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Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Did Vick know what was going on?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Just ask yourself this question: Do you think he knew what was going on?
For a moment, let’s forget about the 18-page indictment, which names Michael Vick 51 times. Let’s forget about the cooperating witnesses and the double-secret sources that claim Vick funded, operated and actively participated in training dogs, fighting dogs and executing dogs.
Is there really any way possible that he didn’t know?
Can a person be that oblivious? These are his friends. This is his house. Did he go there, even if rarely, and NEVER look out the back window and say, “What’s with those little black houses in the yard?” Did he never see any dog-training equipment? Or blood splatters? Did he never notice receipts for medicine or vet visits or “rape stands” or pry bars or, like a million bags of dog food?
Did he never once travel to this house of horrors on Moonlight Road and think, “Man. Sure is a lot of dog poop around here.”
He knew. Of course he knew. And that’s enough.
The Falcons are trying to figure out where to go with Michael Vick. Try this: Run in the other direction.
No more coddling. No more enabling. No more spinning. Just go.
The NFL may or may not suspend Vick before his trial. But owner Arthur Blank and this little enterprise of his shouldn’t wait for the mother ship to act.
Suspend Vick if you want to look tough and send a message to fans.
Announce Vick is going on an indefinite leave of absence if you want to seem compassionate and supporting, as if he was dealing with some rare disease or family emergency.
Just pick an exit strategy and move on.
He knew. Of course he knew. And when you know, you’re not just a good guy surrounded by bad people. When you know and do nothing, you’re one of them.
I don’t want to hear about due process right now. Would anybody in any other walk of life be allowed to continue working if these charges were leveled against him by the federal government?
A police officer being accused of assault would be put on administrative leave.
A truck driver accused of reckless driving would be suspended, pending charges.
A teacher accused of having an affair with a student would suddenly disappear.
If Blank doesn’t know what to do, he should ask himself this question: If this was a guy selling hammers at Home Depot and not your star quarterback, what would be your first move? I’m guessing it wouldn’t be a directive, “Go sell more hammers.”
This isn’t Mayberry or some backwoods county filing charges. This is: “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. MICHAEL VICK, a/k/a ‘Ookie,’ ” and three lesser-known bottom-feeders.
The federal government doesn’t hand these things out like parking tickets. Read the indictment. It’s detailed. It names manners of executions, amounts of wagers, even names of dogs.
Did I mention Vick was referenced 51 times?
If the Falcons don’t act now, let’s call this what it is: They want to win games. It wouldn’t be about letting the legal system play out, or standing behind Vick, because that’s certainly not what team’s initial statement read like (we’ll get to that shortly). It would only be about seeing Vick first on the depth chart and Joey Harrington second and Blank thinking, “Oy.” It would only be about thinking Vick can get you to the playoffs and Harrington can’t and maybe people will talk about something other than page 17 of the indictment: “In or about April 2007, PEACE, PHILLIPS and VICK executed approximately 8 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.”
For all of the club’s talk about the “Falcon Filter” and serving the community, doing nothing would prove the Falcons to be as shallow as any other franchise.
Just guessing: If this were a backup lineman, not the quarterback or the franchise cash machine, there would be no hesitation.
Do nothing and this should be the Falcons new slogan: “Do the right thing — when it’s convenient.”
The Falcons’ initial statement embraced generics. It referenced the indictment being “troubling,” the team being “tested,” officials being “disappointed,” but franchise being “prepared to deal with it.”
There was no, “Michael is innocent,” or, “We’re behind him.” The closest was the final sentence: “Our plan is to continue to do everything we can to support our players and coaches.”
They’ve got other players. None are named in a federal indictment. Stand behind them.
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An open letter to Arthur Blank
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
To: Arthur Blank, Owner & CEO, Atlanta Falcons,
Flowery Branch, GA 30542
Dear Mr. Blank: This morning, as my wife scanned the disaster headline in the AJC, she mused, “Wonder if Arthur wouldn’t trade it all now for an apron and a little hat with ‘Home Depot’ on it?”
I said, “And give up all this?” I quoted from the Falcons press guide: “Blessed with rare athletic abilities not before seen at the quarterback position in the history of the NFL … called ‘most electrifying and exciting player in the NFL,’ ” writing of Michael Vick.
“Give up all that?” I said. “This was his dream world. Give him Michael Vick and he had an empire.”
No owner of a professional team franchise could have been kinder than you have been to Michael Vick. You have coddled him. You have taken him in as a friend, and team owners can’t have friendships with players. It doesn’t work.
Some few owners have taken to appearing on the sidelines, but you have taken it a few degrees further. Cameras have shown you sallying about with him, arm around him, smiling in victory, frowning in defeat. Another time you were shown pushing his wheelchair when he was injured. Even Jerry Jones doesn’t go that far. Players are field hands to Al Davis. You don’t see him fraternizing with any Raiders.
Of course, where you broke ranks was when you endowed Vick with a $130 million contract. That gave him a bigger chunk of the team than any of your minority owners. That gave him the impression he was the team. The Atlas of all he could survey. I often wondered if you ever had a sit-down, hard-nosed nuts-and-bolts jaw session with him, let him know who’s the boss, not his brother.
During the winter, after you traded Matt Schaub to Houston, I wrote a column suggesting that you had traded the wrong quarterback. Another writer scoffed at it, but the e-mailing public leaped aboard. “Vick is a thug and should have been traded,” one of the gentler respondents wrote. “He is holding the franchise hostage,” another wrote. Of all the responses, some 50 of them, only one took serious issue. I’m sure you must have fielded a few of them yourself. Did that not open your eyes? Now when you need Schaub most, he’s in Texas, not that any guarantee came with him. But at least he was not a Falcons player you had to be ashamed of.
Let me tell you about a man named Clint Murchison. Clint owned the Dallas Cowboys during the Tom Landry heyday, but you never saw Clint on camera. He was Texas-wealthy and didn’t feel any need to have his ego stroked. He could walk the street in Dallas and hardly anybody recognized him. He left the football stage to Landry and Tex Schramm. They built the franchise and made it run. Not that your staying off the sideline in the waning moments of the game is going to change anything, but I think it has thrown a shadow over your relationship with Vick.
Now it really gets touchy. Whatever his role in the alleged fighting-dog scandal, there’s one thing he can’t escape. He is the landlord of the place in Virginia, owns it, is responsible for what goes on there. You must have about $90 million of that exorbitant contract still hanging fire, stands to be written off. Nobody can show you where to go to fill that hole in the lineup, but it would be nice, wouldn’t it, if you still had Schaub in camp. He knew the offense and he wasn’t a magnet for trouble. Looks like you traded the wrong quarterback, sad to say.
Sorry, dear fellow, FB.
P.S.: You have a fellow on your board who could be a help to Vick on how to earn respect. His name is Henry Aaron.
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