Falcons owner shouldn't wait for NFL or legal process

	Falcons owner Arthur Blank faces some very tough decisions to make about Michael Vick's future. AP
	Michael Vick Pleads Guilty • Vick formally enters guilty plea to dogfighting • Text of Vick's post-hearing apology • McCANN: What sentence will Vick get? • Monumental day in store for Falcons • NFL suspends Vick after he files plea • DOHRMANN: What exactly did Vick admit? • McCann: Judge still plays key role in Vick case • CNN: Grim future for most fighting dogs • NAACP thinks Vick should be able to return • KING: Hard to imagine upcoming season • BANKS: NFL personnel gurus on Vick's future • Athletes prosecuted by federal government

So let me get this straight. People who think Michael Vick is "innocent'' of any involvement with dogfighting believe that Vick could have visited the Smithfield, Va., house he owned at any time over the past six-plus years and never noticed anything slightly suspicious about the activities going on there.

They believe Vick could have overlooked the dog-breeding "rape stand'' that federal authorities discovered on the property, or the blood stains that dotted the walls of those five black-painted buildings in the backyard? They contend that Vick was oblivious to what his friends and cousin were doing with those car axles buried in the ground, and those treadmills and syringes, and that piece of bloodstained carpet?

In other words, they believe that because they want to. They also probably thought Pete Rose never bet on baseball, Barry Bonds just underwent a freak late-career growth spurt, and O.J. Simpson was definitely framed.

Even if you choose to think that Vick never stooped so low as to take part in the cruelty to animals that federal investigators detailed so thoroughly in that 18-page felony indictment, it strains credibility to profess that Vick didn't know the first thing about the business being conducted at that house on Moonlight Road. Eyewitnesses placed him at the house numerous times in recent years.

Remember, we're talking about a dogfighting ring that is alleged to have spanned seven different states up and down the East Coast. This was no small-time operation. It took some money to fund the ring, and Vick, with his NFL millions, is an obvious suspect when it comes to bankrolling.

Even Vick's most ardent supporters would have to agree that knowing what was going on and not acting to put a stop to the behavior does not equate to innocence. Not even close. If ignorance is never a defense, then what kind of excuse is silent complicity? And from this vantage point, that's going to be Vick's best-case explanation for the whole mess.