Early 2001: Vick, Quanis Phillips and Tony Taylor decide to start an illegal dogfighting operation. Later that year, Purnell Peace joins the venture.
June 29, 2002: Vick pays about $34,000 for property in Surry County, Va.
2002-07: Vick and his co-defendants establish "Bad Newz Kennels," host dogfights and participate in fights in other states.
April 15, 2007: Police raid Vick's Virginia property and find several neglected pit bulls and evidence of dogfighting.
June 7, 2007: Federal investigators raid Vick's property.
July 17, 2007: Vick, Peace, Phillips and Taylor are charged by a federal grand jury in Richmond, Va., with conspiring to engage in competitive dogfighting, procuring and training pit bulls for fighting and conducting the enterprise across state lines.
July 26, 2007: Vick and his co-defendants plead not guilty to the charges.
July 30, 2007: Taylor changes his plea to guilty and agrees to cooperate with the prosecution of Vick and the other two men.
Aug. 17, 2007: Peace and Phillips plead guilty and implicate Vick in bankrolling gambling on dogfights. One says the quarterback helped drown or hang dogs that didn't do well.
Aug. 23, 2007: Vick signs plea agreement and statement of facts admitting to conspiracy in a dogfighting ring and helping kill pit bulls. He denies betting on the fights, only bankrolling them.
Aug. 24, 2007: NFL commissioner Roger Goodell suspends Vick indefinitely without pay from the league.
Aug. 27, 2007: Vick pleads guilty to dogfighting conspiracy before U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson. At a news conference, Vick apologizes for "using bad judgment and making bad decisions. I offer my deepest apologies to everyone. And I will redeem myself. I have to."
Nov. 20, 2007: Vick surrenders to U.S. marshals and begins serving his sentence in a Virginia jail three weeks before his official sentencing.
Dec. 10, 2007: Vick is sentenced to 23 months in federal prison.
Jan. 7, 2008: Vick leaves Virginia to enter a drug treatment program at a Leavenworth, Kan., minimum security facility.
July 8, 2008: Vick files for bankruptcy protection.
Nov. 25, 2008: Vick appears in a Virginia courtroom to plead guilty to a state dogfighting charge and receives a three-year suspended sentence.
April 3, 2009: Vick testifies in federal bankruptcy court that he has become a changed man and will do all the right things upon his release from prison, including repaying his creditors by resuming his professional football career.
April 21, 2009: Goodell says Vick will have to show genuine remorse to have a chance at resuming his career in the NFL.
May 20, 2009: Vick is released from the Leavenworth, Kan., prison to begin two months of home confinement at his Hampton, Va., home.
Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press
