Dave,

Good flow! Mike Vicks real crime was that he dared to challenge the subtle, but revered, racist paradigm that the quarterback position is best played by a white male, who stays in the "pocket". Of course the "pocket" is a metaphor for the place in which White America feels most comfortable that Black males remain in....

I agree with the general point, vick should be allowed to return. But to connect it to the bigger issue of "Prison USA" is foolish. It is unfortanute that our country is the number # 1 jailer in the world. But since we became that crime has dropped in the last 20 or so years. If you dont want to do the time do NOT do the crime, how hard is it not to break the law in a major way and stay out of prison, most people of ALL races manage to do that.

Did you learn about irony from Alanis Morrissette? And, as per your weak example of NFL racism, Trent Edwards is clearly a better passer than Vick.

Chris Rock is hilarious. But if Sarah Palin was killing moose by strangulation, drowning, and throwing them against the wall until they died of massive internal injuries (and doing it on a regular basis), THEN she'd be in the Vick ballpark on animal cruelty. She's got other failings - but not this one.

I'm sure Vick will be back in the league shortly, but it IS pretty disgusting to listen to people talking about how much punishment he deserves AFTER two years in jail and losing his job, etc. Maybe they ought to let him get back to work - of course other ex-cons have all kinds of trouble finding a job . . .

vick is certainly a fun player to watch. whether he gets an NFL job or not is of less importance than all the millions of jailed folks who will never get a second chance after they get out. the economic situation in the States is such that people with clean records who have never seen jail can't get jobs that pay enough to support a family. so why care about vick? he's got the bread to live for awhile. most of us are clinging to our jobs, homes, and lives by a thread.

and another thing...meat eaters who called vick cruel should take a look at themselves...meat is murder.

Michael Vick will return to the NFL. There is no doubt about it. He is a great player and he is a key player that can turn a slumping franchise around. His return presence will draw huge fan attention. The NFL and the major networks, that promote the game, cannot dismiss this in these dire economic times. He has paid his debt for his wrong so let's accept that and get on with the game of football.

I have to agree with andujar. If you buy a burger from McDonalds, the animal that provided your meat will probably have been treated no more humanely than Mr. Vick's dogs. If the NFL wants to be consistent then they should refuse to have any association with any of the fast food chains. As far as Ms. Palin is concerned, I actually have more respect for someone who kills there own meat than those that buy it wrapped in plastic from their local grocer and don't give a second thought as to how it got there (hunting for "sport" however, is a different matter). Bottom line is Mike Vick paid his "debt to society" and then some and should be welcomed back to the NFL with open arms provided he still has the skills to play.

JeTed - the idea that anyone would take Trent Edwards, with his 11 tds and 10 ints last year, over a resurgent Vick shows that your football knowledge less than stellar

Your understanding of irony is worse. Ironic means "Poignantly contrary to what was expected or intended."

To me, it is poignantly contrary to sanity that you have Michael Vick who killed dogs and Dick Cheney who is responsible for the deaths of untold thousands, and it is Vick who did hard time.

Lastly, I have no problem whatsoever with hunters who eat their kill. But the hunting of wolves from a plane is sick.

At this point I don't think the Vick saga is really about extending his punishment but is about managing the public furor over his return. The NFL has a public relations minefield to navigate. Unfortunately Roger Goodell and NFL owners don't have the guts to make a statement about giving ex-cons a 2nd chance. Their primary (only?) concern is their bottom line.

Well the Buffalo Bills certainly could take Vick over Edwards if they wanted to, but they won't.And it has nothing to do with racism. In only his second year, playing in the adverse conditions of Buffalo, Edwards completed over 65% of his passes. If he didn't score more its because he had no run support, and only one capable receiver. Michael Vick's career passing average is a dismal 53%. He is not a good passer, and is only valuable as an option quarterback.

