Vick cleared to re-enter NFL

ESPN reported last night that an "anonymous" person within the NFL has confirmed that Michael Vick is cleared to re-enter the NFL, and that a formal announcement would be coming in the next day or 2. Be interesting to see if anyone picks him up...

Does Cleveland want him for the dog pound?

I think he is going to switch to Defense and play Rover.

Should be interesting to see who signs him.

Don't you mean adopts him?

True. What a circus it will be for the team that signs (adopts) him.

He paid for his crime. He ought to be left alone. And we Americans should have no tolerance for those that don't leave him alone. If we see media outlets going nuts, we should write or boycott them. If any animal rights organizations bother him or the team he is on, we should write them and withhold our donations.

He served his time. Leave him alone and let him work at his trade. In peace.

Here's the formal announcement:

Ugh

I think what he did was dispicible, and in my eyes, the only fair punishment would be to torture him the way his dogs were tortured.

Having said that, he was given the harshest sentence possible under the law and has lost a ton of money in the process. He should be allowed to pursue a career, and if there is a team foolish enough :cough Raiders cough: to sign him, then so be it. I don't have an issue with people/groups protesting him or the team if they want.

well, I seem to remember stating that he'd be readmitted pretty fast, seeing as it was a business decision and would generate free press...lo and behold!

And here is the statement Vick issued via his attorney/agent...seems that he has calibrated his words without issuing an apology as well

I hate that word: Mistakes.

This is a misteack. What he did to those dogs was a intentional crime. Make no mistake about it.

If he can't do better than that. I'm going to rethink my stand on pestering him.

There goes listening to "Who Let The Dogs Out" at games from now on.

Well, that might be the first good consequence of this whole episode!

Why would a team be foolish to sign him? He is a talent and he has been cleared to play. Get over it. If he can help a team, so be it. Also, he served his punishment. That's enough. All of you know that while dog fighting is horrible it is not that far off from hunting, fishing, killing and skinning animals for food and clothing, you name it. Give it a rest. In all of these cases, animals suffer and are killed. The only difference is Vick's action was illegal, the other actions I've named are legal. He served his time. Give it a rest.

This is what I don't understand - surely the NFL has code of conduct rules that the players must follow. Different associations/organizations have 'acts discredible' codes for which members can be booted from the organizaion. He was part of the league when all this went down so I don't see why they are letting him back in. Imo, this is obviously a discredible act...(although the NFL is clearly not the poster child for kicking players out of the league for discredible acts)

So what he served his time. If the NFL has such an 'acts discredible' part of its code, then this is why he should be banned. A lawyer would proably be disbarred. A CPA would probably have his license revoked if they were found guilty of what Vick did. Should we just say, oh the lawyer served his time, let him go back and practice law? Highly unlikely, yet this ass clown gets to go back to his job.

It's all about the benjamins. And as someone mentioned before, the publicity.

dmg - we don't put two deer in a ring and have them fight each other, or two pheasants, or bear, or trout, or flounders, etc.

Just because someone has a talent or ability, it doesn't give them the right to flaunt the law. Yes, he served his time in jail, but convicted felons (I am assuming it was a felony, don't know for sure) shouldn't be on TV every weekend. It's not a good example for our kids. And like it or not, those guys are roll models.

AG - comparing an athlete to a CPA or attorney is a bit of a stretch. There are many attornies that are convicted but are allowed to practice law "when they meet certain criteria that has been set" by their state bar association. This is no different than what the NFL is doing for Vick, setting criteria that allows him to re-enter the NFL. If the criteria isn't met, he doesn't get back in. Seems fairly simple to me. And as the NFL is a private company, they can determine the criteria and whether he meets it or not. It doesn't really matter what the public thinks, we have no say. We do, however, have the say on whether we buy NFL merchandise with his name on it, attend games that he plays in, and supports whatever team he plays for. Bottom line, I think when it boils down, most people really don't care one way or the other about what he did, they don't think about it, and it won't stop them from being fans of the NFL.

I knew it was a stretch. I was just trying to make a comparison that when you belong to an organization (NFL, bar, whatever) there are certain rules which you must follow and certains codes with which you must abide.

