RICHMOND, Va. -- NFL star quarterback Michael Vick pleaded guilty yesterday to a dogfighting charge, then took his first steps toward what he hopes will be redemption. Saying "I need to grow up," the quarterback apologized to the league and to the "young kids that I've let down who look at Michael Vick as a role model."
His hands thrust deep into his suit pockets and his voice almost too soft to register above the clicking of camera shutters, Vick offered "my deepest apologies to everyone" for "using bad judgment and making bad decisions" related to a dogfighting ring he admitted bankrolling in which underperforming pit bills were drowned or hanged.
"Dogfighting is a terrible thing, and I didn't reject it," Vick said during a speech delivered from the ballroom of a downtown hotel shortly after entering his plea at the U.S. courthouse a few blocks away. "I will redeem myself. I have to."
Vick repeatedly replied "Yes, sir" and "No, sir" as U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson asked him whether he understood his plea. Hudson set Vick's sentencing for Dec. 10.
The judge emphasized that he was not bound to an agreement Vick reached with prosecutors recommending that he receive a year to 18 months in prison in return for cooperating with federal authorities. The conspiracy charge carries a maximum five-year term.
"You're taking your chances here," Hudson said. "You're going to have to live with whatever decision I make."
Billy Martin, one of Vick's lawyers, said: "We hope that Judge Hudson will see the real Mike Vick." He said all that is visible now is "an aberration."
Experts characterized yesterday's proceedings and apology as the beginning of a period of atonement for the Atlanta Falcons player. In just a few months, he has fallen from a celebrity athlete making millions of dollars in salary and endorsements to a scorned perpetrator in the view of many. Vick, 27, said because of the case he has "turned my life over to God."
Yellow police tape and barricades kept several hundred demonstrators and the media away from the stone courthouse yesterday before Vick arrived. "All Dogs Will go 2 Heaven. Will Vick?" said one placard.
Brooke Slater, a physical therapy student from Richmond, was one of the demonstrators. She carried a placard featuring a color sketch of an oversized dog holding a leash tied around Vick's neck. "No dog would do this to a human," it read.
