Everyone can agree that Michael Vick is sick, but its becoming increasingly clear that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is either as sick, maybe even more.  Michael Vick admitted his guilt to killing dogs with his bare hands, torturing them, running illegal gambling rings bringing more people into a criminal lifestyle and setting and overall terrible example for kids.

Roger Goodell is possibly worse.  He’s like the kingpin drug pusher of the NFL enabling violent felons from Christian Peter – sexual assault, Lawrence Phillips – violent domestic abuse, Leonard Little – killed a woman with a car, Jamal Lewis- drugs, Ray Lewis, obstruction of justice in a murder case, Michael Vick, Tank Johnson, Pac-Man Jones, Donte Stallworth, manslaughter, Plaxico Burress almost shot a bar tender, did shoot himself, lied about it.

The NFL needs a rule that prevents people convicted of violent crimes from playing in the league.  That’s it, end of story, one strike and you are out permanently.  But instead Roger Goodell promotes criminal behavior by not providing any substantive penalty.  Kill some dogs, kill a person, ‘OK well you are going to miss a few games, but we’ll let you come back and make millions of dollars after you sit on the bench for a while.’

That’s the problem with Roger Goodell, he thinks that benching a player and then providing them a financial reward after benching them for committing a violent crime is going to do anything to prevent other players from engaging in violent behavior.  That’s not a deterrent.  Its almost a reward!

But of course, that is not enough for Roger Goodell, he not only wants to provide financial rewards for criminal behavior, he wants to make a buck off of it, while laughing at the victims.  Below you can see what the NFL is offering on their website today (August 21, 2009) after Michael Vick was convicted of dog fighting, after Roger Goodell allowed him back into the NFL, after The Eagles hired Michael Vick for $6.8 million.  The NFL.com is selling Jerseys on their website with Michael Vick’s name on it FOR DOGS!

What’s next Roger Goodell?  Are you going to sell NFL bumper stickers saying, “NFL Players don’t brake for people in intersections”  or sell thongs to rape victims with an NFL logo above the words saying “You were just asking for it” or will the NFL sell brass knuckles online with the engraving, “Women Don’t Back Talk NFL Players!”

Seriously, Roger Goodell, you are sick and twisted and part of the problem.  If you can’t take charge of the NFL and turn it into a decent place again, your time is long over due to leave.

Ed Sayres, the President and CEO of the ASPCA described in detail why he and the ASPCA specifically chose NOT to partner nor work with Michael Vick, despite requests from Vick and his entourage.  We would highly encourage reading this article in full, but wanted to share some of the key excerpts.  Our effort, site and campaign are also NOT partnered with the ASPCA, we have not contacted them and vice versa, but we DO respect their decision not to help promote the criminal in this particular case.

Several months ago, Mr. Vick’s PR representatives approached the ASPCA to help educate America about the heinous act of dog fighting following his release from prison. We were the first animal welfare organization given the opportunity to work with Mr. Vick but immediately turned him down due to the unique knowledge we had of his indescribable and barbaric acts of animal cruelty where he and his associates savagely electrocuted and beat dogs to death after they lost their brutal fights.

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The ASPCA’s general consultation and our specific role in processing the forensic evidence in this case were key elements that resulted in Mr. Vick and the three other defendants all pleading guilty to felony crimes.

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the ASPCA wants to make clear why this organization chose not to partner with him in his supposed rehabilitation efforts. We are simply not convinced that Mr. Vick has demonstrated compassion toward animals as living beings or the necessary remorse for his criminal actions against them.

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CBS did a grave disservice to the animal welfare community by failing to show the ugly truth of Mr. Vick’s actions and the horrors of dog fighting and animal cruelty in this country. The continued attention paid to Mr. Vick is only reinforcing that criminal behavior does not destroy fame and fortune.

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Although Mr. Vick has served his time and is now entitled to employment, the ASPCA was strongly against him being able to immediately re-join the NFL, to play alongside highly paid elite athletes who are looked upon as our heroes and role models.

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The ASPCA believes in second chances — in redemption — but that second chance has to be earned through contrition, conversion to the cause of animal welfare and finally, through hard work. Mr. Vick has only now begun his journey toward a second chance.

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Will Mr. Vick have learned something — and taken the opportunity he has been granted to impart to his legion of fans the importance of compassion toward animals? Certainly, only time will offer us an answer — but we will be watching.

  As a small business owner you struggle and toil to build up your business.  Growing trust and customer relationships and trying to reach a critical mass of both success and from a marketing perspective, perceived success are vital to your future.  So it is understandable that when you take a big financial gamble and invest a large sum of money to sponsor an NFL team like the Philadelphia Eagles.  If you are a company like TastyKakes, you are really hoping to capitalize on the goodwill of the team, its great players like Donovan McNabb and maybe even the prestige that is associated with the NFL.   

