With federal indictments of the dog fighting scandal on Michael Vick’s property pending, Vick seems to have been left out of the indictments. Very few people know how strong the case is against Vick, but there are multiple sources indicating his involvement in dog fighting. For instance, one anonymous source stated about Vick “He’s a pit bull fighter. He’s one of the ones that they call ‘the big boys’: that’s who bets a large dollar. And they have the money to bet large money. As I’m talking about large money — $30,000 to $40,000 — even higher. He’s one of the heavyweights.” (ESPN). He goes on to say, “Everybody in the dog world is worried about Michael Vick talking. Michael Vick is making large money; he’s making millions, OK? And if he has to tell on some people, I think he would tell”. That alone seems like good evidence, but more is necessary to convict or even indict a celebrity like Vick. Chris Landry of Fox Sports Radio stated that former teammate of Vick, Ray Buchanan, told Landry about Vick’s involvement in dog fighting. Landry summed up his discussion between Buchanan and himself by saying, “He tells me that Michael has been into this dog fighting for so long that . . . .he not only knew about, he is behind all of it, he’s paying for all of it. . . Apparently, he’s into it big time.”

That is strike number two against Vick. Before that though, Vick’s neighbors had stated that Vick visited the property where dog fighting took place every couple of months. That is funny, because Vick said that he’s “never there. I’m never at that house”. Whom are we going to believe? The neighbors who have no reason to lie or Vick who needs to cover something up. If we believe the neighbors (and I do), then there is no way Vick did not know about the dog fighting. The bloodstains, rape stand, and dog graves on the property would have given that away quickly. So now when Vick claims that he doesn’t “know what’s going on”, he is lying. 

A few weeks after this, George Dohrmann of Sports Illustrated quoted from an anonymous source that “Mike really loves dogs. It’s the country side of him coming out.  He doesn’t believe he’s doing anything wrong.  It’s a cultural thing for him that got worse as he got the means to support his friends who are more into [dog fighting] than him. . . He’s heavily influenced by a dog fighting culture that travels to Baltimore, D.C., and Virginia for fights.” Well, that is four people putting Vick at dog fighting before the police’s informants are even brought to attention. Though the informants have not released statements or participated in interviews, prosecutor of the case Gerald Poindexter has said that there are six of them. Now maybe these informants say that they have never seen Vick, but why would they come forward at all? I am sure the government has hundreds of informants in the dog fighting circle, so when Poindexter says that six have come forward, he means that six have come forward to seeing Vick at dog fights.

Okay, well that puts the number of people at 10. 10 people have seen Vick at dogfights. None of those people has any reason to lie. This should put Vick in a huge hole, looking at a lengthy jail sentence and the end of his NFL career, but somehow he is not being indicted. Huh? How much evidence do you need? What do they need, a video tape of him participating in dogfights? They have enough evidence to convict him already, so an indictment may not even happen with a video tape. The media must pressure the federal government to take action against Vick! The prosecution and federal government have enough evidence to convict Vick of dog fighting, but they are not even trying to. What kind of message does this show other players in the NFL, the sport that is trying to clean up its act? Let’s face it, without an indictment of Vick and a suspension by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell before a verdict, the NFL is not going to have made its image any cleaner. Suspending Pacman Jones made a bit of progress, but the poor prosecution of Vick and his involvement in dog fighting are undoing that bit of progress (and then some). And so I ask: How Can Vick Not be Indicted?!

For more information on this case, visit ProFootballTalk.com