Michael Vick, the star quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons, has accepted a plea offer from federal prosecutors in a criminal case stemming from a dog-fighting ring that was run from a property Mr. Vick owned.
Mr. Vick will probably face a sentence of at least a year in prison under the deal. His future in the National Football League appears bleak.
Mr. Vick is expected to formally enter his plea on Aug. 27. The United States District Judge overseeing the case, Henry E. Hudson, announced the agreement at a status hearing in the case this afternoon.
Billy Martin, one of Mr. Vick’s defense lawyers, said in a written statement: “After consulting with his family over the weekend, Michael Vick asked that I announce today that he has reached an agreement with federal prosecutors regarding the charges pending against him. Mr. Vick has agreed to enter a plea of guilty to those charges and to accept full responsibility for his actions and the mistakes he has made. Michael wishes to apologize again to everyone who has been hurt by this matter.”
Mr. Vick has been barred by the league’s commissioner, Roger Goodell, from appearing at the Falcons’ training camp since the league began its own investigation of the matter on July 24, a week after Mr. Vick was indicted in the case.
I was actually looking forward to Vick falling flat on his face under Petrino, so sports talk would finally shut up about his “re-inventing the position.”
Knowing just a little about dogs, including the breed most commonly used for fighting, I have a whole lot to say about this case and those involved.
However, my mother taught me that if I do not have anything nice to say it’s best to say nothing at all.
Those dogs, like Michael Vick himself, are creatures of God. “I believe that God created me, together with all creatures,” Luther’s Small Catechism reminds us. Yes, we have been given dominion over the beasts of the field, and yes, certainly, we differ from those beasts in having been created, as they were not, in the image of God. But in our creatureliness we share the same lack of deservedness or merit, and enjoy the same threshold act of grace of God’s creating us. We reflect the same handiwork and careful design of a loving and sovereign maker. We both point to the Creator who made us. To destroy those animals in such a grotesque display of senseless cruelty is to dishonor the Creator who made them, to ignore our duty of care as stewards of His creation. One does not have to be an animal rights kook to see that here is something very different than killing for food, or using animals responsibly to make this earth better. This was destruction of God’s handiwork for no discernible purpose other than to indulge a base inclination toward cruelty. Perhaps as Michael Vick loses his freedom, and himself becomes a caged animal in a sense, he will gain an appreciation for the dignity that should be given all God’s creatures, great and small. Maybe he will with God’s grace reflect upon being a creature, and so be drawn to his Creator, “the Lord God [who] made us all.”
As one who loves dogs and has three, I have struggled mightily to be sympathetic to this man and this situation. I pray that whatever within him is causing this may be healed as the days and months ahead.
He should do a year working for the SPCA and be barred from professional sports. He may be God’s creature, but this is evil, and he should not be held up as someone who is admired by anyone.
VA Anglican, Thank you for writing what I would have had great difficulty putting into words. I think the beasts in this story were not the dogs.
It’s a good day when I can find common ground with my brothers and sisters across the divide. I especially appreciate Paula’s comment that “the beasts in this story were not the dogs.” We should all strive to as good and wonderful as our dogs think we are.
Or is this just a form of culture that needs to be embraced and included at the table in celebration of diversity?