Those were the first two things that came to my mind. And yes, the NFL does have the final say, as they are the enforcer of their own code. I don't agree with it (I mean come on the guy is a convited felon), but I don't have to, as the NFL makes the call. Like you said, there are ways to not show your support.

Just please please please, don't be signed by the Bills. We have enough troublemakers and we're starting to look like the Bengals.

Vick to Owens!

I'm really am worried Sox, cause Losman just got the boot!

But if the fans boo him off the field, that might get the message across to the owners and commisioners. I don't expect that to happen, but I wish it would.

these guys are driven by the bottom line...

True - but once again, if the Owens's and Vick's of the world were booed off the field, it might get the message across to the owners. Unfortunately, there are just too many meatheads going to the games who say win at any cost. Sounds like we've gone back 2000 years to gladiator days.

American football = meathead, no thought process, lots of beer and stopages for fat guys to suck down oxygen between plays

rest of the world football = highly intelligent fans, tons of thinking, even more beer, but no stopage, and definitely no fat guys

Sorry, soccer still sux.

Maybe if they made the field about 1/2 the size it is now, there'd be a little more excitement than just watching some guys run and run and run and run.....and rarely if ever score a goal....

^^^yet finds a football game with a 7-0 score "awesome"

Yeah, but didn't a guy get murdered a few years ago for making a bad play in the "rest of the world football"?

in 1996 a Columbian player was gunned down because of an own goal vs. the US. Of course, in American football they just shoot themselves in the leg, or kill their bodyguard, or get in bar fights where people are stabbed to death, or play for the bengals

My money's on Oakland to pick up Vick. Big Al seems to like the problem children...

he should have to get in the octagon with Brock Lesnar. and then, if he can still play and a team wants him, he should give 30% of his earnings to the ASPCA.

in my opinion, he is a horrible excuse for a human being.

blahblahblahBLAH.

MY problem with this whole scenario is that people who sell meth to kids get less prison time (at least in my neck of the woods) than folks who dog fight.

Vick doesn't owe us an apology, anyways.


And yeah.. soccer blows.

At least the meth buyer can make a choice to buy or not. Animals can't. I think you can tell a lot about a person's character in how they interact with animals. Vick's done his time, and I'm satisfied with the justice aspect of it...but I still don't have to like him.

Fixed.

Animals Michael Vick tortured and/or killed get more sympathy on this board than North Koreans executed for their religious beliefs.

But J-man, can't you see the humor in it?

If those dogs were barking all night the way my neighbors' do, I'd have shot them myself.

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Funny stuff...

Your neighbors bark?

the justice system is corrupt. what i said about michael vick has nothing to do with drug dealers or even rapists or murderers. they all should rot.

i agree with FBH, it does show the character of a person in how they treat animals.

and i think it is HORRIBLE that any person gets tortured for their beliefs. never said otherwise.

PB and AG,

I agree that talent should not allow anyone to flaunt the law. However, all I am saying is he did it, he paid for it, let it be done. I just don't think he should be punished forever for this. There is probably a $$$ motivator for the NFL in terms of letting him back in as well but I just don't think this rises to lifetime banishment. Lastly IMHO if my son had to look any further than our dinner table for a role model, then I did not do my job as a parent. Overall it's a tough question and even tougher to debate.

I agree with you dmg, that we should all be the role models for our kids, but unfortunately, that is not always the case. There are too many low income/inner city kids who are in single parent families, and they look up to the big athletes, recording stars, etc, and many, many of them just don't lead lives that should be imitated. That's all that I'm saying. Vick is a convicted felon. Let him go out and get a regular job and prove himself to be reformed.

Can convicted felons vote?

And as much as we all want to set good examples for our children, they don't always follow that example. I know.

Agree with you on the social issues (I could talk about that all day). The funny thing is, football is his regular job. It just pays a lot more than ours.

i believe once you are convicted of a felony, you lose your right to vote

but for how long you lose this right varies from state to state

wiki wiki wikipedia

Felony disenfranchisement

Thanks AG!

How would bagging groceries or pumping gas or any other job show that he is reformed?

