what about this idiot US$23 mill a year plus endorsements down the drain…
RICHMOND, United States (AFP) - Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, the second-highest paid player in the National Football League, is to appear in court on July 26 to face charges he was involved in illegal dog fighting.
Vick and three other people are accused of violating federal laws against staging dog fights, gambling and engaging in unlawful activities across state lines.
The indictment delivered Tuesday by a federal grand jury offers grisly details of how the alleged dog fighting enterprise Bad Newz Kennels was run, with dogs that didn’t perform up to standard “executed” by methods including electrocution, hanging, drowning and shooting.
According to the indictment, Vick was personally involved in the operation.
Federal agents from the United States Department of Agriculture searched a Surry County Virginia house and grounds owned by Vick on Friday, July 6.
Prior to that search, agents seized nearly 70 live dogs in April, mostly pit bulls on the land as well as dog carcasses. Investigators also found equipment commonly used in dog fighting.
Vick has said he rarely visited the house, which was lived in by a relative, and had no knowledge of dog fighting activities.
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said the alledged activities outlined in the indictment are “cruel, degrading and illegal,” but was quick to point out that Vick had yet to be found guilty of any of the charges.
But the scandal is already being cited as a test of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s push to clean up the image of the league.
Goodell suspended oft-arrested Tennessee Titans cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones for the entire season after he was charged with felony counts of coercion stemming from a February nightclub melee and triple shooting that left one man paralyzed from the waist down.
He has also meted out suspensions to Chris Henry and Tank Johnson for off-field lapses.
“For the NFL’s new emphasis on player conduct to have any traction or credibility, Goodell will have to discipline Vick in much the same manner he did Jones,” columnist Troy Johnson wrote in the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.
That opinion was echoed by Gary Myers in the New York Daily News, who said of Goodell: “Now he needs to take on Vick and suspend him, too, even if he does sell lots of jerseys.”
Paul Swangard, managing director of the University of Oregon’s Warsaw Sports Marketing Center, told the Los Angeles Times that the Vick indictment "clearly ratchets up the Goodell Test to a whole new level.
“It will define the level of legitimacy of his policies will have moving forward.”
Vick and the others, Purnell A. Peace, Quanis L. Phillips and Tony Taylor, face up to six years in prison and 350,000 dollars in fines.