The Scores Report - The National Sports Blog » Michael Vick rumors

Report: Vick can’t leave the state of Pennsylvania

Anthony Stalter — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 14:54:19 +0000

According to a report by ESPN.com, probation officials have barred Michael Vick from traveling out of Pennsylvania in the wake of a shooting that occurred last month outside of a club following his 30th birthday party.

Vick, who must have his travel plans approved, missed schedule appearances this weekend at a football camp in Baltimore and a golf tournament in Atlanta as he stayed in Philadelphia, Judy Smith told WCAU-TV, an NBC affiliate.
While the situation is not unusual as a possible probation violation is investigated, it was unclear how it could impact Vick’s travel with the Eagles this season. The team’s training camp is set to start in full July 29 at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., 60 miles north of Philadelphia.

The lead city prosecutor in Virginia Beach, Va., said Wednesday that Vick was involved in a confrontation before the shooting.

That would be interesting if Vick couldn’t travel on the road this season with the Eagles because he has to stay in the state of Pennsylvania. Something tells me it won’t come to that (I would think that Vick would get the ok to go on the road for “work”), but it’s an interesting situation that is worth following over the next couple of months.

Police identify shooter in Vick investigation

Anthony Stalter — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 22:52:01 +0000

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer & Daily News, the Virginia Beach Police have identified who shot Quanis Phillips the night of Michael Vick’s 30th birthday party and also announced that the Eagles’ quarterback is not a suspect.

The police have identified the shooter, but cannot charge the suspect because the victim and various witnesses have been uncooperative. The statement went on to say that there are no other suspects, including Vick.

Here’s the Virginia Beach police statement in its entirety, released by spokesman Adam Bernstein:

“Investigators were able to determine the identity of the shooter. Unfortunately because of the lack of cooperation from the victim, coupled with the reluctance of witnesses, the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office, upon reviewing all of the evidence, has determined that no charges will be filed in this case at this time. Because the suspect will not be charged, his identity cannot be released by police. There are no other suspects in this case, including Michael Vick.”

It appears that Vick is in the clear, although don’t forget that at one point during his dog fighting investigation it seemed as if he was going to dodge punishment, too. I doubt the Eagles will release him at this point, but you never know.

My question is, will the league take action against him for associating with Phillips, who was one of the co-defendants from his dog fighting case? If they do, it’s going to be pretty hard for Roger Goodell to determine that Phillips wasn’t just an unwanted guest crashing the party. And in that case, Vick did nothing wrong.

Vick to be released? Eagles say no.

Anthony Stalter — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 00:16:37 +0000

Despite a report by the Associated Press on Saturday morning that stated otherwise, the Eagles are not considering releasing quarterback Michael Vick according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Chris Mortensen. Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer also denied the rumor.

Earlier today, the AP reported that a person familiar with the “team’s thinking” said that the Eagles were strongly considering releasing Vick. The report even went as far as to say that Vick would be released, “no matter what police conclude during their investigation of a shooting that followed the quarterback’s birthday celebration in Virginia Beach last week.”

But the only thing the Eagles released was a statement that denied the report.

“Any report or speculation that suggests the Eagles are considering releasing Vick are not true.”

Truth be told, if the Eagles eventually do release Vick (maybe they’re waiting to see what the outcome of this investigation is before deciding anything either way) nobody would blame them. They don’t need this one month before training camp opens, especially when it involves a backup player with a history of off-field issues. That said, it sounds as if the AP released a bogus report thanks to an unreliable source and we’ll just see what happens.

For now, Vick’s job seems safe in Philadelphia.

Police change their tune, not ready to rule Vick out as a person of interest in shooting

Anthony Stalter — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 20:30:35 +0000

Michael Vick isn’t out of the woods yet. He was a person of “no interest” to police in the shooting of Quanis Phillips, but video surveillance taken the night of the incident has put his involvement in question.

Vick told police that he was “long gone” by the time the shooting took place outside a club in which he was celebrating his 30th birthday late last week. But video shows him leaving the club just three minutes before the shooting took place, which casts some doubt in what the quarterback said in interviews with authorities.

Now police don’t know what to call Vick, according to the Philadelphia Daily News. They’re not ready to deem him a suspect or even an accomplice to the shooting, but as they’re gathering more facts, they’re changing their tune in terms of whether or not he’s a person of interest.

“Right now, we don’t really have a title for him,” police spokesman Adam Bernstein told the Daily News yesterday.

“We didn’t know anything” when they were asked Friday morning about their interest in Vick’s involvement in the shooting, Bernstein said.

“Since then, we have viewed this video. And more people have come forward, giving information,” Bernstein said.

The Daily News is also reporting that Vick’s federal probation officer in Norfolk is also investigating the incident as well to see if the quarterback was in violation of his probation. So even if Vick isn’t charged by the police for having a connection in the shooting, it doesn’t mean that he will escape all punishment.

And wouldn’t that be something. It’s been roughly a year since he was released from prison and he’s already in hot water again with the law.

