NEW YORK -- It's official: The United Football League has interest in quarterback Michael Vick if and when the Atlanta Falcons release him. In fact, it has considerable interest -- a lot more than in, say, Pacman Jones -- and the only news there is that the UFL is now on the record with its support.
As it should be. Let's face it, Vick is the perfect guy for the start-up league, and the UFL knows it. He delivers star power. He would attract people, from supporters to picketers to curiosity seekers. He would bring in the media. And he would deliver the credibility associated with a 28-year-old former NFL Pro Bowl QB.
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| 'There will be a lot of interest in him,' UFL commissioner Michael Huyghue says about Mike Vick. (Getty Images) |
Had the numbers swung the other way, Huyghue admitted, the UFL would have abandoned its pursuit.
"To the extent that Michael Vick becomes available," Huyghue said after a news conference in midtown Manhattan on Monday, "we will look very closely into bringing him into our league -- not only because our fan-survey poll was abundantly in favor of allowing him to come back but because we think it might be the right kind of buffer for a player like that to go back to the NFL.
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"He's certainly an exciting player, and there will be a lot of interest in him. But the protocol is to wait for him to be released from his NFL contract. If he is, we will undergo measures to see if we can get him to play in our league."
They should. First of all, there is no guarantee Vick won't be suspended by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell for part or all of the coming season. Goodell has said he wants to see "genuine remorse" from Vick, and that can mean almost anything. What it likely means, some NFL owners said at last month's spring meetings, is that Vick faces a suspension of undetermined length for 2009.
There is also a rust factor involved with a player who hasn't done anything but serve time the past 19 months. Vick would need more than a training camp to get ready for another season. He would need an extensive boot camp.
Enter the UFL. The league, which just had tryouts last weekend, starts on Oct. 8, with its four teams playing six games each. Essentially, that would allow Vick to sharpen his skills between then and the end of the regular season, which is Nov. 19. Then he could sell himself to the NFL.
There's also the fan reaction. When Houston owner Bob McNair ruled out Vick as a potential target, he said "you don't want to do something that will turn off" Texans' supporters -- and, yeah, hiring someone who bankrolled an operation that tortured and killed dogs might provoke that response.
"It's a real problem," said one UFL official who asked not to be identified. "[Vick] is a fabulous athlete, but dog lovers in America are big. If you have to cancel out on something and say your wife is ill, people would say, 'Why don't you come anyway?' But if you said, 'My dog had to go to the vet,' they'd say, 'Oh, by all means.'" He's probably right. Which is just another reason the UFL should have the inside track. NFL teams that might have an interest in Vick but are afraid to admit it can gauge fan reaction without suffering the consequences. Plus, the response nationwide might diminish after Vick played six weeks of football.
I say "might;" I just don't know. What I suspect is that any NFL team will experience an immediate backlash with the signing of Vick -- but to what extent you don't know until he plays. So let him play in the UFL and weigh the evidence.
The bottom line, of course, is that Michael Vick makes sense for the UFL because he makes headlines. Love him or hate him, fans will follow him. And that means money to a four-team league that is committed to expansion next season, perhaps into Mexico and Los Angeles, and that is certain it can succeed where the XFL did not.
For one, it won't play in the spring. Its six games are in the fall. But it won't compete against the NFL. It will play on Thursdays, not Sundays. For another, all of its teams are headed by former NFL coaches, including Jim Fassel and Dennis Green. It has fan-friendly prices, averaging $20 per ticket, a TV contract with Versus and a welcome attitude toward the NFL. It wants to cooperate with the sports giant.
All that's missing is the Big Bang, and I guarantee that's where Michael Vick can deliver.
"It was a heinous act he committed," said Huyghue, who has experience in the NFL office and with the Jacksonville Jaguars, "but more than 80 percent of the people said that Michael Vick deserves a chance and that we're a country of second chances and that maybe the NFL is not the right platform for him to come back to because that might be giving him too much too quick. But maybe something like the UFL would be a nice segue for him to have a chance come back and play professional football."
Only Vick and his representatives can be sure, and while Huyghue said there has been no direct conversations with either, he did admit that "they're obviously aware of our interest." He also admitted that the UFL has done what he termed "fairly stringent" background checks into potential additions, including Vick, and that it continues to examine the Falcons' quarterback in preparation for his release by Atlanta.
"I think there would have to be some more discussion," he said. "There would have to be some final steps. But there has been due diligence."
Apparently, that extends to Pacman Jones, whom Huyghue all but ruled out from the UFL. The league has heard from thousands of interested players, he said, including people like wide receivers David Boston and Reche Caldwell and quarterbacks Quinn Gray, Tim Rattay and Tim Hasselbeck. Undrafted quarterback Graham Harrell also expressed interest, Huyghue said.
But Jones need not apply. Apparently, he isn't wanted.
"I think that would be difficult," Huyghue conceded. "On the one hand to say Michael Vick could come in and Pacman couldn't might seem a bit contradictory, but I think we have to look at each one -- and I think the coaches will set the tone for that.
"For example, [New York coach] Ted Cottrell said his first priority is that he doesn't want any bad apples. I'm not trying to demean Pacman Jones. I happen to know him to some degree from a personal background. But, in general, those aren't the players we're looking for."
The league expects to stock its 60-man rosters primarily with players who were among the final cuts of NFL clubs, practice-squad participants and street free agents. Some of them you will know. Most of them you might not. It's the perfect vehicle for Vick to initiate a return to professional football, particularly because the season is so short it serves as a lab where everyone can measure the results.
"It's six weeks," Huyghue said, "so you dust off the rust and you go back to the NFL. If the NFL wants to have him come back to the league my own view would be that a six-game tune-up in the UFL might be the perfect buffer to allow that to happen.
"We're smart enough to know we're not going to replace the NFL. We want fans to watch NFL football on Sunday and UFL football on Thursday. We're also smart enough to know there is a place for the NFL. We just hope there is a place for the UFL."
Better yet, they hope there's a place in the UFL for Michael Vick.
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