Vick deeply into dogfighting, father says

[CatWoman]

Michael Vick's father said he pushed his son to quit dogfighting years ago or, at least, put property used for the fights in the name of friends to avoid being implicated some day.

Michael Boddie, in two sometimes tearful interviews with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution this week, said some time around 2001 his son staged dogfights in the garage of the family's home in Newport News, Va. Boddie also said Vick kept fighting dogs in the family's backyard, including injured ones — "bit up, chewed up, exhausted" — that the father nursed back to health.

Boddie, who is estranged from his son, dismissed the idea that Vick's longtime friends were the main instigators of the dogfighting operation.

"I wish people would stop sugarcoating it," Boddie said. "This is Mike's thing. And he knows it."

He "likes it, and he has the capital to have a set up like that."

Daniel Meachum, an attorney for Vick, said his client never mentioned situations described by Boddie, nor discussed Boddie in relation to dog activities. "It's a disgrace Mr. Boddie, who chose for nearly 22 years not to be part of Mike's life, would at this time seek to capitalize on his son's current situation."

Vick's mother, Brenda Vick Boddie, who hasn't lived with her husband for the past five years, did not return calls seeking comment.

http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/falcons/stories/2007/08/23/vickdad_0824.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab_newstab

[youthere]

1. Gotta'love that parenting style....

"Don't do that! It's Wrong and bad"!Well..at least make sure you don't get caught!"

Geez.

[IndianaJones]

2. I love this case. Everyone with an axe to grind or something to gain is a reliable witness. nt.

[Captain Hilts]

8. They're all guilty as sin and that's why they're copping pleas with their tails btwn their legs...nt

[durrrty libby]

3. I guess daddy will get a lump of coal this xmas

[Divernan]

4. Vicks' lawyer lying through his teeth. This father stuck with his family.

Here's more from the article - it's really worth reading the whole thing.

"But Boddie said he gave Vick something that most kids didn't have in the Newport News housing projects where both grew up: "I never left his side. Never left his mother's side. And where we come from, this day and time, that's a hell of a thing."

"He and Vick's mother weren't married when Michael Vick was born. But they married later and Boddie said he lived with the family from the time Vick was 3 years old until after his eldest son went to Virginia Tech to play football. He said he was usually working during Vick's youth, often on jobs sandblasting and repainting ships. He said he is frustrated about continued suggestions that Vick was raised without a father. He said his son and wife should have set the record straight.

"But in a 2001 AJC article about their son, his wife was quoted as saying that Boddie's presence in Vick's childhood "means a lot to me." "He was always there, providing, taking care of what needed to be taken care of. Through everything, we stayed together as a family. I have a lot of respect for him for that."

"But in other press reports, both Michael Vick and his mother suggested that Boddie was an emotionally distant father. He "never paid that much attention to me," Vick said, according to a Sports Illustrated story in 2000. Boddie said that, over the last year, his son has been disrespecting him, "talking to me like I'm one of his . . . dogs."

[IndianaJones]

6. yeah...he's great...just wants his million dollars so he can be comfortable. nt.

[dropkickpa]

5. A friend of mine played ball with him at VT

He was real into dogfighting then. This whole case was completely unsurprising to my friend.

[Captain Hilts]

7. He said Vick liked to watch his dog chase cats in confined spaces. Sick. nt

[IndianaJones]

9. He also recently asked for 700,000 and 1,000,000 dollars and was rejected.

But he couldn't be lying. Thats outside the realm of possibility.

[Captain Hilts]

10. He should probably be in jail with Vick. But it's no reason to defend Vick.

When you look at the trouble Vick has been in with the law, with the fans, then check out his brother's problems with the law, etc. Their dad, at minimum, should be sterilized so he doesn't reproduce again.

[IndianaJones]

11. I believe it only strengthens the case that he was not involved in their lives.

I lend no credence to what he has to say. He is also threatening to write a book to tell more of what he knows. How is this a credible source for any information, good or bad, about Michael Vick?

[The Vinyl Ripper]

13. Eugenics advocates on a liberal board..

Who would have guessed it?

[frylock]

14. you choose some interesting battles, man

[IndianaJones]

15. theres no battle here....I'm Sisyphus in this tale. nt.

[ecstatic]

12. What an ineffective father

Maybe if he had been a better, present father, Vick wouldn't have gone down the wrong path.

[Parche]

16. Glad Its Not Cat Fighting

OH MEOW :hi:

[npincus]

17. LOL!

my kitty don't take no sh*t neither!

[BlooInBloo]

18. Your honor! I told him to quit! Lord knows I told him to quit! (sobs)

Thank you! Thank you! (bows)