Vick case thread....please behave

Sadly, dog fighting is not all that uncommon. It's not just associated with urban areas either.
If your pockets are deep enough and you know the right people, you can see dog fighting, bare knuckle fighting and all sorts of crap that would make your stomach turn.
No, Vick probably isn't the only NFL player involved in riff-raff activity. He might be the most visible.

 

All of which I assume you've participated in...

 

But when you drift into 3rd person...

 

For once you're right boots. This isn't all about you so please don't try to turn it into you vs. all of us situation again. Just asking nicely, not trying to start shit with you this time.

Anyway,

You can see the underground fight league on youtube if you look up Kimbo.

 

Here is hoping this doesn't get deleted like many other posts along here.
Yes, youtube has a lot of strange shit for your viewing pleasure.

 

Someone asked me where I got this information. Here is a link:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-nfl21jul21,1,7284687.story?coll=la-headlines-sports&track=crosspromo


The letter to the Humane Society was written by Peter Abitante, Goodell's personal assistant, and NFL security will be discussing the dogfighting issue in all 32 upcoming training camps.

It's probably a fair statement that NFL security will be doing its own recognizance (as it did in Vick's instance) to try to get out in front of which - and to what extent - other of the league's players may be involved in dogfighting and try to quell any further litigation against its employees.

I think Atlanta has the option to suspend Vick for 4 games, without pay, but that is the extent of which they can take action against him unless Vick agrees to do the voluntary paid leave. I have to look that up.

Here's another angle: If Vick were to take the leave, how does that make him look to a potential jury? Is it an admittance of guilt in a potential juror's eyes? It has been said the NFL commissioner Goodell is wary of suspending Vick because of the effect it could have on his legal proceedings (i.e., does it make Vick look guilty and thus prejudice his proceedings?). If this is the case, how much worse could it be for Vick if he himself accepts to voluntarily sit out? This idea is not being much-floated by those who are arguing that Vick should sit out "for his own good," and so "he can prepare himself for the trial."

Well, what if his sitting out becomes the worst possible thing he could do in 'preparation' for the trial, in the court's and potential jurors' eyes? I don't think I've heard that question addressed yet, or at least not with any cogent answer.

 

Just be thankful tubgirl is illegal on there

 

I think many answers will come after Thursday's hearing. Once a date has been set, I believe a lot of shit is going to hit the fan.

 

I can't believe that many NFLers are involved in dog fighting. This "sport" isn't that widespread, is it?

 

I believe the shit has already been blown back into Vick's face from it hitting the fan already.

INKY: It's more widespread than you know. One of my good friends in Florida invited me to one one time. I said, I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that from you. And he never mentioned it again because he saw the outrage in my eyes.

 

Usually the correct answer lies between the extremes. 19 percent is one end of the extreme. The other end would be the Vick is the only player doing it. I'm guessing about five players per team have been to fights, and probably one player for every two teams is activly raising fighting dogs.

I do remember that Verron Haynes of the Steelers had a pit bull farm.

Note his quote in this article.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05318/606250.stm

 

Vick is being "railroaded" / William Rhoden

SPORTS OF THE TIMES; In Pursuing Vick, Government Bares Its Teeth
By WILLIAM C. RHODEN
Michael Vick may or may not have played a role in an apparent dog fighting ring. But Vick, the Atlanta Falcons' besieged quarterback. has already been indicted in the court of public opinion and by the news media, which increasingly embrace the presumption of guilt as vital to entertainment value.

This story, like Vick's career, has been puzzling.

Last Thursday in a surprising development, representatives of the Department of Agriculture's Office of Inspector General showed up at Vick's home in Surry County, Virginia, with a search warrant. Since April, the investigation had been overseen by Gerald G. Poindexter, the commonwealth's attorney. The presence of the Agriculture Department heralded that the Vick dog fighting probe had become a federal matter.

Poindexter was insulted. Beyond that, he was baffled that the feds had stepped in.

''What is foreign to me is the federal government getting into a dog-fighting case,'' Poindexter told The Associated Press. ''I know it's been done, but what's driving this? Is it this boy's celebrity? Would they have done this if it wasn't Michael Vick?''

That, of course, is the million-dollar question. I don't think we would have heard a peep.

The government' s involvement in pit bull fighting raised my suspicion that celebrity justice was partly at work. Carl W. Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, said he had been intrigued by the story as well. Why was the federal government so interested when Poindexter was moving the case along?

There are a number of possible answers. The government has more resources to undertake a full investigation in a complex case. The government may also be looking into whether this is related to dog fighting in other states.

''It could be that there's some pressure on the U.S. attorney here to proceed,'' Tobias said. ''This could be celebrity justice. He's a high-profile person. If you make an example of someone like that, it would really send a message.''

Make no mistake. A message needs to be sent that dog fighting, cock fighting and their every variation will be prosecuted. I just can't believe that the federal government, with everything else on its massive plate, has an interest in dog fighting that runs so deeply -- or runs that much beyond Vick.

During the Associated Press interview, Poindexter suggested that more was in play than the government investigation.

''There's a larger thing here, and it has nothing to do with any breach of protocol,'' he said. ''There's something awful going on here. I don't know if it's racial. I don't know what it is.''

Poindexter and Vick are African-American.

What seems at play here is a lust, a clamoring, for a high-profile takedown.

The approval rating of professional athletes has taken almost as savage a beating as the president's. Indeed, the dog issue has proven to be the president's friend. Vick's home was searched on April 25. On May 3, President Bush signed the Animal Fighting Prohibition Act, a bill that will help law enforcement crack down on animal fighting.

I don't have a problem with animal-rights groups using a star like Vick to call attention to the barbaric practice of animal fights. I do have a problem with the federal government piling on. More and more, I'm seeing the Vick case as piling on.

There was a similar case a few years ago in Surry County. A man named Benjamin Butts was suspected of running a dog fighting operation. Dogs and training equipment were found on the property, and Poindexter authorized a search of Butts's property.

Dave Forster, who is covering the Vick story with Linda McNatt for The Virginian-Pilot, said he asked Poindexter if the federal government had showed any interest in the Butts case. ''He laughed and said, 'Are you kidding me?' '' Forster recalled yesterday in a phone interview.

The Butts case was dismissed by a judge who said the search had violated his rights.

One of the larger issues here is Vick, no matter how this case turns out. I'm a fan of Michael Vick as a football player, but his time is running out. With young quarterbacks like Vince Young and JaMarcus Russell in the league, Vick's style could become obsolete.

Off the field, from Day 1, Vick has seemed intent on proving that he should be able to live with the same right to privacy as noncelebrity citizens.

This has proved to be a mistake time and again.

Last week, Vick canceled his youth football camp, scheduled to begin June 30 at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Va.

The dilemma for Vick and the other stars and celebrities is that their strike zone expands with wealth and power. The challenge is to avoid striking out.

What would you tell someone like Vick, who once had the world on a string? Depending on how -- or if -- he comes out of this doghouse, my advice is that he had better go undercover.