What did Michael Vick get convicted of?

Michael Dwayne Vick is a former American football quarterback. Regarded as having transformed the quarterback position with his rushing abilities, he is the NFL leader in quarterback rushing yards and was the league’s first quarterback to rush for 1,000 yards in a season.

Vick played college football at Virginia Tech, where he received first-team All-American honours, and was selected first overall by the Atlanta Falcons in the 2001 NFL Draft. As a member of the Eagles for five years, he enjoyed his greatest statistical season in 2010, earning him Comeback Player of the Year and a fourth Pro Bowl selection.

In his final two seasons, Vick played one year each for the New York Jets and Pittsburgh Steelers, primarily as a backup. He officially retired in 2017 after spending the entirety of the 2016 season as a free agent.

What did Michael Vick get convicted of?

In July 2007, Vick and three other men were indicted on federal felony charges of operating an unlawful interstate dog fighting venture known as “Bad Newz Kennels”.

Michael Vick, a star quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons, formally pleads guilty before a Richmond, Virginia, judge to a federal felony charge related to running a dogfighting ring. That December, the 27-year-old Vick, once the highest-paid player in the NFL, was sentenced to 23 months in federal prison.

In April 2007, law-enforcement officials raided a 15-acre property owned by Vick in rural Surry County, Virginia, and discovered dozens of pit bulls, some of them neglected, along with evidence of illegal dogfighting activities.

All four men pled not guilty to the charges. However, Vick’s three co-defendants later changed their pleas to guilty and agreed to testify that the quarterback had participated in the execution of a number of dogs and had bankrolled the gambling and operating funds for the venture, known as Bad Newz Kennels, which had reportedly been in existence for about five years.

Animal-rights organizations as well as the public expressed outrage against Vick and the barbaric details of the case—dogs that underperformed in fights were put to death by such means as drowning, electrocution and hanging.

On August 27, Vick, the Falcons’ starting quarterback since 2002, pled guilty to one count of “conspiracy to travel in interstate commerce in aid of unlawful activities and to sponsor a dog in an animal fighting venture.” Vick, who in 2004 signed a record 10-year, $130 million contract with the Falcons, was suspended indefinitely without pay by the NFL and lost his lucrative endorsement deals.

In December 2007, a judge sentenced Vick to 23 months in federal prison. Because the judge believed the football player had refused to accept responsibility for his actions (Vick failed a drug test after his August 2007 guilty plea and also flunked a lie-detector test about his role in the executions of underperforming dogs), the sentence was stiffer than the 12 months to 18 months suggested by federal guidelines.