- Joined
- Mar 25, 2005
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I wish Vick had never done this. Nobody wins. The guy had the world on a string and could not conduct himself in a "Legal" manner.
I do think if he takes his punishment and changes his behavior for good he should get another chance. I agree with the poster above about Ray Lewis and Leonard Little getting chances after people getting killed. Let's not forget Ray obstructed justice in a double murder.
He's already not really taking his punishment though, is he, nor is he ever going to change his behavior because at the end of the day the difference between what he and the other players you site did is Vick is a sociopath. He has no conscience. Anything he does now will not be due to remorse for anyone or anything other than Michael Vick getting caught.
Times change, and some of you Leonard Little bashers 9 years after the incident, need grasp that the league is changing with the times. The justice system struggles to deal with certain crimes, drunk driving being one of them. He was sentenced to 90 days for manslaughter because juries struggle with the issue of intent in DUI related fatality cases. He was arrested 6 years later for another DUI, but that jury acquitted him, as they all too often do. Not sure what Tagliabue could have or should have done back in the day, but I guarantee you Goodell would have dealt with the situation differently had both offenses occured in the same decade on his watch.
Ray pled down to a misdemeanor and was sentenced to no jail time for good reason. The prosecution in that case always knew he had no direct involvement in the assaults, just knowledge of them as a witness in what was essentially a post bar room brawl. His mistake, which he eventually acknowledged, was in telling his associates to keep their mouths shut and in giving the police misleading information when first questioned. And as it turned out, they were unable to convict Ray's associates or anyone else involved, either. How people can't see the difference between those isolated acts, regardless of outcome, and Vicks' intentional continuous long term illegal and immoral behavior is just beyond me. Still, had it happened today I think Goodell would have dealt with Ray harshly under the new NFLPA approved Personal Conduct Policy that DID NOT EXIST in 2000. In fact it was the cases of Ray Lewis and Ray Carruth and Mark Chamura that led the league to begin refining it's personal conduct policy. It was a long slow process because they made the mistake of focusing their efforts on prevention rather than punishment, and that likely led to where we are today. Many of these players don't understand anything short of a punishment that takes away their ability to play this game on the field.
Two wrongs don't make a right no matter how much some of you seem to want them to. And in case some of you hadn't figured this out yet, life comes with no guarantee it will be fair.