CNN, July 27, 2009
Nearly two years after he pleaded guilty to a federal charge of bankrolling a dogfighting operation at a home he owned in Virginia, Michael Vick was reinstated to the National Football League on a conditional basis, according to an NFL statement Monday.
Vick “will be considered for full reinstatement and to play in regular-season games by Week 6 based on the progress he makes in his transition plan,” the statement said. Week 6 of the NFL season is in October.
Vick may participate in practices, workouts and meetings and may play in his club’s final two preseason games under the conditions of his reinstatement, the league said.
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Vick, 29, was freed from federal prison at Leavenworth, Kansas, on May 20 and returned to his home to serve the last two months of his 23-month sentence in home confinement.
Vick also said in his statement that he is re-evaluating his life after the “terrible mistakes” he made.
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The former Atlanta Falcons player is a free agent and has not been signed by any team. Goodell said he was not involved in any negotiations between Vick and a team.
Dungy has agreed to continue working with Vick as an adviser and mentor, the NFL statement said.
Goodell said Vick underwent tests after requests from animal rights groups, including a psychiatric evaluation.
{snip}
In a letter to Vick, Goodell wrote that his decision regarding full reinstatement “will be based on reports from outside professionals, your probation officer and others charged with supervising your activities, the quality of your work outside football” as well as factors such as the absence of any further law enforcement issues.
“This step-by-step approach is not meant to be a further punishment and should not be viewed as such,” Goodell wrote, according to the NFL. “Instead, it is intended to maximize the prospect that you can successfully resume your career and your life. I believe that a transitional approach with a strong network of support will give you the best opportunity to manage effectively the various issues and pressures that you will inevitably face in the coming weeks and months and earn your full reinstatement.”
{snip}
In reviewing Vick’s status, Goodell considered court records, submissions from Vick and others, reports from outside professionals and conversations with current and former players, among other items.
At a hearing July 22, Goodell spoke to Vick along with his representatives and others, including NFL Players’ Association officials.
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Vick has also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. At a hearing in that case, he told the judge that he earned 12 cents an hour as an overnight janitor while in prison.
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The Humane Society of the United States has said Vick has offered to work with the organization on anti-dogfighting campaigns.
Wayne Pacelle, the organization’s president, has said Vick was to work on programs aimed at preventing youths from getting involved in dogfighting and on programs to assist young people who have been involved.
In testimony before the bankruptcy judge, Vick acknowledged committing a “heinous” act and said he should have acted more maturely.
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Original article
(Posted on July 28, 2009)
Comments
The St. Louis Rams are interested in him, according to the Post-Dispatch’s rumor mill. If the Rams take him, watch the animal rights activists in St. Louis get out in front of that dome every Sunday or game day and protest to the top of their lungs. Of course on the same team is Leonard Little, who drove drunk and killed a white woman in the process. Just what St. Louis needs, to show the world that it cares for dogs more than white women. And the excuse of intent is a dog that doesn’t hunt for me — nobody forced Leonard Little to pour booze down his hooch then take the wheel of a car.
Also, Terrell Owens came out a few days ago asking the Commish to reinstate Vick. The irony if that is that if TO and Vick were on the same team, TO would never get the ball b/c Vick can’t pass the ball worth a doodley doo, and TO, the world class whiner that he is, would start whining. Oh, and BTW, TO, way to show confidence in your team’s current white quarterback.
As a dog owner and football fan, I think that any team that even invites Vick to camp will deserve the screaming protesters outside the training compound. Vick is poison. I don’t even think Oakland would touch him, and that’s saying something.
Every single White sports fan needs to boycott every game this creep plays in and their team. Don’t go to any of their games no matter who they are playing. Let that Goodell and the rest just like him know the reason why. People like that have sold their own soul to recruit and pander to these black thugs and degenerates in sports today. Stop participating White guys!
“NFL reinstates Michael Vick: But will any team pick him up?”
Of course they will. When has principle meant anything to the greed mongers in this country today?
When Vick first came to the NFL he was the darling of the liberal media- like most black quarterbacks. While they were slobbering over him I went to the Caste Football site where they repeatedly and correctly slammed Vick as an overrated media creation.
The fact that no teams have signed him may have less to do w/his crime record than his mediocre record on the field.
He apologizes not for what he did, but for the fact that he got caught. If it looks like a punk, talks like a punk, and acts like a punk, it’s a punk. With all the other problems it has with miscreant players, does the NFL really need Vick ? I gave up watching football when they started doing those crazy celebrations after a run, tackle , or touchdown. They are manifestations of immaturity practiced by egotistic idiots.
