First, Vick is trying to salvage what is left of his career. Any team that takes him is going to be saddled with bad PR.  

This info is from www.itchmo.com:

Sources close to Michael Vick are reporting that Vick's decision to take the prosecution's offer depends on whether or not the NFL will allow him to play again.

Vick is awaiting a decision from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell (pictured), who is conducting a separate investigation into whether Vick ran afoul of the league's conduct policy. If Goodell bans Vick for life for his participation in dog fighting or gambling, Vick is expected to take the case to trial in the hopes that an acquittal will allow him to play in the NFL according to the source.

The source also says if Vick is not handed a lifetime ban, Vick may take the plea deal in the hopes of a lenient sentence.

Several of his co-defendants are stating they will take the plea to try to get a more lenient sentence. The asses need to get the max and not ever be allowed to play sports again. Those dogs they killed and raised to fight that are still alive have little to no chance of getting adopted if they are not already euthanized. Bastards!!

Here are some past glorious sports folks who fought dogs and got caught:

Link

Vick isn't the first athlete to be connected to dogfighting. NBA player Qyntel Woods was accused of hosting dog fights at his Portland home in 2004 and he eventually pled guilty to first-degree animal abuse. Former NFL running back LeShon Johnson received a five-year deferred sentence in 2005 after officials seized 200 dogs during a raid of his dogfighting operation that led to 20 people being convicted. And former Dallas Cowboys lineman Nate Newton was arrested at a dogfight in Texas, although charges were later dropped.

Vick gained support from fellow NFL star Clinton Portis. The Washington Redskins and former University of Miami running back told an Atlanta TV station that he's familiar with dogfighting from his upbringing in rural Mississippi, and he doesn't see a problem if Vick is involved with dogfighting.

"I don't know if he was fighting dogs or not, but it's his property, it's his dog,'' Portis said. "If that's what he wants to do, do it. I think people should mind their business.''

Told that dogfighting is a felony, Portis said, "It can't be too bad of a crime.''

While many athletes never cross the line into dogfighting, they do acknowledge the appeal of owning intimidating dogs.

"The dog is going to be a reflection of the owner," said Dolphins linebacker Joey Porter, who has owned a pit bull and bull mastiff. "You grab a mutt off the street and you teach that mutt to be mean, then that mutt is going to be mean. ... I don't too much care for a passive dog."

Last September, while Porter was playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers, his dogs got out of the yard of his Pennsylvania home and mauled a neighbor's miniature horse, killing it. Porter was cited by police and later apologized to his neighbor.

In 1994, one of the pit bulls owned by NBA star Latrell Sprewell bit an ear off one of his daughters, who was 4 at the time.

So not only do they like to fight dogs, apparently they feel no compulsion to recognize dogs are intelligent and have feelings. After all they are just "mutts".

Here are some stats on dogifghting and gangs:

In a three-year study ending in 2004, Chicago police found that 59 percent of people involved in dogfighting were known gang members and nearly all of them - 86 percent - had been arrested at least twice.

In 2000, a pair of Palm Beach County Sheriff's deputies were arrested during a raid on a dogfight and later fired. Former deputies Reginald Mickins and Alton Harrell were reinstated but fired again after they were found dumping an injured pit bull that later died near Belle Glade.

"People don't wake up one day and say, 'I'm going to engage in this heinous crime, but I'm going to draw a line in the sand and be a model citizen the rest of the time,'''' Goodwin said.

Georgia's senator Rogers hopes Vick's will be a cautionary tale.

"You cannot accept dogfighting as part of civilized society," Rogers said. "Hopefully this helps bring the issue to light."

From Fox Sports (I know I know but only read this article hehe)

Link

The first time I heard about killer dogs was in relationship to Bears defensive tackle Tank Johnson and his backyard pit bulls. Besides guns, Johnson was also into dogs. Bears coach Lovie Smith talked Johnson into removing his dogs from his property.

Some NFL players like to live on the edge. Guns and fighting dogs. Those seem to be enticing outlets when there are no games to be played. To me, they are reckless pursuits that need to be checked at the NFL door. But fans must accept that there is a culture of violence among players that apparently has become acceptable.

Is it the high level of hormones these guys have, the huge amount of money they are paid or what? I mean, what could possibly make them want to watch dogs fight? If they need violence, have them fight each other!!

Dogfighting is unfortunately on the rise. I am not sure if it seems that way because there are more people being caught or if it is truly on the rise. I have seen however references to magazines and books you can buy to teach your dog how to fight etc. The fact that it is a big enough market to warrant subscription magazines disgusts me in itself.

Here is a website that is very informative on the history, legal background of dogfighting as well as the psychology of people who fight dogs and the lame excuses they make.

Link

The systematic desensitization of each new generation in high crime inner cities starts early on; there, most children are routinely exposed to dogfighting and are forced to accept the inherent violence as normal. The routine exposure of the children to unfettered animal abuse and neglect is a major contributing factor in their later manifestation of social deviance. "In many neighborhoods where gangs are strong, you now have 8-, 9-, 10-year-olds conducting their own dogfights. Or being spectators at the fights people are holding," said Sgt. Steve Brownstein of Chicago's Animal Abuse Control Team.[52] Indeed, for gangs, dog-fighting is a valuable tool to initiate young members into a culture of violence: "You want to find the perfect way to desensitize a kid so he'll kill that anonymous gangbanger from three blocks over? Give him a puppy and let him raise it. Then let him kill it. I guarantee that will desensitize that kid."[53] This early exposure to and participation in dog-fighting is of concern to law enforcement, not only as a child endangerment issue, but also because children that become desensitized to violence become criminalized and perpetuate that cycle of violence.

