Michael Vick is banking on return to NFL

[Elano]

Michael Vick’s plan to climb out of bankruptcy partly depends on the suspended star suiting up again for the NFL after he gets out of prison.

The embattled Atlanta Falcons quarterback is hoping to earn as much as $10 million a year or more, according to court filings in his bankruptcy case. Under the plan he submitted to the court, Vick would keep the first $750,000 of his annual income over the next five years. After that, a percentage would go to his creditors based on a sliding scale.

Vick, who is nearing the end of a 23-month federal prison sentence for his role in a dogfighting conspiracy, could learn the fate of his bankruptcy plan this week. Bankruptcy Judge Frank J. Santoro is set to consider whether to confirm the plan at a hearing starting Thursday in Newport News, Va. Last week, Vick left federal prison in Leavenworth, Kan., for transport to Virginia for the hearing.

In a March 4 court filing, Vick’s attorneys say he “has every reason to believe upon his release, he will be reinstated into the NFL, resume his career and be able to earn a

substantial living.”

“He is hopeful to play quarterback,” Daniel Meachum, an attorney and business manager for Vick, said in an interview. “There is no person with his talent in that position in all the league.”

The NFL suspended Vick indefinitely in 2007 after the details of his plea deal in the dogfighting case became public. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell told USA Today last week that he wants to see true contrition from Vick before he considers lifting his suspension. Vick’s sports agent, Joel Segal, did not respond to requests for comment.

Gil Brandt, a senior analyst for NFL.com, predicted Goodell would give Vick another chance to play, possibly after sanctioning him again. But he said Vick, who holds the NFL single-season record for rushing yards by a quarterback, would stand a better chance of making a team at a different position such as running back.

“The guy is a talented player, but he is going to be away from football for at least three years,” said Brandt, former vice president of player personnel for the Dallas Cowboys. “I think it is very, very hard if you are a skill-position player like a quarterback to spend three years away from football and perform at the level that you performed before you were suspended.”

Vick, meanwhile, remains on the Falcons’ suspended roster. Last month, the team announced it was trying to trade him. In November, The Associated Press contacted the NFL’s other 31 teams about acquiring Vick. Most refused to comment, citing league tampering rules. However, six teams said they would not shut the door on acquiring Vick.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said the NFL should not reinstate Vick unless he passes a test showing he does not have an antisocial personality disorder.

“Michael has stated publicly that he thinks what he did was wrong and he is kind of reformed,” said Dan Shannon, a PETA assistant director. “But our feeling is that more than his word is needed at this point to show whether or not he understands what he did was wrong.”

On July 7, about seven months after he was sentenced to federal prison, Vick filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. He listed 30 creditors, including the Atlanta Falcons and the Internal Revenue Service. The largest of Vick’s creditors was Joel Enterprises with a claim of $4.5 million.

Andrew Joel, a Richmond sports agent, filed a lawsuit against Vick in 2006 claiming he reneged on an endorsement deal. As of December, Vick had $16 million in assets and $20.4 million in debts, court records show.

His efforts to clear his debts hit a hurdle last week when the U.S. Labor Department accused him of illegally spending about $1.3 million in pension plan funds for his own benefit, including paying his bankruptcy attorney and restitution ordered in his dogfighting case.

In a complaint filed in Vick’s bankruptcy case, the Labor Department alleges Vick and others violated federal employee benefits law by making a series of transfers — between March 2007 and July 2008 — from a pension plan sponsored by his celebrity marketing company MV7. The company sponsored a retirement plan for nine current and former employees. Vick failed to show his $1.3 million in debt to the plan in his bankruptcy filings, according to the complaint.

In addition, several of Vick’s creditors and other parties have filed objections to his bankruptcy reorganization plan, including the IRS, the Virginia Department of Taxation and the regional U.S. trustee’s office. Joel Enterprises filed a complaint Thursday alleging Vick transferred property and cash to relatives and friends in the year before he filed for bankruptcy to defraud his creditors. The complaint also alleges that Vick misrepresented his assets.

Vick’s bankruptcy attorneys did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

The hearing could last two days. Then Vick will head back to prison in Leavenworth, officials said.

Vick is scheduled to be released two months early from prison to home confinement on May 20 because there is no room available in local halfway houses, Meachum said. Vick will be sent to a house he owns in Hampton, Va.