Heh. I knew the liberals wouldn’t let their precious black man be stuck with some $10/hr construction job for very long. I wouldn’t be surprised if Vick never lost anything financially or was even being paid during the period of the pathetic PR stunt.
I’m sure those same people have forgotten all about Vick and pals’ atrocious animal cruelty charges. All they can picture in their heads is some black man being “unfairly treated” and “stereotyped” by the oh-so-racist system that is so well known for giving famous and unknown blacks alike proverbial slaps on the wrist for similarly serious crimes.
“Vick acknowledged committing a “heinous” act and said he should have acted more maturely”
So. Who cares? I acknowledge 2+2 is 4. This says nothing.
And, when I was less mature I didn’t decapitate and drown dozens of “man’s best friend” (not to mention he was already a millionaire).
It is difficult to fathom the positive effect banning this sub-human pig from the NFL would’ve had on an already mortifying cruelty level blacks display for dogs and/or other living animals.
Goodell just lost 30% of his NFL supporters, period. Maybe more, considering the residual effects of families filled with both dog-lovers AND pathetic football face-painters. Living rooms across the country will be ripe with fights and simmering tension, I guarantee.
As it is, I can barely tollerate the fawning my brothers/sisters and dad display for all the feral NFL inmates every Sunday and Monday. And now that the NFL supports dog torture, I’m sure it’ll help things.
I don’t think Vick should be allowed to come back. I’m a dedicated football fan who believes that that Vick”s cruelty, torture and murder of well over 100 helpless dogs disqualifies him. He was supported by many other black football players who did not see anything wrong with what Vick was doing. “They were his proplerty and he could do anything he wanted to them.”
” …Vick acknowledged committing a “heinous” act …”
The Falcons had to hire a speech coach to teach Vick to speak comprehensible English. Somehow I do not believe Vick could say, spell, or define “heinous.”
” … and said he should have acted more maturely.”
I do believe Vick said something about “maturity,” but this begs the question: is torturing animals for fun a question of “maturity” or of something a lot more serious, like sociopathy?
I watched football faithfully from childhood through my early 30s. Stopped watching the Pros about 15 years ago, and college about 10 years ago. I haven’t missed it a bit. Too many of these guys are bad news. The greed mongers don’t have any scruples, but it doesn’t mean you have to follow suit. Just don’t support them - period.
Please!
The fans don’t pay to see sensitive souls who care for their fellow beings. They pay big bucks to see big bucks like Vick tear apart the opposing team.
Dog fighting, football, MMA, it’s all bread and circuses. Wake up.
I have already written to the NFL stating that if he comes back I will boycott their league.
Vick will be signed, and white fans will go to the games. I do not understand why whites enjoy watching black thugs play sports, but they do. Michael Vick is no worse than most of the criminals white fans are already paying to see.
Interesting that the only whites who prevail over blacks in the culture wars these days are the prissiest ones— the tree huggers, animal lovers and so on.
Back when the cast of Hamlet included its author, right outside the box office white entrepreneurs would sic semiferal dogs onto chained bears. Thugs were not only executed in public, their body parts were hung around town for days afterward as a lesson.
When did we become so soft?
I don’t know much about dog fighting, I’d venture its on the perverse side, somewhat prostituting natures survival instincts. But then football is something I’ve never been interested in either,..at least on the watching it level. If white people want to survive in a meaningful way they might want to read up on the classical world of Greece and Rome and follow our history through time to where we are today so as to know our Identity. Of course I don’t suggest living in the past but knowing it is knowing our collective Identity without which the cultural amnesia and insecurity will further white decay… whites idolising black sports figures etc…listening to primitive rap clap …
Why stop at just boycotting games where Vick plays? Its time for Whites to boycott all non-White events. Since Whites are so evil and responsible for all the bad things in the world, then we should assume our money is no good either. Boycott all professional sports where Whites are the minority. Quit allowing your children to wear the jerseys of professional black thugs. Boycott sports, sports merchandise, Hollywood, etc.
When the White money disappears, we’ll find out how unneccessary Whites are to the world.
“Dog fighting, football, MMA, it’s all bread and circuses. Wake up.”
There’s a Star Trek episode called ‘Bread and circuses’. The crew beam down to a planet that has gladiatorial contest similar to ancient Rome. For 30 years, I had no idea what the phrase ‘bread and circuses’ actually meant. Now I think I do. I guess you get bread, and not much else, and the circus to keep you content about it. By the way, to me ‘MMA’ and ‘UFC’ are about the equivalent of ‘dog fighting’. I do wonder if it’s some kind spectacle to keep white guys straight. Total insanity.