So it's really ironic to you that anyone is in jail when Dick Cheney isn't? That's the context? Now it might have been ironic had Dick Cheney been the QB for Atlanta, or Vick the first choice for VP. As it stands there's really no connection between the two.

I'm transitioning to a vegan diet right now, from an unhealthy, meat and dairy filled diet. There are thousands of reasons behind my lifestyle shift. Strangely, animal cruelty is NOT one of those reasons. I personally do not mind, because of the simple reason that carnivores exist, that humans eat animals. The thing is, most "animal lovers" eat meat, and we all know what those animals go through before they're consumed. My gripe is with the "animal lovers" who demonize people like Vick. If you believe that dog fighting is cruel, then what about chickens? We definitely don't need meat for sustenance. Its pure pleasure, and it comes from animal torture, plain and simple, just like the pleasure of dog fighting. I may not agree with a vegan animal rights activist that eating meat or fighting dogs is morally wrong, but at least their argument is consistent. We would be able to have a legitimate debate about this issue. Meat eaters, on the other hand, would not.

The professional football league where I hail from has a long tradition of looking the other way when the NFL deems a player to be radioactive (see: ricky williams). I personally do not think it will come to that for Mr. Vick since he is still only 29 and among the handful of most dynamic athletes in the history of the NFL (yes, you read right, how quickly we forget). Last I checked leavenworth isn't a white collar, minimum security pseudo-jail. This man paid a very steep price for the crime he commited in my opinion and tacking on another 6 game suspension smacks of Roger "napoleonic complex" Goodell trying to remind everyone again who's boss.

The Michael Vick story is interesting because everyone assumes that he is a nasty guy for killing some dogs. For all the "dog lovers" out there, Vick was not killing your chihuahua, or beagle, or some other cute and adorable dog. Pit bulls and rottweilers have a tendency to do some damage to actual humans. I would like to see some of the Humane Society, PETA, etc. crowd adopt some of these poor dogs that were rescued from Vick's kennels. Not that I advocate killing dogs, I just think it's a bit hard to feel sorry for a canine that would rip me open if it had the chance.

Yeah, and all those pigs were treated like beloved family pets right up to the time they surrendered their lives to be $5.00 stadium hotdogs...

Please send me your issues.. Thanks Gil Arellano

...that Trent Edwards has a shot to be a decent quarterback. I also hope that JeTed doesn't teach literature, grammar, or anything where he has to explain irony. But I do give him props for knowing far more about Alanis Morrisette than anyone I know.

There is one aspect of the Michael Vick case that is totally missing from this article, yet its one that I would imagine that raises great concern for NFL owners and officials.

If I'm not mistaken, every year about this time in training camp, all the players are assembled in a meeting and given a lecture/presentation about gambling and how all players need to stay away from any connections with gamblers.

To me, the most amazing thing about the Vick case was realizing that for years he'd been sitting in those lectures while running his own gambling operation.

Sure, I know ESPN and CNN focused their BS on the poor little abused doggies. But, like Mr. Zirin says, the owners of the NFL aren't exactly a bunch of radical leftists who are worried about mistreatment of animals. But, you can bet real money that the news that Michael Vick was deeply connected with gamblers and in fact running his own gambling operation.

Of course, the worst case scenario for the NFL is that one of their star quarterbacks was in a position to be in debt to gamblers, or maybe susceptible to blackmail from gamblers who knew that exposing Mr. Vick's connections to dog-fighting could ruin his career. You don't suppose that at some point one of them might have called up Michael and said something like 'make sure Dallas covers the spread against the Falcons this week, or you dog-fighting business becomes front page news.'

I lived in Atlanta for years. And Michael Vick was an incredibly inconsistent QB. He could look like he could beat any team single handed one week, and he could totally flop and play awful the next week.

And the one think the NFL owners and officials never wanted out of this scandal was any questioning of Mr. Vick's performances and whether or not he was throwing games.