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Did Michael Vick lie to investigators about when he left party?

Anthony Stalter — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 17:15:46 +0000

Michael Vick and his attorney may have some explaining to do about the details surrounding the night Quanis Phillips was shot.

According to Vick’s lawyer, Larry Woodward, Phillips (a co-defendant in Vick’s dog fighting case) was an uninvited guest at the quarterback’s party. Woodward also states that Vick was “long gone” before Phillips was shot in the leg, but surveillance video suggests otherwise.

From the Philadelphia Daily News:

Allen Fabijan, a spokesman for the bar-restaurant, the Guadalajara, told the Daily Press, of the Newport News-Hampton area, that the video was turned over to Virginia Beach police yesterday morning. Fabijan told the newspaper that Vick “and his entourage” were in two cars that left the front of the restaurant at 2:07 a.m. He said shots rang out 3 minutes later.

“I’m not saying that Michael Vick did the shooting. But he did not leave [long] before,” Fabijan said.

Woodward, reached yesterday by the Daily Press, said: “I stand by what I said, that Michael was long gone before the shooting, does not know who did the shooting and had nothing to do with the shooting. Anyone who says any different better be very careful.”

The plot thickens.

Vick (or more specifically, his attorney) isn’t the only one on record saying that he was long gone before the shooting, as Falcons’ receiver Roddy White also supports those claims. Could this be a situation of mistaken identity or is Vick/Woodward lying about when the quarterback left the party?

Either way, it still doesn’t mean that Vick was involved in the shooting or knows who pulled the trigger. But if video surveillance disproves his story, then this could open up an entirely new can of worms.

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More trouble for Michael Vick?

Anthony Stalter — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 22:51:23 +0000

The Philadelphia Inquirer is reporting that Michael Vick is not a suspect in an incident that occurred early this morning that resulted in a man named Quanis Phillips being shot outside a nightclub in Virginia. Vick had been celebrating his 30th birthday at the restaurant/club sometime before the shooting occurred.

The police have stated that they have no interest in Vick, but that doesn’t mean he won’t face punishment from the NFL. When commissioner Roger Goodell reinstated Vick last July, part of the deal was that Vick wasn’t supposed to associate with anyone from his days as a dog fighter. And Phillips was just one of the people that Vick had a close “business relationship” with when he owned Bad Newz Kennels. Goodell also announced upon Vick’s reinstatement that the quarterback’s margin for error was “extremely limited.”

Falcons’ receiver Roddy White, who was apparently with Vick earlier in the night, said that the two of them had left the party before the shooting took place. Said White: “I don’t know what’s going to go on with that or whatever, but we didn’t have anything to do with it.”

Not many details are available right now, so we can only speculate about what transpired leading up to the shooting. Maybe Phillips was there without Vick’s knowledge or arrived to the restaurant after the quarterback had left. Who knows?

But the mere fact that Vick’s name is being brought up in relation to another off-field incident is troubling to say the least. It sounds as if he did nothing wrong and wasn’t involved in the shooting. It also isn’t a crime to celebrate your birthday with your friends, although if one of those friends is an old acquaintance that helped you set up an illegal dog-fighting ring, then that’s a problem. And if Phillips was invited to the party, then Vick’s decision-making is yet again up for criticism.

Check back for more details on this developing story.

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Vick still thinks he can be dangerous, wants to start

Anthony Stalter — Tue, 25 May 2010 20:00:08 +0000

Michael Vick told the Philadelphia Inquirer that he still has visions of being a starter in the NFL and thinks teams we see that they missed on a golden opportunity to trade for the former No. 1 overall pick in the offseason.

“Actually, I understood because I’d been out of football,” Vick said Monday after a workout at the NovaCare Complex. “I didn’t play behind a center for three years. I know how good I am. The [Eagles] coaches know how good I am. I know I could have landed some place, but it wasn’t meant to be.”

“Being a competitor, you always want to start,” Vick said. “I know in my future that’s there for me. I’ll be a starter in this league again. Right now, I’m just having fun honing my skills.”

“My skills are back,” Vick said. “I’m ready. I’m faster than I’ve ever been before. I’m quicker, light on my feet. So I guess somebody missed out this time around. But I’ll make it work here, and they’ll see.”

“When I get back to [practicing more], I’m going to be dangerous,” Vick said. “That’s all I can say. I’ll be dangerous.”

Vick had a fair amount of success in Atlanta due to his athletic abilities alone, but there were more than a handful of games in which he lost because he couldn’t read a defense. He wasn’t prepared for situations late in the fourth quarter when he needed to make a play against a good team that had the ability to bottle him up. Monte Kiffin used to make him look like a fool twice a year when the Falcons played the Buccaneers because Vick didn’t know how to adjust mentally.

The problem with Vick has never been his athletic ability. It’s always been with him taking that next step as a quarterback and as a student of the game. If he has changed, then maybe there’s still time for him yet. But if he’s still the same QB that relied solely on his athletic talent, then he’ll be nothing more than a gimmick the rest of his career.

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