You might hear that refrain 16-20 times in a single hour of SportsCenter. This morning, 4 of the 12 topics for the hour (not including the Top 10) revolved around Vick. And every time a reporter brought it up, the topic was "dogfighting charges," now followed by the question, "Will the League ever let Vick back in?"
First, the plea as announced was that Michael Vick would plead guilty to federal conspiracy charges related to dog fighting. If that means anything, it means the feds couldn't get charges of the actual, heinous acts that have been repeatedly paraded across our screens for the past two weeks to stick. Don't be surprised if this entire media train jumps the tracks and starts heading from Convictville back to Accommodatenland in a hurry on Monday if the statement of facts reveals that Vick knew and facilitated some of this activity (i.e. the fights took place on his property), but was otherwise uninvolved in the mechanics.
Second, why is ESPN so set on getting Vick kicked out of the NFL? The stories so far have not focused on when and if he could come back. To the contrary, the question asked repeatedly is whether the commish will toss the book at Vick in perpetuity, or whether (as I imagine would be more likely) he will hand down an indefinite suspension to be reviewed when Vick next becomes "available." Nobody on that staff is reporting, as did the Baltimore Sun, that Vick is not the first player to be convicted of a serious crime and come back to play in the league.
The most recent player to return to the league after serving time in prison is former Ravens running back Jamal Lewis, who served a four-month sentence before the team's 2004 training camp for using a cell phone to facilitate a drug-trafficking crime.
Leonard Little, a defensive end with the St. Louis Rams, served 90 days in jail and an eight-game league suspension after killing a woman in a 1998 auto accident while driving with a blood-alcohol level of 0.19
Even ESPN's legal analyst isn't bringing this up. The analysis has focused on why Vick waited this long and what effect that will have on the bargain offered and the eventual sentence. He should, at the very least, point out that the charges that will be read out Monday may not be as black and white as people think. This is ESPN. Strangely enough, it may be the only media outlet left where an audience is looking to absorb this level of nuanced analysis.
Let me hazard this guess then: ESPN has storyboarded this. They sat down 2 weeks ago and said, "There are 2 options. He either pleads or he fights. If he fights, we just cover that. The intrigue will come on its own. If he pleads, we first discuss how serious the dogfighting charges are. Then, when the sentence is announced, we spend 2 days on the ins and outs of what the actual facts mean. Then, when people finally tire of that, we'll turn to Vick's future. We'll run highlights of his greatest plays and roll audio of Vick supporters in the background, talking about how they hope that he can pay his debt to society, learn from his mistakes, and come back on the field a changed man." Check back next Thursday to see if I am right.
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