I don't know if he was or not. After all, we are dealing with someone who could sit and listen to league officials tell him to stay far away from gambling knowing he'd been running a gambling operation all summer ... and that he'd be doing it again after this season was over. And he's the QB who drove coaches nuts by refusing to learn to play QB at an advanced level, instead always relying on his physical skills to win. Both point to a personality and a style of play that could be very shaky and inconsistent.

But still, knowing what Michael Vick was involved in, one has to wonder whether or not he ever threw a game. And it would be fascinating to know what league officials really think about that question.

With his history of connections to gambling, he's lucky to be let back into the league at all. A few games suspension doesn't seem like a big penalty.

Remember, other sports like baseball have banned their all-time hit leader, Pete Rose, from the game for life because of his connections of gambling. These leagues know that their income depends on people thinking the games are not fixed. Any hint, any taint, any question that maybe some games are fixed could cost a lot of people a lot of money.

I love the assumption by the rest of the country that the NFL South is bad football. Too bad facts don't fit that theory.

From the 2002-03 season to the 06-07 season, an NFL South team was in the NFC Championship game every season. Hardly the signs of a weak division. And both Tampa and Carolina tend to build their teams on defenses. Whenever either is successful, a strong defense is always a part of that success.

02-03 Tampa Bay wins Super Bowl after d. Philadelphia in NFC Champ game
03-04 Carolina loses to New England in Super Bowl after d. Philadelphia in NFC Champ game
04-05 Atlanta loses to Philadelphia in NFC Champ game
05-06 Seattle d. Carolina in NFC Champ game
06-07 Chicago d. New Orleans in NFC Champ game.

So, in every season from 02-03 to 06-07, Vick had to play an NFC Championship-game level team at least twice. And, the division is so balanced, that within this same span, every team in the division went to the NFC Championship game.

Its hard to see how anyone can claim this was a weak division during Mr. Vick's tenure in Atlanta.

I'd be a little leary if my hometown Bears signed Vick. First, like it or not the press would go crazy over him coming to town. And really over a back up. I don't think it's right but that doesn't mean it won't happen. Second, he's been out of football for 2 years and you don't know if he's in shape or not. I don't think it's a bad idea for teams to wait to see what he can do in the UFL. Of course, not for him in case he shows that he lost a step and isn't accurate. Third, Mike Vick is a great runner but overrated as a quarterback. Anyone who thinks he's a top ten quarterback at this point is smok'n some good shit. He's not accurate enough and consistent enough to win a superbowl. He runs to much and a running quarterback doesn't win until he learns to stay in the pocket and make things happen with his arm. Any team that signs him better be good enough to withstand media pressure and his inconsistent play.

One more point, Nathan you've got to get a clue if you think Vick went to jail cause he was a black quarterback. He wasn't the first black quarterback so he didn't brake an barriors. Are there any teams still that haven't played a black quarterback? He wasn't the best cause Doug Williams, McNair, McNabb are proven winners. He didn't challenge the establishment unless you think murdering dogs is a political statement. So why would "whitey" put him away for no reason? It makes no sense, what would the motive be? Why him? Why not Warren Moon? At least he was a great player and is headed for the Hall of Fame. Why not inprision him at his prime so that he would disturb White America's favorite position?

Vick indebted to gamblers? Like the song says, that's just your imagination running away with you. If Vick's association or potential association with gamblers was a problem for the NFL why would they keep it a secret? Why not just say so? You go from speculating that he might be susceptible to pressure from gamblers to actually accusing him of throwing games. WOW! What's next, that was Michael Vick on the grassy knoll!

The recent talk of signing Vick to play wide- receiver is interesting. A reminiscent throwback to the days when African-American QBs who excelled in college were converted to another position - less pressure and less to think about. I agree that the gambling angle has been under-reported.

For the record the CFL has changed its policy regarding the acceptance of suspended and or convicted players. Alas the days of Dexter Manley, Art Schleister and Ricky Williams are gone forever.

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