RICHMOND, Va. -- Suspended NFL quarterback Michael Vick would keep one vehicle, one home and a large assortment of furniture and personal items if his creditors and the judge who rejected his previous bankruptcy plan approve a revised one that was filed Thursday.
The new plan also gives creditors a bigger cut of Vick's future earnings but still would leave him enough to live comfortably if he's able to resume his once-lucrative NFL career.
The revised plan would give Vick incentive to return to the NFL and take responsibility to pay his taxes and expenses, his lawyers wrote in papers filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Newport News. Thursday was the deadline for filing the plan.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Frank J. Santoro has scheduled a July 31 hearing on the new proposal. In April, Santoro dismissed Vick's first plan as unworkable and ordered a new one. The judge suggested at the time that Vick consider liquidating some of the vehicles and one of his two expensive Virginia homes.
Vick now plans to keep only a 2007 Infiniti SUV and the Hampton house where he is serving the final two months of his nearly two-year sentence on home confinement. Vick pleaded guilty to operating a dogfighting ring in August 2007 and was indefinitely suspended by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Vick is scheduled to be released from federal custody July 20.
Goodell has said he will review Vick's status after he is released, but the commissioner hasn't given a specific timetable for a decision.
Unlike Vick's previous plan, the new one would give creditors 10 percent of the first $750,000 per year that the quarterback earns, ensuring that they will receive part of his future paychecks even if he doesn't make it back into the NFL. The plan rejected by Santoro would have allowed Vick to keep the first $750,000.
Creditors would receive a larger slice of any Vick income over that amount, ranging from 25 percent to 40 percent on a sliding scale. The 40 percent cut kicks in at an earnings level of more than $10 million, which initially appears to be a stretch for a 29-year-old quarterback who hasn't played since the 2006 season.
In exchange for the bigger cuts of Vick's future earnings, a committee representing his unsecured creditors agreed to allow the quarterback to keep more furnishings, including items from his Duluth, Ga., home that is being sold. The plan includes a detailed list of items, from a toaster to a Mrs. Pacman arcade game from the home's bar.
Vick, whom the Atlanta Falcons released last month, once was the NFL's highest-paid player, but court papers show that he squandered his fortune on bad business deals and lavish spending. Vick listed assets of $16 million and liabilities of $20.4 million when he filed his Chapter 11 petition in July 2008.
