You’ve seen the last of Michael Vick on an NFL field. You can take that to the bank. I just heard agent Leigh Steinberg on the radio with “Mike and the Mad Dog” (can’t stand that show) and he and Mike Francessa agreed that we’ll see Michael Vick in the league again.
This MSNBC.com yahoo agrees (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20362418/) and even goes so far as to name teams that might be interested (more on that later).
Just stop with this content-filling nonsense. Here is the deal, the man just took a guilty plea that will guarantee jail time. And I learned from ESPN.com’s “Hashmarks” that the judge doesn’t even have to abide by those guidelines in the plea when sentencing Vick. In addition, we still don’t know the specifics of the plea. Does it guarantee that he won’t face local charges? If it doesn’t block state-level indictments, Vick faces up to 40 years for animal cruelty violations in the state of Virgina. Ouch.
Here is how I see this playing out:
-Vick gets sentenced in, say, December.
– I personally think (because of my huge legal background as a ….um….marketing guy? I actually watch a lot of “American Justice” with Bill Kurtis, so I think it’s safe to say I’ve got us covered here) he’ll get more than a year. Let’s say he gets 18 months, which is just a guess.
-Vick gets cut and owner Arthur Blank tries to recoup some $28 million already paid to his QB. And make no mistake, even for a well-off guy like Vick, that is a tough, tough check to cut.
-Commissioner Goodell decides that he doesn’t like being lied to (Vick told him months ago not to worry, that he did nothing wrong), and he doesn’t appreciate having his office picketed by PETA people. If he doesn’t get a lifetime ban, I can see him getting a year for dog fighting and a year for gambling. That’s a two-year suspension, which he can’t serve unless he’s signed by a franchise.
So it looks like the absolute earliest he could return to the NFL would be the 2009 season, but that’s before the suspension. So, I’m an NFL team in 2009 and I don’t like my QB situation. How can you predict what your team’s situation will be like in 2011 when he comes off suspension? Wouldn’t you be chucking two years in the toilet? No QB would want to come play for your team, because he’d have to figure that you were just waiting on Vick to come back. Would you spend a high pick on a QB knowing that you’d have Vick coming in two years?
This just doesn’t make any sense. So, he’ll be 31, not as fast, still can’t pass, hasn’t played football in forever, is a PR nightmare, will repulse fans, and overall is not that good anyway. So you want to sign Vick for him to sit for two years, while you answer question after question about why you signed him?
It’s easy to stick to the “pro sports always gives guys second chances” theory, but pragmatically, it doesn’t really apply here. Forget the dog fighting and the gambling for a second and remember this: He is just not that good anyway. After the water bottle and the flipping off of the fans, I don’t want him as my QB and face of my franchise.
The writer from MSNBC.com is particularly hilarious as he tries to decide what teams might take him. You can’t even predict what is going to happen to a team in 2008, let alone 3-4 years from now. I only read a few of his “teams that might sign Vick,” just for laughs. I couldn’t get through the whole thing.
micahw@feverpitchmedia.com
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