“He has been the poster boy for all of the bad things about dogfighting and all the bad things about athletes, so he has a nervous energy,” said Meachum, who said he recently spoke with Vick by phone. “He wants to try to get his life together.”

[thisoneguy360]

If he doesn't play QB I could see him at WR but I bet someone will sign him as a QB

[Rick McCrank]

I hope some crazy PETA member blows his brains out

[S P I C E]

I hope some crazy PETA member blows his brains out

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

i bet SPICE would rather be raped by Bubba Sparxxx than be caught sporting a Michael Vick jersey

[S P I C E]

i bet SPICE would rather be raped by Bubba Sparxxx than be caught sporting a Michael Vick jersey

LOL why dont you go make another mess so your maid can clean it up for you

[Chamillitary Click]

i  Mike Vick (no homo).

hes the most entertaining football player to watch every week & i hope he comes back ASAP (as a QB too).

[Rick McCrank]

i bet SPICE would rather be raped by Bubba Sparxxx than be caught sporting a Michael Vick jersey

it's so cool to sport a Michael Vick jersey

I love when I see people with them, they're such hardcore rebels

[DJ SUGAFREE QUIK]

I hope some crazy PETA member blows his brains out

I like animals, but FUCK PETA!

[J Bananas]

I hope some crazy PETA member blows his brains out

word, then maybe finish themselves off too, one less asshole, one less hypocritical jerk off.

[Jaydc555]

Someone will sign him.theirs players in the league that have done a lot worse with less talent then vick.

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

i bet SPICE would rather be raped by Bubba Sparxxx than be caught sporting a Michael Vick jersey

LOL why dont you go make another mess so your maid can clean it up for you

damnnn! now thats a comeback!!!


LMAO

[Elano]

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP)—A lawyer for suspended NFL star Michael Vick told a bankruptcy court Thursday that the former Atlanta Falcons quarterback has lined up a construction job for when he gets out of prison.

Vick, 28, appeared in court for the first time in his bankruptcy case to explain to a judge how he plans to emerge from his financial problems. Before the hearing began, he turned around to wave and smile at family members sitting in the courtroom. He is expected to testify before the proceeding wraps up on Friday.

“You will hear from Mr. Vick his future intentions, how he’s going to change the way he lives his life,” his lawyer, Michael Blumenthal, told U.S. Bankrputcy Judge Frank J. Santoro.

Vick is serving a 23-month sentence for bankrolling a dogfighting ring, and his bankruptcy plan is based on the goal of returning to a professional football career. He briefly left a federal prison in Kansas to attend the hearing. He’s scheduled to be released from custody in July, but could be sent to home confinement in late May.

Blumenthal said when Vick is released, he plans to work 40 hours a week for a construction company. He did not disclose the wage or give any other details about the type of work that Vick will be performing.

Vick once was the NFL’s highest-paid player and among its most popular. But details about the brutality of Vick’s dogfighting enterprise enraged the public and helped destroy his finances, which court records show were already in serious disarray because of lavish spending and poor investments.

Earlier this week, Vick and the Falcons agreed that he would pay back $6.5 million of his Atlanta contract, moving closer to cutting ties with a team that doesn’t want him. But how and when Vick might begin a professional comeback isn’t clear. Vick was suspended indefinitely after his 2007 indictment, and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has said he will review Vick’s status after he is released.

A committee representing most of Vick’s unsecured creditors has endorsed his Chapter 11 plan because the alternative—a Chapter 7 liquidation of his assets — would not provide them any portion of his future earnings. But some other parties, including a former agent who won a $4.6 million judgment against Vick, opposed the plan.

Under his bankruptcy plan, Vick would keep the first $750,000 of his salary, and creditors would get part of any additional earnings.

Most objections to Vick’s bankruptcy plan have been resolved, his lawyer said.

Among them is the U.S. Labor Department’s complaint that Vick improperly spent $1.3 million from the pension plan of one of his companies, MV7, a celebrity marketing company. A settlement calls for Vick to waive his participation in the pension plan and restore some of the money.

Vick is eligible for transfer to home confinement with electronic monitoring around May 21. That would allow him to serve the last two months of his sentence at his Hampton home in eastern Virginia, one of two houses he would be allowed to keep under his bankruptcy plan.

[Chamillitary Click]

Someone will sign him.

just for the seats he would fill lol.

[Jaydc555]

I don't want him on the jets that's for sure.no Michael vick lead team will win a superbowl.*goes back to beating his dog mercilessly