The same guy that took hundreds of millions of dollars fan dollars through the NFL and sponsors, and then used that money to buy dogs for dog fighting and gambling wants $10 million per year to play again. 

The former Atlanta Falcons quarterback is hoping to earn as much as $10 million a year or more, according to court filings in his bankruptcy case. Under the plan he submitted to the court, Vick would keep the first $750,000 of his annual income over the next five years. After that, a percentage would go to his creditors based on a sliding scale.  ajc.com

It would appear that Michael Vick missed his true calling.  He should scrub the idea of going back to work in the NFL and try and get a job at AIG.  Are you half surprised that he doesn’t want bail out money too?  He does have to pay off the debt from the wreckage of bad business deals, lies, and broken promises that he left in his wake.  Why shouldn’t the government step in and help him if he is so important to the future of the NFL after all?

Even if you buy the argument of whether or not Michael Vick is theoretically worth $10 million per year based on his former skills multiplied by about 2-3 years of the field and in confinement, the reality is that he’s not worth $50,000 per year.  (not unless Vick is paying $50,000 a year to play!)

Vick is heading to his bankruptcy trial on Thursday, afterwards, he will be returned to prison until May when he will be released on home arrest to one of his remaining mansions. 

There are many many fans, dog lovers, and dog loving, fans that do not want to see Michael Vick return to the NFL based on what he did.  I doubt even Michael Vick would want to place a bet on how many blue collar workers that were out raged by the bonuses paid to Wall Street (bonuses that were a lot lower than a salary of $10 million per year) are going to be outraged when Michael Vick, convict, can step out of prison and sign a deal with their fan money for $10 million. 

That’s the thing that some people don’t quite get.  They say, the man served his time for killing dogs, let him go back to work.  Well like banks getting bailed out with tax payer money, the NFL and their sponsors like Nike, live on something very similar to tax payer money, its called fan money.  And all of our fan money, hundreds of millions of dollars that went to Michael Vick helped him do what he did, kill the dogs that he did, hang out with other people that killed dogs too across multiple states, and promoted a criminal atmosphere that led to the murder of one of Vick’s dog suppliers and owner opponent in the rings.  The NFL didn’t fully experience the start of the financial crisis last year.  After all Wall Street banks were still throwing $700,000 NFL parties on location during football games with taxpayer money.  But times have changed a lot since the NFL season ended. 

The NFL is inviting a severe fan dollar backlash if they allow Vick back in the league with a salary that would make a Wall Street fat cat drool and sell an asset backed security to any given small town for 10x its value.  The NFL can let Vick back in within an environment where fans can’t afford to go to the games as much nor spend as much while they are there and where advertisers are cutting back left and right.  The NFL can bring him back, but it is a very bad strategic move.  It will be bad for business and bad for football.

Michael Vick took our fan money and committed those crimes, and now he wants $10 million per year from us to pay for the things he should have paid for with the first few hundred million dollar he took from us.  Plus, he wants to pocket $750k per year just for himself.  Do you have $10 million or even an extra $750k lying around to waste, and even if you did, do you really want to spend it so that Michael Vick can go play a football game to maintain mansions in two states and a $2 million penthouse condo in South Beach?

If you say yes, while you are at it would you vote a corrupt politician back into office after serving their time in prison to get a fat tax payer funded salary?  Obviously, many of us would not and we do want to see Michael Vick do essentially the same with a fan funded salary for $10 million.  If Obama can’t bailout the Big three automakers, then why should fans, especially those looking at a future on the unemployment roles bail out Michael Vick, a man that has proven he’s not to big to fail, but can’t quite seem to prove that he’s big enough to survive with out hand outs from fans. 

As crazy as it sounded, it was actually very reasonable for US Bankruptcy Judge Frank Santoro to decide that

• Michael Vick did need to show up for his own bankruptcy hearing
• That Vicks demeanor could not be determined via video as the US government wanted, and
• That Michael Vick would have to pay for himself to be transported from prison to Virginia for the hearing.
• source: Judge: Vick must appear at hearing, pay for travel

Vick was also not able to find any bidders at auction for his $3.2 million mansion in Atlanta.

Vick will likely end up on home confinement in the near future, and could be available to play football in the UFL or the NFL. 

We here still feel that Michael Vick should not be allowed back into the NFL, where he earned millions of dollars from fans only to use that money to kill dogs and engage in illegal gambling activities.  He may have paid for his crimes to the government, but there is no reason why NFL fans should throw more good money after a bad apple that squandered our good will.