"dog lover"

I see wut you did there.

well, that's what happens when people who aren't brought up understanding the value and hardship of money, suddenly get a whole lot and don't know what to do with it.

Doesn't 'chump change' mean 'spare change for a chump'?

So, this guy thinks his own mother is a chump?

How does this sick, twisted mind view the rest of the world (rhetorical)? He needs a 'time out', in this case in the state pen.

If he was making an average of $10.3 million/year in his contract and wrote a check for $1000, that would be the same as someone who makes $100K/year writing a check for $9.70.

Chump change.

Now he's making a salary of $250/year. Not so chump change...

@SwahaCrane: or a puppy mill?

@dorianh49: lol you thought that too? I thought the were grinding down puppies

@kepler11: That's why there are now programs in place (notably by Ray Lewis of the Ravens) that teach people about finances. Let's face it, football players can't just turn to CNN Money and figure out what to do with that $20 million check. They need to have people who have been down that road, and know the pitfalls of having so much money, and people at every corner wanting a piece of it.

We need to get this man back out of jail to stimulate our economy.

Editor: "decent" is an adjective denoting appropriateness, while "descent" is a noun denoting downward movement, e.g., "The Slow Descent into Alcoholism" by The New Pornographers. Which is funny, because another song of theirs is "Chump Change." Both are excellent.

@rpm773: Unless he writes out a check for two and a half pennies.

Chump change indeed.

@flairness: And I'll be happy when this morally bankrupt shell of a person is out of the headlines. Only the most disturbed of sick fucks would consider dog fighting or any form of animal brutality as "entertainment".

What's "chump change" converted to penal currency of cigarettes and porno mags?

@crevers:

ahhh you beat me to it

@SwahaCrane: It's a common idiom for expendable income or a sum of money one considers "small" (obviously relative, especially given the example herein) and usually has nothing to do with the recipient or usage. This isn't any grounds for a social psychiatric evaluation...a financial one maybe...

@rpm773:

A torn off photo of a foot and a cigarette butt.

@Saboth: A great gift for any mother.

@IHaveAFreezeRay: As far as I'm concerned, they shouldn't even HAVE that $20 million check.
"Athletes" as we call them are far far far too highly paid. Especially because many people like me who went to school, got a degree, and now work in the business world can never hope to make 1/100th of that in a year.

@rpm773:

actually, it's mackerel.

[online.wsj.com]

@Oranges w/ Cheese: I really don't know enough about sports to even talk about whether athletes deserve that kind of money or not, just like I have no idea why CEOs make billions of dollars every year.

It's not a judgment, I just have no idea what goes into running a gigantic company, or what goes into playing for a professional sports team.

I know that in athletics, players are traded and sold and bought like stocks, and because athletics is a business, players are given a value. It's strange to me that a human being can be worth X amount of dollars, but Forbes does it with CEOs so why not athletes? The business side of it gauges talent and investment risk to come out with the best value for a particular player. I know that the Manning brothers are doing a good job this year, and are phenomenally talented...they have a higher price value for the investment of keeping them on a team than a less talented player, but the methods the NFL (or the MLB or NHL for that matter) uses to judge who is worth what amount is unknown to me.

@Oranges w/ Cheese: Word. And with $20 million dollars, no one really loses, do they? It's like, "Darn, I didn't make a touchdown today. Oh well."

@Oranges w/ Cheese: Well, I doubt people are paying athletes $20 million out of the goodness of their hearts. I think someone somewhere, other than the athlete, is making money on the deal. Like Chris Rock said, "Shaquille O'Neal is rich, the guy who signs Shaq's check is WEALTHY." There's a difference.

MC Hammer blew, what, 300 mil? Or was it only 30 mil? (And no, I am not confusing him with Monty Brewster)

When I was in Miami a few years ago, my wife and I took a boat tour. There were all these houses on this exclusive island...multi-million dollar types.

The tour guide pointed out Oprah's house, some other big name's house, then...

"Next to that, you'll see Vanilla Ice's house."

Say what you want about the man, he held onto his cash and did something with it. I think he owns a company that makes snowboards or other extreme sports equipment.

He has my respect. Perhaps not as an artist, but as a person.

@blackmage439: It's a good thing he lied to investigators too because he probably wouldn't have gone to jail if he didn't.

@IHaveAFreezeRay: Thank you Ray Lewis :-D Please don't retire, ever.

/Ravens Fan

@testsicles: Ah, yes. You just can't lie to the feds. It's a separate crime and they WILL bust you for it.

@crevers: A grammarian and a New Pornographers fan? Clearly, you are my new best friend.

Salvation holdout central!

@littlemoose: Yet it convicts you of the larger crime...he got off too easy...

@testsicles: Yeah well that's a problem too. The amount of money involved in this "sport" and all the other "sports" is beyond belief. Its ludicrous.

I know that they give lots of money to charities and all but damn, they don't NEED 10 Lincoln Navigators sitting in front of their multi-million dollar mansion. Especially for playing a game for 6 months out of the year on weekends and then doing shit the rest of the year. I wish I could make $20,000 for a day's work.

What's the big deal about the memo line? When I was in college and splitting rent and utility bills with roommates often one guys would write checks to pay back the other. Man, we wrote all sorts of inappropriate things in the memo line. "Sexual favors" was a favorite of mine.

oops, should be just one guy.

@ADismalScience: Yes, dog lovers the world over would gladly pay $5-$10 to beat him!

@micahd: Used to do this with my half of rent with my ex-girlfriend...funny!