What you do NOT expect is to be blind sided by having your marketing dollars go towards funding part of Michael Vick, infamous bare handed dog killer, and his new 2 year $6.8 million deal while he’s fresh out of prison and still on parole!

Unless you are in the business of selling knock off Jerseys, no small business owner in their right mind would want to be within a million miles of Michael Vick.

Tastykakes are no fly by not operation that is looking to make a quick buck on a marketing campaign either.  They have been around for almost 100 years in the Philadelphia history and have a lot of past success with other American past times such as sponsoring the Phillies and the Philadelphia Flyers in the NHL.

Even Janet Evanovich has helped ad to their fame and mystique by featuring their products in almost every Stephanie Plum novel written.  Stephanie Plum is a female bounty hunter with a hamster named Rex and an inherited dog named Bob.

So what do you do when your local team that you recently started sponsoring hires the NFLs most infamous and unliked player straight out of prison?

Tastykake has invested a lot of time and marketing and planning in their Eagles campaign.  Everything from graphic design work to gift tins for their products.  They sponsor a number of charitable organizations, and in general seem like a good company (healthiness of their products aside).  Now despite their modest history, they have grown into a sizable business grossing over $250 million per year, which explains their financial ability to back the Eagles in addition to other local sports teams.

But that money hasn’t necessarily prepared them for other modern challenges in marketing, such as establishing social media profiles, updating their website or keeping things running smoothly with a tight communications plan.  Typically, they shouldn’t need to, they sell snack foods!

But now those $250 million in Tastykake snack food sales are helping to line the pockets of a guy with a 6 year history of running illegal gambling operations who tortured dogs and fought them to the death.

So if you are the Tasty Baking Company making Tastykakes and the Eagles blind side you with this bad press snafu, what do you do?  Do you back the Eagles and hope that the king of dog fighters working in a city with a troubled history of dog fighting, might not rub off on your brand?  Do you hope against hope that your product does not become the emblem of a boycott like disco records burned at ball fields in the late 70’s & early 80’s?

Do you take action and get in front of the negative public reaction, remove your sponsorship from the Eagles and possibly win some good PR for being the first company to drop the Eagles and Michael Vick like the bad will magnet that he is? 

The AP broke a story indicating that all the Philadelphia sponsors are currently sticking with Michael Vick and the Eagles.  Most of those very large billion dollar a year generating companies can afford to hedge their bets a little bit, but Tastykake is based in the heart of Philadelphia, they even sponsored the Eagles’ blog.

But that sponsorship disappeared yesterday (not all sponsorships, just the mention on the blog).  Some Michael Vick protesters have sent us accounts of their discussions with Tastykake employees, who were extremely troubled by the Eagles hiring of Michael Vick.  They indeed felt blind sided, but their reaction seems to initially be coming out right at the same time that the larger press would have us believe that the world doesn’t care about Michael Vick, that fans don’t care what Michael Vick has done, and that sponsors are still willing to pay Michael Vick and his team money.

I don’t know where this is going yet, but I do know this.  We’ve been working on this effort for over 2 years here at Sackvick.net.  We are growing in scope and organization.  While Michael Vick was in prison many parts of our efforts were dormant, but the community has been rudely re-awakened by his rapid reinstatement back into the NFL with almost no review of his actions.  Michael Vick has literally done almost nothing to fix the problems he created with his 6 year dog fighting operation.  Yet the NFL and now the Eagles are very quick to give him a pass and try to make a buck. 

We have no quarrel with their financial goals, but as fans of the NFL we surely do not need to support an organization that so crudely slaps us in the face by hiring Michael Vick and that extends also to companies that would sponsor the Philadelphia Eagles so that they can pay Michael Vick $1.6 million this year and $5.2 million next year.  That’s just ludicrous.

As a small business owner myself, I hope that the Tasty Baking Company ultimately makes the right choice.  They are a company built on a 100 years of goodwill, it doesn’t make business sense for them to spend money on the Eagles only to shovel their goodwill into a whole to cover up the crimes that Michael Vick has committed.  Michael Vick is a goodwill money pit.  A lot of sponsors got burned to the tune of $130 – $250 million gambling on Michael Vick, and all he had to do was stay out of trouble.  He knew better, he had won the golden ticket, the lottery and much more, but even knowing that he couldn’t stop himself from killing and torturing dogs for fun. 

Throwing good money after a bad apple that makes decisions that poorly is crazy.