Michael Vick's Bonuses

This Week Michael Vick and his lawyers are dealing with whether or not he owes the Atlanta Falcons his signing bonuses. The hearing started today and will continue into next week.

I don’t know why this hearing is scheduled for a week; it’s an easy fix. Pay back the same percentage of games you will be missing. If Vick has completed 60% of his contract then he owes the Falcons 40% of his signing bonuses. How is this hard? If you promise to sign a contract with guaranteed a period time you will stay with the team, and it’s your fault that you can’t complete your promised time; then you obviously owe that team the money they gave you for making that promise.

The real issue is what should the Falcons do with the money Vick pays back? That’s easy for me as well. The Falcons have done nothing wrong in the issue with Vick; however people and organizations will always view them as somewhat responsible. The Falcons need to take Vick’s bonuses and donate them to two different groups.

The first Group should be a national Pit-bull Rescue Organization. Breed specific rescue agencies are non profit groups and rely solely on donations from people and organizations. The second organization should be the USSPCA. The national SPCA works like a rescue group, only they focus on all animals, not just dogs, or specific breeds of animals. The Falcons can save their image and actually grow from the experience if they take the time to say “We, as an NFL team, should have monitored our players more. We know that what has happened cannot be reverse, but our front office, our staff, and our players would like to commit to helping stop this from happening in the future. Our first step is donating Michael Vick’s bonuses to these to agencies.” Vick is done, I believe he should never play again, but the Falcons will grow and become a great team once more. They have enough money, why don’t they put some where it is needed.