@Murph1908: But apparently he abuses his wife and had a substance abuse problem, so money doesn't change that you're a scumbag.

@IHaveAFreezeRay: Or they could trust Lenny Dykstra with their money: [www.forbes.com]

I would call $1000 chump change. If this amount can make or break you, get a 2nd job, or 3rd.

@Oranges w/ Cheese: The thing is, are you going to take some kind of steps to PREVENT people from paying athletes that kind of money? People like to watch football. A LOT of people do. If millions of people are willing to shell out on the order of $50 for a football ticket, that's a lot of money, which translates into a lot of money being available to hire Mike Vick to throw your football for you.

You don't get $20,000 for playing a game of backyard two-hand touch. You earn the shot to make that kind of cash by being one of the top athletes in the world. If you are one of the best businessmen, doctors, or scientists in the world, you will also be raking in serious cash for what seems like relatively little work; only the person who does the work knows about the colossal effort and discipline that went into getting there.

It only adds to the tragedy when it's a professional athlete. These guys do their thing uncompensated for their whole lives, unlike a doctor or businessman or whatever. The transition from college athlete to pro star is huge, and it's not surprising a lot of guys melt down.

Anyway, I'm not really impressed with arguments like "I wish I could make that kind of money for playing a game." Well, maybe if you had trained obsessively since you were eight years old, and were willing to spend every weekend getting hit by NFL linebackers, you could. Or not. I know I couldn't. I reckon I'll do something else, and enjoy sitting with a pint and watching Matt Ryan pitch it.

@310Drew: There's a big difference between "chump change" and "an amount that will make or break you." Losing a grand wouldn't exactly have me living in a cardbord box, but I would hardly call it chump change ("a trifling sum of money").

@310Drew:

*cough cough GRANDSTANDING DOUCHEBAG cough cough*

@IHaveAFreezeRay: This is why it costs $200 for 2 people to go to a NFL game. I think All athletes should only be paid no more than 100k/yr. All they do is play a game for 3 hours once a week. If they werent all so overpaid normal people could actually afford to go see live games

@opsomath: I fully agree with this because none of us know how hard it is to be in a professional sport. There's a lot more that goes into it than being genetically gifted. And a lot of players who start in the NFL are very young, either fresh out of college or they left early to go pro. When you're that young, and you're given a lot of money, and there probably aren't a lot of people around who want to help you without getting a slice of that change for themselves, it's hard not to cave. There's a lot of pressure there, to do well because you've finally made it to the big time.

Well, you see, if you're running an illegal dog fighting ring that get's shut down, somewhere down the line there are going to be a lot of bad dudes who want you to pay them reparations. He probably had some bad debts, the kind that get's your legs broken (again), coupled with a ridiculously high standard of living........

Who cares anyway, he'll never make an impact in the NFL again. Michael Vick's Used Cars here we come.

@micahd: I do regular transfers form my joint account to my personal, i might try doing consecutive transfers a few related lines like:

HELP ME I
AM TRAPPED
IN THE COMPUTER
THE INTERNET
IS VERY SCARY

Maybe the tellers will notice.

@Oranges w/ Cheese: Sound a bit bitter and/or jealous? You are totally wrong, they do "shit" the rest of the year. They train their asses off. Their bodies are torn apart and never really have time to heal for years on end. This is not healthy and results in a shorter life span. Imagine being hit like they are, you can't, you can't even imagine it.

They make that much money because the leagues make that much money. That is way the system works. If they were making say 5 figures or even 6 figures they would feel completely ripped off as the leagues are raking in the cash due to advertising and merchandising sales while they are completely destroying themselves to play. If they were paid little there would be little incentive to give it your all.

These people sacrifice their bodies. Ever look up the life expectancy statistics of a pro athlete, especially in something brutal like hockey or football?

Put another way, would you take $5 million to try and last 3 minutes with 1990 Mike Tyson? No ref can stop the fight, it's just you and Tyson.

Am I reading correctly that he paid out over $709,000 to "Atlantic Wine and Spirits"?

'cuz that's a hell of a lot of booze.

@opsomath: Exactly.

@Oranges w/ Cheese: Another way to look at the whole athlete compensation thing is this: Do you think the owners WANT to pay the athletes many millions of dollars a year? Hell no. If pro football paid the same as a normal job, who would do it? It does require full time training, it's not like they take 6 days off a week and 8 months off a year.

Secondly, the salaries have to be competitive to get the most talented players in the world. It really is supply and demand. Think about the top 20 most talented football players in the US. There are more than 20 teams in the NFL. Everybody wants to hire those 20 guys. Of course they bid up their value until the salaries are the max amount the owner is willing to pay for that talent. That's how all free markets work.

I'm all for the athletes making the money that they do. It's not an easy job, and most pro athletes never get a Super Bowl ring etc. Most of them actually believe it or not make the League minimum, which, while a lot better than what I make, is not a lifetime fortune, and that's their compensation for putting the best years of their life into playing sports that are very hard on your body.

Except Michael Vick. I hope he falls into a meat grinder.

Dog fighting is wrong, but 2 years in prison is harsh. The bad publicity alone was enough to deter Vick from doing this ever again. Our over croweded prison system could have been put to better use.

@Oranges w/ Cheese: you say that like $200,000 isn't a lot of money :)

@jumpo64: You kidding? There's teams out there dying for a decent quarterback. Is he one? Who the hell knows, someone's always willing to take a chance on a has-been.

Best thing, I think, is if he gets out of prison and the Lions hire him. That's about what he deserves.