When National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Tennessee Titans cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones for the entire 2007 season, he thought he had eliminated the league’s biggest problem.

He was wrong.

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick was indicted Tuesday, giving Goodell a much bigger problem to deal with — a problem he exacerbated when he suspended Jones. For now, the NFL’s official statement is that the charges that Vick conspired to run a dogfighting ring haven’t been proved, but under Goodell’s form of justice, the standard for guilt is not proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Goodell has already stated unequivocally that when league discipline is meted out, NFL players (including Jones, who has been charged with, but not convicted of, several crimes during his NFL career) aren’t entitled to the presumption of innocence.

So Goodell faces this choice: Suspend Vick, or tell the league’s owners, coaches, players and fans that he has two sets of rules, one for superstars and one for everyone else.

If Goodell suspends Vick before he has his day in court, he’ll face criticism in some quarters for acting prematurely. Vick’s defenders are already raising the specter of the Duke University lacrosse case, in which three students were charged with rape by a reckless prosecutor who was ultimately disbarred for his actions.

But while Vick is entitled to the presumption of innocence in a court of law, the Vick case is nothing like the Duke lacrosse fiasco. The only evidence against the three Duke lacrosse players was the word of one accuser. The Vick case has mounds of evidence, including injured dogs removed from Vick’s Virginia property, dog carcasses found buried there, blood-stained carpets, and equipment commonly used in dogfighting. The Vick indictment also lists four different eyewitnesses who will testify against Vick and three other defendants.

If Goodell doesn’t suspend Vick, he’d better be ready to deal with the Vick case every day for the rest of the year. The league offices on Park Avenue can expect visits from some of the same animalrights groups that disrupt fashion shows to protest fur. The Falcons’ training camp will be picketed. Fans at all eight Falcons road games — and maybe at their home games — will heckle Vick mercilessly, and Vick showed last year when he made an obscene gesture to fans in Atlanta that he doesn’t respond well to such abuse.

The indictment alleges that Vick and his co-defendants killed dogs that were too weak to win fights by electrocuting, drowning, shooting, hanging, and slamming them to the ground. In response to those allegations, the Humane Society of the United States and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals are among the organizations that have already called on the NFL, the Falcons, and Nike (Vick’s biggest sponsor) to deal harshly with Vick. Goodell doesn’t want those organizations to mobilize their members to turn out at every Falcons game or to organize boycotts of the NFL’s sponsors, and the only way he can stop them is to take Vick off the field.

If Goodell does suspend Vick, he is unlikely to face much opposition. The NFL players’ union hasn’t attempted to stop Goodell from suspending Jones or other players who get into off-field trouble, and the Falcons might actually be relieved if Goodell benched their starting quarterback. Vick is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on July 26, which is the same day his Falcons teammates will have their first training camp practice

The timing of the indictment means the Vick case will be a major distraction throughout the first training camp of new Falcons coach Bobby Petrino, and it could get worse: Vick’s trial might begin this year, which means that even if Vick starts the season as the Falcons’ quarterback, he might not finish it. The spectacle of an active player being convicted of a felony during the season would tarnish the NFL’s reputation, but it’s a real possibility. According to John Goodwin, who handles dogfighting issues for the Humane Society, federal dogfighting cases are rare, but when the feds bring such cases, they win.

“They have done just five or six dogfighting cases, but are batting 1.000,” Goodwin said.

Vick’s only hope is hiring a highpriced legal team to beat the charges. If Vick is convicted he faces prison time, and if he cops a plea, even to lesser charges, he would be admitting that he’s involved in some type of animal cruelty, which would make him toxic as far as corporate sponsors are concerned.

Vick was once among America’s most popular athletes. His jersey was a top seller, his highlight-reel runs appeared on ESPN regularly, his contract was the most lucrative in football history, and a Nike commercial likened the experience of being Vick to riding on a roller coaster. Now his reputation is shot. Goodell needs to act quickly to keep Vick from bringing the league down with him.

Mr. Smith is a contributing editor for FootballOutsiders.com.