Time Running Out on Falcons Quarterback, Michael Vick

When Nike's long-running ad campaign was conceived, I don't believe the company's creative types had dog fighting in mind when they came up with "Just Do It!"

Apparently, Michael Vick didn't get the memo.

What was he thinking? Not much apparently, as allegations are being revealed this week after the Atlanta Falcons quarterback and three others were indicted by a federal grand jury. The four were charged with competitive dogfighting, procuring and training pit bulls for fighting and conducting the enterprise across state lines.

Associated Press reports that the 18-page indictment, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, alleged the 27-year-old Vick and his co- defendants began the dogfighting operation in early 2001, the former Virginia Tech star's rookie year as the No. 1 pick.

Needless to say, Nike is holding back on the release of the Air Zoom Vick V sneaker -- its fifth branded footwear product with Michael.... Vick.

The NFL has been mum so far, which is kind of understandable since most of us still believe in due process. However, not when it comes to naming This Week's Top Scrooge...Michael Vick and your dog fighting buddies...tag, you're it!

I'm mainly giving this dishoner to Vick for the whole concept of organizing dog fights for thrills and profits. Now maybe I'm naive, or just not "street" enough to have known that this stuff is going on in the good ol' U.S. of A.

Wow! I mean, cock fights in Mexico or South America...ya, that is almost palatable. A third world country's sins are sometimes easier to rationalize. However, brutalizing dogs in your own backyard? Shouldn't that be news coming out of Iraq or something?

More from Associated Press:

While the Falcons and the NFL said little Tuesday, John Goodwin of the Humane Society of the United States said the details were especially troubling.

About eight young dogs were put to death at the Surry County home after they were found not ready to fight in April 2007, the indictment said. They were killed "by hanging, drowning and/or slamming at least one dog's body to the ground."

"Some of the grisly details in these filings shocked even me, and I'm a person who faces this stuff every day," Goodwin said. "I was surprised to see that they were killing dogs by hanging them, and one dog was killed by slamming it to the ground. Those are extremely violent methods of execution-they're unnecessary and just sick."

Purses for the fights ranged from hundreds of dollars to the thousands, and participants and spectators often placed side bets on the outcome, according to the indictment.

After two Bad Newz Kennels dogs lost fights in March 2003, the indictment alleged Vick gave a bag containing $23,000 to the owner of the winning dogs.

Sorry, animal lovers, even though this whole deal sounds horrific to me, I'm not sure there is a doggie heaven.

I will say this: cruelty is cruelty and anything permeating your life in any form of evil, remotely or directly, is something you would be better off avoiding at all cost.

Of course, there are worse sins in this world, but I am not going to join PETA and the Humane Society and make this case a flash point for making pit bull rights my lifelong cause.

Nope...just a case for This Week's Top Scrooge!