When Enough is enough

We've all heard that old saying that "No news is good news" and in Micheal Vick's case, boy is that ever true. For anyone that has been living in a cave, here's the story: Vick was indicted and plead guilty to funding a dog fighting organization on some property that he owns in Virginia. He will be sentenced in December and could get up to five years in prison. He has also now been charged on state charges for the same offense and could get additional time in a state penitentiary. He was suspended by the NFL indefinitely, lost all of his endorsement deals worth several million dollars a year, has been sued by two different banks for about 5 million dollars because he has lost his job, his now on house arrest because he violated the terms of his bail by failing and drug test and this week was ordered by an arbitrator to repay almost $20 million back to the Atlanta Falcons that was paid to him as a signing bonus. There are now some reports out of Washington that the Feds are considering going after some of Vick's "assets" such as property by trying to link them to the dogfighting ring and stating that they were the proceeds of criminal activity. And you thought you were having a bad month or two!!! What makes some of this laughable is what makes anyone think that Vick even has $20 million to pay back? His legal bills are already estimated to be over the $2 million mark and with the state trial looming, those are only going to grow. He is not receiving a paycheck from the NFL and all of his endorsement money is gone, probably forever. Many of us worry about ever being able to retire and at this rate, Vick is going to have to try and play football until he is 60 in order to pay this money back, that is if anyone will ever have him back. Vick has certainly created these problem for himself. The downturn started last year with the flipping off of the crowd after a loss, the water bottle incident at the Miami airport and the public perception of Vick being just another athlete/thug with too much money and not enough principle. All the more shame because Vick was actually one of the pretty good guys in the NFL. He has donated substantial monies to his alma mater, Virginia Tech, to improve their athletic facilities and athletic programs. He had been very active in the Atlanta community with charitable organizations and from all reports, was one of several NFL players that would visit children's hospitals during away games to chat with kids and sign autographs. But to many people, none of that matters right now, and that's the real tragedy of all this. There are several groups out there that have tried to turn this into a black vs. white issue, which has hurt Vick immensely. This isn't about color, it's about poor choices but it is also about our ability as both a nation and as human beings to forgive and move on. Jamal Lewis, Leonard Little, Ray Lewis, Ron Artest, Allan Iverson, Tank Johnson and the list goes on are some of Vick's criminal predecessors that received FAR less punishment for far worse crimes. I have said it before and I shall say it again: Vick didn't take a human life, he didn't sell drugs to kids, he didn't shoot up a school, he didn't take the life savings of hundreds of thousands of people, he didn't even create a fake war to achieve his own ends. He made some poor decisions and now he must pay for them. My question is, how big are the payments and when do they end?