The NFL Cares More About Dogs than People!

Here it is, the mandatory Mike Vick post. After all it is, according to Bob Ley, the biggest story in the News today (on a day the Attorney General resigned).

Let me take a different view on this thing and question the NFL as well as the public's priorities. First off I'm a dog owner and a dog lover. Second, lets get some things straight. Vick plead guilty to conspiracy to transport dogs over state lines for the purpose of dog fighting, not killing dogs or even dog fighting. All that needs to be shown to sustain a conspiracy charge is that two or more people commit some acts in furtherance of a crime.

As an illustration for there to be a conspiracy to rob a bank two people need only commit acts that might lead to robbing a bank. Lets say they buy guns and talk about plans to rob the bank and steal a car to use as the getaway car. Good enough for a conspiracy. They don't need to actually rob the bank.

Conspiracy charges are in general less difficult to prove than an actual crime.

So with that said lets not go calling Mike Vick a dog killer just yet. Even in the statement of facts Vick submitted with his plea agreement, at most Vick admits to being complicit in the deaths of 8-10 dogs in April of 2007. For arguments sake lets say that Vick had one or two of his boys, either Q or Peace, kill these dogs. Forget all that nonsense about electrocution and hanging, do you think a $130 million dollar Quarterback is getting his hands dirty like that, no he's having his boys do it.

Even the worst case (that Vick himself killed some dogs), should not elicit the response that it has from the NFL.

In the Goddell era, the NFL has quickly become Stalinist USSR in the way punishment is meted out. Take for example everyone's favorite wrestler, Pac-man Jones. Arrested a bunch of times, never once convicted of any charge. Suspended for the year. Its not that I think that Pac-man is a good guy (he's probably not) nor do I think he's blameless ( who makes it rain and asks for the money back?). Here's my beef, HE WAS NEVER CONVICTED. It is against the law to even ask on a job application if you have ever been arrested. And Pac-man got a year suspension.

What's Vick gonna get? A year, after his sentence is up. Its not that Vick doesn't deserve to be suspended, he does. But for a whole year. Take a look at two other examples where the NFL's punishment was less severe and the public outcry far less.

Leonard Little, former Rams' DE. Suspended eight games in 1999 after he plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter after he KILLED a woman while drunk driving. Six years later he picked up another DUI. He's still in the league.

NFL poster boy Ray Lewis plead guilty to obstruction of justice in a double homicide. That's right Ray's boys stabbed to people outside of a club in Atlanta before the Super Bowl. That's two dead people.

So lets do a quick count three dead people 8 game suspension, possible 10 dogs one year suspension maybe more.