How Many Games Should Vick Be Suspended?

[SmootSmack]

Knowing what you know so far of the Vick case, and considering recent conduct decisions made on the likes of Pacman, Tank, and Chris Henry, if a decision had to be made today what would you do?

[Duffman003]

he should be able to play extra games

[MTK]

Based on what we know right now, I would boot him for 4 games.

And honestly if I were the Falcons, I would seriously be considering dumping Vick completely and signing Culpepper.

This case is going to be a PR nightmare.

[12thMan]

Good thread. The other Vick thread just had too much going on and I'm tired of politics.

I actually think he'll get suspended for the season, but Bush will commute said sentence and Vick will play entire season.

[ArtMonkDrillz]

I went with eight because it seems pretty clear that these horrific acts happened on his property and he's made the entire Falcons organization look bad.
If he is convicted of anything associated with these fights (financing them, betting on them, animal abuse, etc.) I think he should be out for the entire season.

[firstdown]

Right now I'd have to say 0 games because it has not gone to trial. Now if I was the owner or coach it might be a good idea to ask Vick to stay at home because of the distraction this is going to cause. A better poll would have been how many news reporters are heading to Atlanta or how many times a day will reporters ask about this. The only other thing that the Falcons could do would be shut the gates and bar reporters but I think they have obligations which require them to allow the press in.

[SmootSmack]

Originally Posted by Duffman003

he should be able to play extra games

What does that mean?

[12thMan]

I think he'll get booted for 8 games.

[FRPLG]

4 games for now. That's 4 for lying to the commish and in general just causing major problems. Any type of felony conviction should add another 12 games to it.

And I concur with Matty. Atlanta ought to drop him now. I think the risk with dropping him is low and the reward would be relatively high.

[FRPLG]

Originally Posted by firstdown

Right now I'd have to say 0 games because it has not gone to trial. Now if I was the owner or coach it might be a good idea to ask Vick to stay at home because of the distraction this is going to cause. A better poll would have been how many news reporters are heading to Atlanta or how many times a day will reporters ask about this. The only other thing that the Falcons could do would be shut the gates and bar reporters but I think they have obligations which require them to allow the press in.

If this was an out of the blue situation I would say yes but based on some minor previous stuff and the basic embarrassment of the situation I think a suspension is in order right now. These guys need to start realizing that what they do, illegal or not, reflects on the league. He obviously knew what was going on at least. Trying to deny that is just even more embarrassing for him so that puts him right in the line of fire for a suspension to me.

[JDALY27]

With the aiport incident and middle finger to his own fans on the field last year I would give hime the entire season off to clear his head.

[Chief X_Phackter]

Knowing what I know now, since the trial probably won't start until towards the end of the season, it's likely that he won't get suspended for any games at all (this year). I just don't know enough about it yet, other than the rumors that are going around. Obviously they think they have enough on him or they wouldn't have indicted him. It really all depends on when the trial starts. Once the trial starts, I don't think you'll see him on the field anymore for the simple fact that he can't be the QB of a national football league team, and be coming and going to court appearances. That being said, I'm sure his attorneys will do their best to make sure the trial doesn't start until after the season. Then they at least have an argument against any suspension threatened by the league (not that it wouldn't happen). I do have a feeling that once this plays out to the end, if Vick is found guilty, he may never play football again. Did you happen to see who the judge is assigned to the case? The dude is notorious for sentencing people for sometimes double the federal guidelines because he is willing to take into account the effect the crime has on a community.

[jdlea]

I voted 4 because I think that's what he'll get. As of right now, I don't think, if I were the commissioner, I would suspend him. I believe it's tough to justify suspending guys before their legal proceedings even take place, apparently Goodell disagrees. I don't like his "Suspend first, ask questions later" attitude, but I think Vick can expect to take a few weeks off because of all of this.

I do think that, if I were Arthur Blank, we would sit down and have a nice long chat about how he intends to move forward as the Falcons' quarterback and let him know that he could not be on a shorter leash, not based on his play, but his off-field behavior. Meaning: if this trial doesn't go well, he'd better have a good agent if he wants to continue playing.

[freddyg12]

I think the Falcons can find a way to ease into this; they could give him/talk him into a leave of absence until it goes to court. His pay would be the difficult thing to work out; they could withhold game checks but pay any roster bonus or vice versa. Might be sticky, but he & his agent would probably rather bow out for the time being rather than get into a fight w/Falcons mgmt.

Goodell would then be more willing to withold any action until it goes to trial. Kind of saves face for everybody for the time being.

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by FRPLG

If this was an out of the blue situation I would say yes but based on some minor previous stuff and the basic embarrassment of the situation I think a suspension is in order right now. These guys need to start realizing that what they do, illegal or not, reflects on the league. He obviously knew what was going on at least. Trying to deny that is just even more embarrassing for him so that puts him right in the line of fire for a suspension to me.

If the leaque suspended him because he was lying wouldn't they be finding him guilty before the trial takes place. I believe he is guilty and should be suspended but at this time I think it should be left up to the Falcons and not the NFL. I also think that the league is not going to have to suspend Vick as the judge is going to do that for them. An interesting thing I heard last night is that the judge will have the last word if he is found guilty of how much jail time he receives. Thats when the brutal things they did to these dogs will come back to bite him with a longer sentence.