To hear Roger Goodell tell it, the decision to conditionally reinstate Michael Vick to the NFL came only after much soul searching and consultations with everyone from Vick’s third grade teacher to the guy who gasses up his Range Rover.
To hear Roger Goodell tell it, the decision to conditionally reinstate Michael Vick to the NFL came only after much soul searching and consultations with everyone from Vick’s third grade teacher to the guy who gasses up his Range Rover.
Even then, Goodell said he didn’t finally make up his mind until Sunday, which seems somewhat surprising because there were a number of media reports filed well before that predicting the commissioner would do pretty close to what he ended up doing.
Then again, it wasn’t all that tough to figure out. Goodell may fancy himself as a disciplinarian, but there wasn’t a lot of upside to keeping Vick out of the league when even the PETA types had quieted down and the growing consensus seemed to be that Vick had already paid a heavy price for his crimes.
The initial reaction to Goodell’s move on Monday confirmed that. No one was screaming – at least too loudly – that Vick should be put in a pit with dogs who still hold a grudge, and the heads of two animal rights groups reacted by saying little more than they hoped Vick would continue seeing the error of his ways.
Even PETA seemed to realize this fight is about over, which is good news for any NFL club still wary about the ramifications of signing Vick. Instead of holding a protest march in front of NFL headquarters, the activist group put out a statement saying it would simply continue to “watch him like a hawk.”
That, of course, was all part of the master plan crafted by Vick’s advisers long before he got out of prison in Kansas. Vick began by coopting the animal groups by promising to work on anti-dogfighting efforts even as he resurrected his football career, and he and his people seem to have worked every angle just right to convince Goodell that he is truly a changed man.
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AP Photo/Steve Helber
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