Gonzo at least finally came to his senses and quit

[thatcrazycajun]

...but Atlanta Falcons QB and admitted dog-killer Michael Vick somehow hangs on to his job. Despite his admission and the indefinite suspension he got slapped with by the NFL, team owner Arthur Blank still refuses to consider firing him (though the team has announced it wants back all that signing-bonus cash they gave him). If Blank has half the sense God promised a chipmunk, he'll cut this scumbag loose before he becomes an even bigger liability to his team, the league and our city than he already is.

Comments

[wordwitch.livejournal.com]

You might be interested in the opinion piece by John Nichols of The Nation: Gonzales Goes But Investigation Must Continue.

I don't want Mr. Bush removed so much as I want him imprisoned for high crimes, misdemeanors, and foul treason. Impeachment is, in my opinion, not nearly enough.

Morals Vs Salary Cap

[scruffycritter.livejournal.com]

Matt,

Take this in the spirit I mean it:

Arthur Blank is doing the only thing he can do. He may have to spin it, but he's definitely not demonstrating anything near the "Chipmunk Brain" you seem to be implying he has.

It's a football/business decision. Often players who sign big contracts but turn out to be busts have to stick around for a while (see Ryan Leaf). Once they go through the motions of showing he violated the contract, they can recover the bonus from him, and only they can cut him without hurting the team's ability to sign players.

Here's the details on why:

Each player's annual salary and one Nth of his signing bonus counts against the team's salary cap (N being the number of years of his contract). If you cut the player before the contract is over, the "unrealized" part of the bonus "accelerates".

In other words if they cut Michael Vick now, not only would he still count against the cap next year, but he'll count WAY MORE than he would if they kept him because ALL of the unaccounted part of the signing bonus hits at once.

I want to say he had a 10 year contract and has played 2 years of it (I may be wrong), so cutting him results in a "cap hit" of 8/10 of 22 Million. So cutting Vick BEFORE recovering the bonus for contract violations means next year's Falcons need to make room for SIXTEEN MILLION DOLLARS of "dead money". If they have less than that free, they will need to cut OTHER PLAYERS.

Vick's presence on the roster may be a boat anchor, but it's better than the alternative.

Re: Morals Vs Salary Cap

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Joe, I am (I hope) taking your comments in the spirit you meant them. But with all due respect, it's easy for you to talk about salary-cap requirements and contractual minutiae; you haven't spent the past five years living in the city to which Vick has been such a colossal embarrassment, reading headline after headline about his run-ins with the law off field and assholery toward fans, officials, coaching staff and fellow professionals on field. And I'd be saying this even if his skin were as lily-white as mine.

I devoutly hope you're right and Blank is simply waiting to recoup the bonus cash before giving Vick the pink slip he so richly deserves; I'm just plain sick unto death of this turd-that-walks-like-a-man representing my city and its pro sports teams to the world. And I can't imagine Blank or any other owner wanting him as the face of the team and the sport -- not to mention the (cruddy) example he sets for young men and boys who look up to him, particularly those of his own race, who have more than enough to struggle against as it is. Were I Mr. Blank, I'd have shitcanned his sorry ass years ago, contract/cap or no.

Re: Morals Vs Salary Cap

[scruffycritter.livejournal.com]

I devoutly hope you're right and Blank is simply waiting to recoup the bonus cash before giving Vick the pink slip he so richly deserves

It's exactly what is happening. Blank's hands are tied. Say the other extreme was true: Blank is madly in love with Vick and still doesn't want to get rid of him. He can't even afford to do *that*. he's got a ton of his team's cap room tied up with a player who cannot get on the field.

I agree that Vick should have never been signed to that type of long term deal. That was as major of a mistake as anything, but once he got signed to it, it became impossible to cut him.

Were I Mr. Blank, I'd have shitcanned his sorry ass years ago, contract/cap or no.

Trust me. If you were Mr. Blank, someone would convince you to not do it. If you did, half of your players will ask to be released while Falcon fans would scream for your head because the maneuver would make the team uncompetitive for *years*. You'd have to cut 5 players to pay for dumping Vick. Oh, and you'd lose the ability to reclaim your $22 Million.

And someone would point out that as much as an evil human being that Vick is, the semantics of this don't mean anything anymore. All that's left is the accounting.

Vick's contract status is a formality at this point. Basically all it means is he's under contract to one team so he cannot sign with anyone else (as if anyone would hire him because he's suspended and going to jail and therefore unable to fufill the terms of an NFL contract). Once some paperwork is done to recoup back money he was paid b/c of the previous violations he has just admitted to, then his contract will go away. And that will probably happen in record time because even the Players Union has abandoned the idea of defending Vick (I'm kinda shocked by that myself, but there you have it).

In the mean time, he goes on a "reserve-suspended" list which gives the Falcons the ability to sign another player to replace him. He doesn't earn his salary. His bonus eats cap room, but that's about it.

Vick is Done. Releasing him now only hurts the Falcons. If you had a Tardis, you could have stopped the contract from being signed, but now that it's in effect, the process will give you exactly what you want.

Re: Morals Vs Salary Cap

[stevemb.livejournal.com]

I don't claim to understand the details of pro sports contracting, but that makes sense -- follow proper procedures, dot every "i" and cross every "t", and leave this sleazoid no loophole to ooze through.

Stories like this hit at a gut level. The two reasons that occur to me are 1)the obvious revulsion at the viciousness involved in dog-fighting and 2)disgust that someone who was set to make a hundred times what any or us are going to see from a lifetime of toil if he just steered clear from this kind of crap couldn't even manage to do that much.