Michael Vick

What Michael Vick is accused of doing is heinous and evil. There's no middle gound here. Heinous and evil. It is in the best interest of football that he be suspended immediately and that suspension should last as long as Vick is on trial or in jail.

Michael Vick has already been found guilty in the forum of public opinion. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell must know this and he also must know that every Atlanta Falcons game will automatically become a freak show of animal rights protest as long as Vick is in uniform. This is the very sort of negative publicity that Goodell vowed to act against. Goodell has to have the best interests of the NFL at heart and even though Vick is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law - any association with him right now is toxic to the league. Suspend him now Mr. Goodell.

Vick will be a huge distraction to the Falcons. Having a new coach and a new system to learn is tough enough in the best of times but trying to do it while under the pressure of going to jail for most of your adult life while protesters distract and impede you and teammates alike is not a condusive atmosphere to winning to say the least.

The FBI doesn't bring these charges lightly. Michael Vick will probably be going to jail. It was his house. There were dozens of corpses of mutilated dogs on his property. The witnesses who can damn him will come forward because they don't want to go to jail for an NFL star who is already going down in flames. Michael Vick is a sinking ship and the rats he called friends will turn on him gleefully as they abandon him to his fate.

The local authorities who originally investigated the allegations should also face investigation and penalties. Specifically Surry County prosecutor Gerald Poindexter should face investigation for his original handling of the allegations against Vick. It boggles the mind to think that Poindexter could have been any more obvious as he tried to bury this case. Obstruction of justice charges to begin with seems an obvious possibility here.

I truly hope that the Feds don't stop with Vick and Poindexter. The dogs had to come from somewhere. Whoever was supplying the dogs should face stiff penalties with no leniency. Anyone who was involved or profited from what happened on Vick's property should face severe consequences.

Now I've said my peace about Michael Vick. If you are interested here are some very good posts on this subject.

- Van Walker has been all over this case from the start. Here is his latest post on the subject. Van also had an earlier post that is well worth your time.

- Here's a very good post on the subject from an Atlanta sports fans perspective