Michael Vick pleads to state dogfighting charge

SUSSEX, Va. - Michael Vick knows this time next year he will be a free man. What he doesn't know is if he'll get another shot at being an NFL player.

The former Atlanta Falcons quarterback pleaded guilty to a state dogfighting charge Tuesday, the first step in a possible comeback. The move allowed him to avoid additional prison time, clearing the way for his early release from prison and possible transition into a halfway house.

But there's no guarantee when or if he'll get into a halfway house, and a messy bankruptcy case is just beginning to make its way through the court.

Once the NFL's highestpaid player, the 28-year-old Vick has lost nearly all the record-breaking $130 million from a 10-year deal he signed with Atlanta in December 2004.

Although NFL commissioner Roger Goodell hasn't ruled out reinstating Vick, he hasn't said he will.

"Mike takes full responsibility for his actions and is ready to move forward and will let his actions speak for him," Vick's agent Joel Segal said outside the courtroom. He wouldn't talk specifically about Vick's NFL future.

Vick is serving a 23- month sentence in Leaven- worth, Kan., on federal charges of bankrolling a dogfighting operation at a home he owned in eastern Virginia's rural Surry County. He also admitted to participating in the killing of several underperforming dogs.

Vick is scheduled for release in July 2009 and will serve three years' probation.