Vick Suspended Indefinitely, Michael Wilbon Has a Creative Punishment Idea

"You have engaged in conduct detrimental to the welfare of the NFL and have violated the league's personal conduct policy," [Commissioner Roger] Goodell told Vick in a letter after meeting in New York with Falcons president and general manager Rich McKay.

"You are now justifiably facing consequences for the decisions you made and the conduct in which you engaged. Your career, freedom and public standing are now in the most serious jeopardy," Goodell wrote. "I hope that you will be able to learn from this difficult experience and emerge from it better prepared to act responsibly and to make the kinds of choices that are expected of a conscientious and law abiding citizen."

Meanwhile, Washington Post sports columnist Michael Wilbon has a creative punishment idea for Vick:

Personally, I'd like to see Vick locked in a cage with six to eight of those pit bulls and nothing but his hands to use in his own defense.

Goodness, yes, an eye for an eye is sometimes the only just punishment.

Pretty harsh, I agree, but as Wilbon writes:

It's right there in black and white, on page 9 of the papers Michael Vick and his attorneys filed in federal court yesterday. Vick agrees and stipulates that he himself helped kill dogs. Damn. The exact words are "collective efforts." Vick admits he participated in this ruthless act with his co-defendants. It's no longer an allegation or simply the word of some ex-friends ratting him out to save their own hides. It's Michael Vick, star NFL quarterback, admitting he endorsed the killing of dogs by methods including hanging and drowning. Wow. That's the showstopper for a lot of us, not whether he's guilty of a conspiracy charge, not even that his dogfighting enterprise involved illegal gambling activities.

Exactly right.  This is about the dogs, plain and simple, although there are sordid conspiracy and gambling charges as well.  But torturing dogs to death?  As one letter to the editor today said:

...If we don't abhor the most vicious mistreatment of animals, then we are not that far removed from accepting child and spouse abuse, neglect of the poor, and the destruction of our environment. Intolerance of cruelty is what makes us civilized.

Exactly right.  As far as I'm concerned, anyone who condones, minimizes or excuses this behavior in any way is seriously lacking a few chips to the empathy and compassion parts of their brains.

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