This just feels like piling on. A late hit, pardon the football reference, on a prone ballcarrier.

Michael Vick has and will long continue to pay for his cruel and felonious behavior. As well he should. Dogfighting is that repugnant.

But enough is enough.

Vick has lost millions in salary and endorsements. He faces incalculable legal fees and a $2 million suit from a Canadian bank that loaned him money. His professional football career may be over, and on Dec. 10 a federal judge will sentence him to prison – the maximum term is five years.

And that’s plenty. Depending on the jail time, it may be too much.

But Tuesday’s indictment from a Surry County grand jury – it was hardly this week’s only Vick dustup – is definitely too much. Two felony counts that carry up to five years each? Gracious, on the off chance Vick gets the max from all concerned he could do 15 years.

Care to guess how long a Newport News woman is serving for transporting more than 100 grams of heroin into the United States from Jamaica as part of a wide-ranging distribution ring? Try 37 months.

Care to guess the duration of former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson’s incarceration for rape? Try three years.

Vick did not endanger heaven-knows-how-many lives by smuggling drugs. He did not kill, maim or molest another person.

Yes, he participated in the executions of defenseless animals – this he admitted to in his guilty plea. But do those crimes equate with drug-dealing, rape and other violence perpetrated against humans?

As much as I love dogs – Labs, beagles and my buddy Mateo especially – I cannot answer yes. As much as I love dogs – a painting of our last hangs over my mom’s bed – I cannot comprehend Vick or any of his co-defendants serving five, 10 or 15 years, even though their crimes began in 2001 and continued until an April drug bust in Hampton led authorities to Vick’s Surry County compound.

Nor can I see NFL commissioner Roger Goodell banning Vick permanently, unless Vick goes all Ricky Williams and can’t shake his apparent marijuana jones. If, after he has paid his debts to society, a team deems Vick fit for the field, why shouldn’t he be permitted to resume a career in which he excelled and that allowed him to give back to his communities in Newport News and at Virginia Tech? Others couldn’t disagree more. They want Vick expelled from football and behind bars as long as possible.

Still others contend that his behavior bordered on harmless, that he is the victim of celebrity, racism and animal-rights zealots. Were this a white quarterback such as Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, they say, the actions would have been all but excused.

Such extremes were all too evident Tuesday evening during an ESPN town hall meeting the network called “The Vick Divide.”

Moderated by the ever-professional Bob Ley, the panel included journalists Selena Roberts of the New York Times and Terence Moore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, talk-show host Neal Boortz, former NFL player Chuck Smith, and Terance Mathis, a former teammate of Vick’s with the Atlanta Falcons. With few exceptions, the panel was measured, critical but understanding of Vick.

But the audience, online and live in Atlanta, personified the fringes. At times the racially charged debate became inane – the comparison of Vick’s dogfighting to Bill Belichick’s cheating was particularly maddening.