The professional fighters are demographically diverse and geographically diffuse, unlike the mid-level dog-fighters who operate primarily within specific regions. The mid-level fighters are considered hobbyists,[34] enthusiasts, or fanciers. They typically remain within a specific geographic network, are acquainted with one another, and tend to return to predetermined fight venues repeatedly.[35] There are both urban and rural networks of dogfighting enthusiasts and the fighting subcultures largely depend on the culture of the larger regional community. The enthusiasts, like the professional dogfighters, typically have extensive criminal backgrounds, but they may appear to be highly respected community figures.[36] Spectators at the fights range from hard core criminals[37] to high profile public figures[38] and from law enforcement agents[39] to families with children

It is extremely difficult for anyone besides dogmen to justify dogfighting. Law enforcement officials that penetrate the clandestine subculture are routinely sickened by the macabre blood sport. American culture has criminalized dogfighting and stigmatizes those deviant enough to engage in it. Our collective American consciousness is repulsed by dog-fighting with much the same disdain that we feel for child molesters. One study, published in Society and Animals, attempted offer a rare glimpse into the psyche of the prototypical dogman and to rationalize the behavior that to the rest of us is incontrovertibly perverse.[54] According to the study, there are five major techniques that dogmen employ to justify dogfighting: (1) denial of the victim; (2) denial of responsibility; (3) denial of injury; (4) appeal to higher loyalties; and (5) condemnation of the condemners.[55]

) Denial of the Victim: Most dogmen adamantly deny that the dogs are victimized by the culture of dogfighting. The dogs are glorified as fighting machines with insatiable blood-lust. High profile boxer-turned-convict, Will Grigsby, maintained that the dogs he fought were no more victims than the athletes in his profession. "To me, it's just like boxing. It's cruel if you put a pit bull on a poodle, or a pit bull on another pit bull that don't want to fight. But if you have two dogs that weigh the same amount in an organized dog fight, well, that's just like boxing

Denial of Responsibility: In an interview, one archetypal 'dogman' found moral vindication through denial, "We're not hurting anybody and the dog's love to fight, so what's the harm? If you could see the way the animals love it...you wouldn't think it was cruel

Denial of Injury: Many fighters claim that the dogs are treated well, both before and after the fights,[59] and what happens in the pit - well, "they enjoy fighting."[60] Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, some dogmen insist that "[i]t's not the blood and gore that people have been led to believe

Condemnation of the Condemners: Dogfighters often see themselves as a misunderstood group, victims of cultural genocide. "Dogfighting is a part of this culture. You don't change culture. It dies but it does not change. Dogfighting, cockfighting, fishing, hunting are all parts of our heritage. We have seen many intruders try to change us, it's always outsiders...but we are just ordinary folk who are different in some ways."[68] Dogfighting literature is often replete with juxtapositions of the bloodsport, religion, and patriotism: "God protect us against those enemies, foreign and DOMESTIC who would steal our Constitutional rights and our liberty! FREEDOM!"

Makes you sick reading this....
and Sen. Byrd actually made a speech on this on 7/30.

Link

He goes into graphic detail and you know Byrd is great in speeches.

Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars have all been at stake in the breeding, the training, and the selling of fighting dogs. How inhuman, how dastardly.

Two dogs are placed in a pit and turned loose -- turned loose -- against each other. How inhuman, how cannibalistic, how sadistic. Let me read that again.

Two dogs -- God created the dog to be man's companion -- two dogs are placed in a pit -- think of that -- placed in a pit and turned loose against each other. And get this: the fight can go on for hours. The fight can go on for hours. Do you hear me? The fight can go on for hours. The poor dogs literally bite and rip the flesh off one another, and bets as high as $50,000 are placed.

The brutality goes on until one of the poor dogs is seriously injured or killed. So the poor dog died -- died. The dog died. And for that reason, dog fighting is regarded as a blood sport. A blood sport. While bloody, Madam President, it is hardly a sport. Hardly a sport.

It is a brutal, sadistic event motivated by barbarism of the worst sort and cruelty of the worst sadistic kind. One is left wondering: who are the real animals -- the creatures inside the ring or the creatures outside the ring?

The depravity of dog fighting is a multimillion-dollar business that involves training innocent, vulnerable creatures to kill -- to kill -- and putting them in a ring to be killed or to kill for the entertainment and/or the profit of their owners and other spectators.

I have seen one individual in my lifetime electrocuted in the electric chair -- in my time. It is not a beautiful spectacle. So I can say I could witness another one if it involves this cruel, sadistic, cannibalistic business of training innocent and vulnerable creatures to kill.

Undercover investigators who have infiltrated the dog-fighting ring have found blood-soaked dogs with life-threatening injuries that are left to die as soon as they are no longer able to compete. Undercover investigators have found dogs with ripped ears, torn lips, genitals dangling from their bodies, eyes swollen shut, and faces riddled with punctures so severe that they were barely able to breathe. How inhuman, how inhuman, how sadistic

It links to youtubes so you can see the speech. You may not like the death penalty but I think Byrd is right on here. You kill animals, you do not deserve to live yourself.

Byrd's closing quote:

The immortal Dante tells us that Divine justice reserves special places in hell for certain categories of sinners. I am confident that the hottest places in hell are reserved for the souls of sick and brutal people who hold God's creatures in such brutal and cruel contempt.

HELLO YEAH SEN!! HELL YEAH!!