Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick was officially indicted by a Federal grand jury yesterday for organizing, conducting, and participating in a dog fighting ring. Among the charges Vick faces are illegal gambling, training dogs for fighting, conspiracy, and taking the illegal enterprise across state lines.

The dogfighting operation was named “Bad Newz Kennels,” according to the indictment, and the dogs were housed, trained and fought at a Surry County, Virginia property owned by Vick.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has been very stern on the thugs of the NFL so far. Both PacMan Jones and Tank Johnson have been suspended this offseason by the commissioner - Jones’ suspensions came without a conviction.

So, this raises the question: Will Goodell suspend Vick, even without a conviction? In the spirit of fairness, he absolutely should. If you are going to set a precedent to your league, you need stick with it. David Stern and Bud Selig have let their sports get out of control to some degree and Goodell has made a concerted effort to nix that in the NFL.

But, there’s a catch… Michael Vick is a superstar. PacMan Jones is a very good player, but Vick is one of the faces of the league, and he has been for several years. Will he get the “superstar” treatment when it comes to whether or not his indicment will lead to a suspension? or will justice be served and will Vick be treated sternly and, more importantly, fairly by the new Commish?

Joey Harrington anyone?

We’ll just have to wait and see.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 18th, 2007 at 8:36 am and is filed under Football, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.