Vick guilty -- only the stupid are surprised

By Rick Morris

For all the insipid talk that Michael Vick was "innocent until proven guilty," today he admitted the obvious when he copped his plea: he is indeed guilty of heinously murdering animals by way of operating his dog-fighting ring. The truly stupid and delusional people of this world who defiantly maintained their trust in him despite all evidence of his guilt are no doubt rationalizing that "it's only dogs we're talking about" and "the System set him up" and "he's only going to jail because his friends snitched on him."

I expressed rage on The FDH Lounge show when Vick entered what he now admitted was a lying plea of "Not Guilty." He has shown himself, by these actions and others from the past, to be a classless degenerate, so it may surprise some readers to know that I do support his conditional reinstatement to the NFL. I would like to see NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell institute a suspension from the league which would not run concurrent with Vick's prison sentence, so we may be talking a few years down the road before Vick could be reinstated. But this would allow him an opportunity to get back into the league, assuming that one of the 32 teams in the league would take the necessary public relations risk and would be willing to carve an offensive scheme to his abilities. This strikes me as the necessary balance between the harsh penalty Vick's reprehensible lifestyle deserves and the American tradition of allowing a chance for redemption.