Everyone knows Michael Vick left Virginia on Monday and headed out to Leavenworth Prison in Kansas to carry out his drug treatment program. Did you know, however, that he is not the first NFL player to be incarcerated in Leavenworth? Let us go into the wayback machine and remember the infamous Bam Morris.
Byron “Bam” Morris had numerous scrapes with the law, but the biggest was in 2000 when Bam pleaded guilty to federal drug trafficking. He admitted attempting to distribute more than 220 pounds of marijuana in the Kansas City area between Jan. 1, 1998, and May 10, 2000. He was sent to Leavenworth and served his sentence, being released two years later, but those two years were no picnic in federal “pound you in the ass” prison says Bam,
“The federal is like a Cadillac where you have televisions, phones, air conditioning,” said Morris. “You watch movies on the weekends. The only thing you are missing is your freedom. You have longer visiting hours.”
But another fact of life in prison was that Morris was a target because he was a celebrity.
“I had guys wanting to fight me. I had to fight,” said Morris. “People wanted to fight me because I was an ex-football player. They told me I lost them money in the Super Bowl. They were fighting me over that. Others told me how stupid I was. I always had to defend myself.”
Boy, Vick might want to watch out, there have to be a ton of people in the prison that lost a lot of money on him over the years. I know i lost a few bucks on that poor excuse for a quarterback. Anyway, after Leavenworth Bam was convicted of violating his parole of a previous plea bargain in Texas and was sent to jail again, getting released in 2004.
But who says there are no second chances after Leavenworth? According to Bam’s Wikipedia page,
“In January of 2006, Morris was signed by the Orlando Predators of the Arena Football League. The NFL reinstated his eligibility as a player on January 13, 2006. Morris quit Predators training camp the following day stating that he hoped to win a contract with an NFL team. A mere two months later, on March 9, 2006, Morris signed with the Katy Copperheads of the National Indoor Football League.”
So see, it might not be too long before we see Vick follow in Bam’s footsteps and, at the very least, play some fun Arena ball…just as long as he doesn’t get the crap kicked out of him in jail.
Travis Henry gets 3 years in prison for financing a multi-state drug ring. He also got 5 years probation and 500 hours of rehab. Apparently with the rehab completed adn with good behavior he might be able to get out of jail in as little as 16 months.