Because entertainment is valued more highly than morality in modern America, I predict that Michael Vick will be rehired by some NFL Franchise. Some would say that Mr. Vick has paid his debt to society by serving his prison sentence and is now ready to resume his high paying career in football. Personally, I think gaining pleasure by torturing defenseless animals puts Mr. Vick beyond the pale of normal human relationships.
I’ve read stories of African Hunters delighting in the death throes of animals-even delaying the kill in order to torture. Compare this with the American Indians who universally apologized to the animal and said a prayer for its spirit. One fine exception to this African model, was the Massai warrior going out to fight a lion by himself with just a spear. Now that shows respect for the animal as well as great courage.
” I had no idea what the phrase ‘bread and circuses’ actually meant.”
It’s a famous phrase from the Latin satiric poet Juvenal, who used it to describe how Romans of his day were easily amused by trivialities and largesse while their culture deteriorated around them; see his Tenth Satire.
I honestly expect that protestors will be out in force. I have never protested anything, but if Vick shows up to play a game in Atlanta I would surely go out there and picket. I am not the only one, he really peeved some people off bad.
I remember a tv news story around 2002 about something that Coach Dan Reeves had to do once Vick had permanently replaced Chris Chandler as QB of the Falcons. When Chandler, who is white, was QB coach Reeves had an elaborate playbook. It was thick, had a lot of detail, and included complicated plays. It had worked well — it helped get Chandler and the Falcons an NFC championship in 1998 and thus the Falcons their only Super Bowl appearance.
After the Falcons got rid of Chandler and Vick was promoted to starting QB, coach Reeves had to greatly simplify the playbook. It was cut way down in size. The complex plays were eliminated. The grade level of the wording was reduced down to an elementary school reading level.
Even after all of that, Vick never achieved what Chandler had attained. Chandler had class, something that Vick can never have either.
Boycott the NFL. It’s not worth your time to spend 3 or 4 hours watching anymore.
Vick had the second worst (worst was another black QB bust - Vince Young )passer rating in the NFL in 2006 (his last year in the league) and was heading for the bench anyway. He is easily the most overrated player in the NFL. Anyone who takes a chance on Vick is hiring a loser.
Luckily, the black QB experiment of the last 20 years is petering out as these guys just can’t play QB at a very high level.
He’d still be torturing dogs today if he hadn’t gotten caught.
Until Vick got caught, Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank could eat, sleep and breathe Mikie. They were often seen on the sidelines with Blank’s arm around Mikie’s shoulders; they stuck together on and off the field like white on rice. Mikie was Blank’s golden boy. No one really ever did understand why, as Mikie was just a mediocre player from a typical black ghetto family with plenty of attitude and a pseudo college diploma. He was, however, a glittering PRO-fessional ATHLEEEET.
Mr. Blank was made to look like a major league fool when the charges came down, and he didn’t like it at all. He distanced himself from Vick and announced that Vick would never again play for the Falcons in Atlanta under his ownership. One more white guy made to look like a schmuck by associating himself with a notorious black due to greed.
Inspite of being given every advantage and opportunity he will fail again.
It is not if, but when.
Last fall, when the Federal government was jonesing to spend hundreds of billions of dollars of your grandkids’ money to bail out big banks, opponents of such bailouts used an argument called “moral hazard” — basically, if they were going to get bailed out every time they failed, what incentive do they have to make good decisions and not to make bad ones?
Apply this to Mr. Vick. He will eventually sign on with a team, he has been reinstated technically. I’m sure he’ll be made to go on speaking tours and do PSAs about how bad violence is, esp. against animals. But it’ll be all for naught, for his reinstatement and rehiring is a sacrifice of moral hazard. All these kids will see is that there are hardly any consequences to killing dogs, torturing dogs and drowning dogs, save a few years in a Federal camp cupcake.
To:Eric the Red-NO self respecting or real hunter worthy of the name will take delight in the sufferings of his quarry.I don’t know of these “African (black juju?)hunters …but to anyone whose actually hunted here with rifle,shotgun or bow the stalking,and harvesting of the game(quickly and cleanly-with the LEAST suffering to the animal)is an avowed goal of all true outdoorsmen.The sadistic torture of any animal for torture’s sake is indicative of something deeper and darker and I certainly don’t want to be in the gamefields with him.Also many of us respect and admire our quarry(“last meal of grass ritual” etc..)
