The Quarterback Who Won't Come Clean

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The best advice when called out for something that you've done or have failed to do: Swallow your pride, own up to it, take the medicine, pick up what's left and move on as best you can.

Michael Vick did not do that. Instead, he resorted to deception and lying.

When the story broke, Vick assumed the persona of a trusting and generous young man who had been exploited by family.

A May 22 story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution quoted Vick as saying at the time of the NFL draft on April 28: "I'm never there. I'm never at the house."

"I left the house with my family members and my cousin," Vick said. "They just haven't been doing the right thing. . . . It's unfortunate I have to take the heat behind it. If I'm not there, I don't know what's going on."

Vick maintained that he had let a cousin live at the house and didn't know how a large kennel on the property could be involved in criminal activity.

On July 26, Vick and his three co-defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges filed in the indictment.

Within weeks, his three companions had changed their pleas to guilty and agreed to testify against him.

On Monday, Vick's lawyers said he had decided to plead guilty, and he did so yesterday.

What caused Vick's flip? A desire to come clean or the prospect of a jury conviction?

He could have owned up sooner. In April, Vick reportedly told NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell that he had no knowledge of what was alleged to have occurred on the Surry County property. Vick said as much to the Atlanta Falcons, too.

He had a chance to show a change of heart during a radio interview with an Atlanta station on July 30. He didn't, avoiding comment on the charges on the advice of his lawyers.

Casting himself as a victim, Vick said: "I would like to thank all my fans and all my support and all the people that are praying for Mike Vick and are in my corner right now. It's a crisis situation for me, but I'm going to get through it and I feel, by the grace of God, that's the only way. I believe in the outcome at the end, and that's why I put my faith in the man upstairs."

No contrition or repentance for his involvement in animal cruelty. Not when you're trying to put one over on people.

kingc@washpost.com