One of the most exciting stars of American football has pleaded guilty to helping run an illegal dogfighting ring and faces up to five years in prison.

Michael Vick, an athletic quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons who was admired for reshaping the way the position could be played, admitted charges of illegal gambling and animal cruelty in a statement through his lawyer last night.

The National Football League (NFL) was astonished last month when Vick, 27, was charged with three other men of taking part in an interstate dog-fighting operation and handling thousands of dollars in illegal bets. He was accused of personally taking charge of bets and executing dogs — by drowning and electrocution — that did not perform as well as they should.

“After consulting with his family over the weekend, Michael Vick asked that I announce today that he has reached an agreement with federal prosecutors regarding the charges pending against him,” said his lawyer, Billy Martin. “Mr Vick has agreed to enter a plea of guilty to those charges and to accept full responsibility for his actions and the mistakes he has made."

Vick faces a fine of $350,000 and up to five years in prison when he is convicted in US District Court at Richmond, Virginia. But reports last night said that his guilty plea is expected to earn him a lesser sentence of between 12 and 18 months.

Nonetheless it threatens to ruin a career that had reached the moneyed summit of American sport.

Production has ceased of Vick's No 7 Atlanta Falcons jersey, one of the bestselling in the NFL, while Nike has suspended a lucrative endorsement contract that included "The Michael Vick Experience".

Vick's $130 million contract with the Falcons is also unlikely to survive his conviction and the NFL could further punish the player for lying to its officials when he was questioned about the dogfighting allegations in July.

The NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell, has already forbidden Vick from attending summer training — the season is due to begin in three weeks time — and last night the league said it was carrying out its own review of the case.

“We are aware of Michael Vick’s decision to enter a guilty plea to the federal charges against him and accept responsibility for his conduct,” the statement read. “We totally condemn the conduct outlined in the charges, which is inconsistent with what Michael Vick previously told both our office and the Falcons."

Prosecutors alleged that Vick's career in illegal dogfighting coincided precisely with his arrival on the main stage of American football in the summer of 2001. Then he was the number one pick on the NFL roster after two eye-catching seasons playing for Virginia Tech, the university that suffered the campus shooting earlier this year.

The Atlanta Falcons, a struggling team, made him their star signing, offering Vick the richest contract in NFL history for a rookie, and promising to build the team around his fast, running style. Within weeks he used some of a $3 million advance to buy the property that became the “Bad Newz Kennels" less than 20 miles from the poor housing estate where he grew up in Newport News, Virginia.

Over the following six years Vick led parallel lives, developing a scrambling, dynamic style of play that made him one of the most watchable players in the sport and a host of records. Playing against the Minnesota Vikings in December 2002, he rushed — ran with the ball — for 173 yards, a record for a quarterback. Last year, he became the first quarterback in the history of the game to rush 1,000 yards in a season.

But now any return to the professional game appears to be a remote possibility. As the Atlanta-Journal reported today: "Who ever heard of a career death by dogfighting? The player who was going to re-invent the quarterback position ended up instead inventing a whole new way to blow it all."

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