Mr. Vick

I’ve never liked Mike Vick, or Michael Vick, or St. Michael, or whatever people are calling him this month. For this, I will call him “Mr. Vick.” I warned when Atlanta swapped draft picks with San Diego back in 2001 and selected the embattled quarterback with the No. 1 overall selection that the franchise would have a brief and sloppy relationship with Mr. Vick before seeing him walk away from the Georgia Dome with bad blood on the floor. Mr. Vick has been a novelty show, a carnival act as an athletic QB with only one shining season. How many tickets can be sold to see the freak do his thing? With his field vision and fluid hips, Vick could have been a grand defensive back if coaches had cast him in the proper role.

Mr. Vick has rarely accepted responsibility for his actions. He allegedly gave herpes to a gal, made obscene gestures to Atlanta fans last November during a New Orleans Saints game, and, allegedly, attempted to sneak some dope on a plane in Miami. But none of these matters hold a candle to the indictment handed down on Tuesday against the Falcons quarterback. The last page of the federal dog fighting charges reads “… executed approximately eight dogs that did not perform well in 'testing' sessions at 1915 Moonlight Road by various methods, including hanging, drowning and slamming at least one dog's body to the ground."

"If you want to kill a dog, why exert the energy to slam him into the ground or drown him? Why not just shoot him, which is the most common method?" says John Goodwin, dog fighting expert for the Humane Society of the United States. "That is insane.”

Getting the federal government to pull the trigger on anything is difficult. We aren’t talking of a prosecutor looking to make a name for himself at the expense of some Duke students; we are talking about Joe Fridays. These guys have hard evidence, if they didn’t we wouldn’t be talking about this nightmare. I have jokingly commented this offseason Atlanta will regret the trading of Matt Schaub, Vick’s understudy last year, to the Houston Texans. I believe that Schaub is a better person, better leader, and better quarterback. I had no idea how right I was, and how angry it makes me. What kind of man drowns a dog? What kind of man hangs an animal to death? Mr. Vick, we are all waiting for your answer.