Like many legal cases involving athletes, Michael Vick is already guilty of hosting and sponsoring dog fighting in the peoples' minds, and tragically his reputation will be forever scarred.
One of the great parts about the United States is its legal system. People are innocent until proven guilty to a panel of jurors. Michael Vick however, has already been assumed guilty by the public, a mistake that is made too often when athletes run into trouble. Kobe Bryant was tried for a sexual abuse case and everyone changed their views of him, and even after the charges were dropped his reputation was negatively affected. In more recent news the Duke Lacrosse players were put through tremendous criticism, just to have the charges against them found false.
People should recognize that he is not necessarily guilty and wait for his conviction before jumping to conclusions. If he committed the alleged crimes, people will gain every right to judge him. However, if he did not, he will have been scarred by the peoples' premature conclusions about him, despite his innocence.
A large part of a big name athlete and their worth is their image. If companies find Michael Vick now carries a negative image, it will greatly take away from his net worth and marketability. I believe if we act to negatively hurt Michael Vick's image without seeing the evidence against him and before he is charged it would be going against this countries constitution.
If he is suspended by the NFL
before going through the due process, like has happened to some other players, they will be in big trouble if he comes out innocent, for he is a first time offender and their policies will be greatly criticized.
For the time being, it is best for the public and NFL to assume Michael Vick's innocence, for it would be a shame to see us repeat our mistakes and negatively impact him despite his innocence.
If it quacks like a duck......