The evidence against Vick is (warning: disturbing photo) horrific

The evidence may in fact be horrific, but I doubt T-chris has seen it to know.   The pictures listed in his link aren't even from the Vick case. More hype than good reporting, but I could waste pages pointing that out with this blogger.  

Now will he be the face of a franchise the face of an entire city like he was, get big endoresement contracts and be on the cover of Madden?   NO.

  In fact, "barbarous" killing or even killing was not an element of any offense charged  and the government would not be required to offer proof of it to gain a conviction of any of the defendants let alone Vick.   That the indictment was artfully crafted to engender maximum shock and outrage seems apparent to me.

These animals, the indictment claims, were killed "by various methods, including hanging, drowning, and slamming at least one dog's body to the ground

The Falcons quarterback has been indicted for conspiring to sponsor dog fights. Vick can accept the government's proposed plea agreement, knowing he'll probably serve a year or two in prison, or he can take his chances at trial. If he elects a trial, however, prosecutors have threatened to add more charges.

Who Let the Dogs Out on Michael Vick?
By Dave Zirin

In our sweaty, panting, twenty-four-hour media culture, "presumption of innocence" seems almost quaint, the legal equivalent of a potbellied stove.

This is certainly the feel of things in the curious case of the People vs. Michael Vick. The Atlanta Falcons quarterback was indicted Tuesday on federal charges of conspiracy for alleged involvement in a dogfighting operation in Virginia. The media have released the hounds.

In what can charitably be called a sprint to judgment, MSNBC's Michael Ventre opines that Vick should be "suspended for life" from the NFL: As if he has a desk inside the federal prosecutor's office, Ventre writes, "When the general public starts to hear gory tidbits about the savagery that was allegedly condoned by the Falcons' quarterback, he will be persona non grata in society, let alone the NFL."

Ventre's not the only one in attack mode. Greg Couch of the Chicago Sun-Times has a piece called "Put the Bite on Vick Now." Mark Starr of Newsweek wants him benched immediately. And sports radio has been atwitter with coverage that can charitably be called repugnant. America Online's highly trafficked Fanhouse discussion board turned ugly. The offending posts have now been scrubbed from the board, but when I checked earlier this week, there were calls to "hang him from a tree" as well as a liberal use of the N-word. (Please tell the NAACP that it's not just rappers who say that.)

The case is no longer just about what Vick did or did not do on the property he owned in Virginia that housed an alleged dogfighting operation. It's about celebrity, racism, the South and the precarious position of the African-American athlete. As someone in the Atlanta sports-radio universe described the local populace, "Half hate him. Half don't. Why? He's a black quarterback who represents hip-hop culture."

Michael Vick is in a world of trouble. If convicted, the career of an NFL marquee player--the only quarterback ever to rush for more than 1,000 yards in a season--now stands in serious jeopardy.

As sports legal expert Lester Munson explained on ESPN.com, "The government's case includes evidence that Vick and his cohorts 'tested' pit bulls for ferocity. If the dogs failed the test, the indictment charges, they were executed by hanging or drowning. In one case, with Vick present, the document says a dog was slammed to the ground until it was dead. In another incident, a dog was soaked with a hose and then electrocuted. Those aren't the sort of transgressions that lead to probation and community service. It's the kind of behavior that results in punishment, and the punishment will be jail time."

Fighting dogs is an ugly, brutal business, and none of this is to excuse anything that may or may not have happened. But whether Vick is found guilty or not, the self-righteousness of the media and the many Vick-bashers is staggering.

To read more click here. Love to hear what sports enthusiasts (and left-leaning bloggers) have to say.

Unfortunately given his style of play, it seems unlikely that Vick would have ever won or even made it to a Super Bowl, a style which goes against the current orthodoxy in the NFL which currently worships the West Coast offense approach to the game. No professional program including Atlanta has ever geared its offense around a running quarterback, the very idea is simply seeing as too risky and too far out of step with how the professional game is currently played.  So Vick was forced to conform to the current excepted NFL model, which he had a great deal of difficulty doing.  For an athlete of his caliber I think this is an important consideration in understanding why Vick threw away a 100 million-dollar career for the sake of running an underground dogfighting operation on his property.

It's hard to believe that he would do such a thing until you consider the mindset which is so common among top athletes in our society. I believe that what has happened to him is a direct result of a American athletic culture that says to top athletes, you must win, and win it all.  This mindset in which an individual's self-worth is entirely predicated upon their next conquest on the field, and the ability to keep upping their game.  Athletes who find themselves unable reach the pinnacle of their sport, often turn to other avenues in order to affirm their value as human beings in our society.  Pro athletics is replete with examples of this, athletes turning to gambling and various other forms of vice in the hopes of re-creating that high of winning which often eludes them in their chosen competitive field.

It's important to remember that athletes in leagues like the NFL often come from backgrounds where they were the star for as far back as they can remember, and perhaps never knew a time when they were not successful.

In our society athletes are comodified to such an extent they are viewed in much the same way thoroughbred horses, or for the sake of this discussion thoroughbred fighting dogs.  These young men have been highly valued, cared for and protected by everyone around them throughout their athletic lives, specifically as a result of their ability to perform.

The moment they are unable to demonstrate the ability to overcome every obstacle in their professional career, or the moment their performance is seen to have peaked, is the same moment that their value begins to diminish, not only in the eyes of those around them, but in their own eyes as well.  Of course this doesn't happen to every athlete, it's largely dependent on upbringing, and how well grounded their early athletic experiences are, but in the modern fast-moving world of collegiate, and even high school football these days, by the time a young person has reached that level and has shown exemplary ability, they've usually been exposed to years of conditioning along these lines, beginning as early as ages six and seven.  

Presently even peewee football leagues get national television coverage on cable, with their finals played in major stadiums across America, stadiums like the Orange bowl in South Florida.  These days it's pretty hard for a kid who is a superstar from an early age to not get sucked in to the belief that he is no mere mortal.  I don't know enough about Vick's background to say whether this happened to him, or when exactly he got involved in dogfighting, but given his seemingly unparalleled ability, it's quite likely that this phenomenon played a part in his downfall.