Obviously Vick wasn't going to strike a plea bargain, because admitting guilt would cost him a lot more than a fine and jail time. As it is, Nike is already scooting away from Vick so fast there's burn marks on the company's ass. He had to know he couldn't afford to take a deal, and so he quite simply didn't. From there he had to wait and hope nobody decided to plead guilty and take a deal.

Here comes the hammer.

Now here's the thing with this plea deal. Tony Taylor (not our undrafted rookie linebacker) could do a few different things here. The federales will want him to give up Vick, because he's obviously the biggest prize. If Taylor simply doesn't have anything to say because Vick is innocent, then this move means nothing. In the seemingly more likely case that Taylor rolls over and gives up Vick...well, his career's going to be the least of his concerns.

Vick has now become a leper from a public relations standpoint. In his new squeaky clean league where nobody gets reinstated, there's a snowball's chance in hell that Goodell will let Vick play this season. The guy is hyper-committed to cleaning up the sport's image problem (which for some reason wasn't all that pronounced to begin with), and he's not going to submarine our beloved franchise by letting Vick hang around it. The question then is how he's going to prevent it and when he's going to do it. If Goodell wants to suspend Vick, he's going ot have to do it before the season opens. With that likelihood now seeming depressingly likely, Pet Rhino might as well throw out all the pages he had Vick penciled in for.

I, for one, have to welcome our new Joey Harrington overlord.