Think he'd be allowed to sell dog food?

Open a grooming business?

Wow, you disgust me.

My bet is that the commish talked to teams about who might sign him, discovered noone would, and reinstated him to teach him a lesson. He has no career in the NFL. Any team foolish enough to sign him will LOSE money, not make it. There are enough people out there who will boycott the franchise to sign him to make a dent in their profits.

I grew up in state that had legal dog fights for years, as well as rooster fights. Many other states had this as well, and it was part of many peoples lives, like it or not. I have to agree with J-man that many people seem more upset about Vick re-entering society than they do the horrible attrocities commited on humans by humans - and I'm not just talking about people on BOL. News shows, newspaper columns, blogs, etc. go on and on about this. But the great thing about America is that he paid his debt to society and he is free to pursue life, just as people are free to criticize him. If he was Joe Schmoe from Paducah, he probably would not have even seen jail time, much less made any news other than the local paper. It's time to let it go people, time to move on...

I don't see what the big deal is. I'm sure the Commissioner will have him on a short leash!

IMHO, you are way off here. Someone will sign him, and the stadium will be filled 16 times. There will be those that boycott, but whether right or wrong, they will sell tickets, hot dogs and shirts.

The six game suspension is actually a bigger deterrant than you may think. I team would have to play short-handed for six games, as they would have to hold that spot open. In a sport like the NFL where they use virtually the entire roster every week and there is the threat of injury on every snap, teams would be hesitant to play short-handed. And if someone waits until after week 6 to sign him, he will have had no training camp or practice time.

Did someone on here actually say soccer fans are intelligent and soccer players are smart??? Don't these idiots riot weekly, use racial taunts regularly, and threaten death to players that have bad games? And every poor, un-educated, illiterate country in the world plays soccer. You only need to know two things to play soccer, kick the ball that way, and fall down writhing in pain as though you've been shot if someone so much as brushes against you.

don't bring college football in to this...

Here's a thought. Why is it that this nut can be re-instated but Pete Rose can't be in the stinking Hall of Fame?

because he lied about betting on the sport he played and coached for, which is a huge no-no. If he would have 'fessed up from teh get go, he'd already be in...

of course, one has no bearing on the other...

i am right there with you Rizzo! i understand what that betting on baseball is the cardinal sin, but he did it when he was a manager. i know that doesn't make it any better but the Hall of Fame is for individuals who excelled at the sport and he did just that. he was a great baseball player. it's not the moral police. there are people in there who have had addictions and gambling is considered one. ty cobb even killed someone. it is such a tough thing because i definitely see both sides but i wish they would just let him in.

So do you think it's okay for OJ to be in the Hall of Fame as well?

The difference with Rose is that he bet on the team he was managing...It wasn't like he was at the track. His managing could effect the outcome.

Sox, did Rose bet for or against his team? I imagine he bet for his team because I don't know who would take a bet from a manager betting on losing. I don't see how that could affect the outcome since he is playing and betting to win, unless he was betting specifics or betting a spread.

nah, murder is a bit different. i am just saying that ty cobb IS in the hall of fame and he DID kill someone. Pete bet on baseball, didn't slice up his ex wife and her boyfriend.

GD:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2798498

He claims he bet on them to win, but I think the main reason he has been banned is that he denied he bet on his team for 15 yrs. As others have said, if he had fessed up at the time, he'd probably be in by now.

come on guys, it's feaking baseball, the only sport that is more boring than golf to watch on TV...

Who did Ty Cobb kill?

wiki wiki wiki says that Cobb's mother killed her husband, Cobb's father, but has no mention of Cobb killing anyone. it does mention numerous fights and that he even stabbed someone, but that teh man survived and it was settled out of court.

This is why I specified kids. While they do choose to buy it, depending on the kid, he or she may not understand the consequences. It's my opinion that drug dealers who sell to kids should be penalized more harshly than dogfighters. Now my opinion on drugs being illegal.. that's for a whole new thread.

So, you're saying double standards are world wide? Not just on BOL?

Zorn said no to Vick todays. ::saying prayers of gratitude right now::