athletes, with the baseball player Shoeless Joe Jackson (one of the Black Sox who threw the 1919 World Series) and the boxer Mike Tyson (who went to prison on a rape charge), whose careers were cut short or interrupted at their peak because of legal problems.
The usual comments on this story are "why would he do something so stupid?" or "he was hanging around with the wrong crowd – old friends." I don’t think either thing makes any sense. Participating in dog fighting, killing dogs that didn’t perform well – these are not things one just goes along with. These are things on does because of some kind of morbid preoccupation, some kind of internal sadism. I would be surprised if this turns out to be an isolated trend in Michael Vick’s personality. Whatever the case, his celebrity status is immaterial. This is simply a malicious crime to be prosecuted under the law. Professional football would do well to ban him from the sport for life…
These are not legal problems. They are criminal problems. Vick has proven himself to be a criminal and has plead guilty, in my mind, of some pretty horrendous things. Study after study it’s been shown that people who harm animals maliciously will do the same to people. He’s a criminal and deserves jail. Period.