Friday column: Reinstate Vick? Why not? He'll fit right in

Michael Vick is eyeing an early release from stir and a return to the NFL.

As Vick’s recent bankruptcy filing indicates, he has several reasons — several million, in fact — to get back to the league that once enriched him to the tune of $62 million and promised him tens of millions more.

And he has several reasons to believe he will find a job in league that would find a place for Ghengis Kahn if the Mongol could get a key first down in a big game against a division rival.

Consider Jerramy Stevens.

Stevens’ record includes a string of arrests involving alcohol, drugs and violence, and he almost certainly sexually assaulted a 19-year-old woman freshman during his days at the University of Washington. Stevens was booked in the incident — in which a date-rape drug may have been used — but for reasons of incompetence and football favoritism, he was never prosecuted. Reportedly, however, he did pay $300,000 to settle a civil suit in the matter.

None of that moral baggage has stopped Stevens from finding gainful employment in the National Felon League, most recently with Tampa Bay.

I would call him an animal, but it would offend the sensibilities of PETA — and rightly so.

But the word animal, of course, brings us back to Vick, convicted in 2007 of multiple dogfighting charges.

In recent days, three stories shedding light on Vick and his situation have hit the news:

One concerned Vick’s bankruptcy claims, a tale of bad judgment and excess illuminated in part by his writing “chump change” on a $1,000 check to his mother, and his sporting diamond-stud earrings and a charm with the inscription: “World Is Mine.”

Another concerned his pleading guilty to state charges in a plea deal that could spring him from prison by July 2009. Vick told the judge, “I want to apologize to the court, my family, and to all the kids who looked up to me as a role model.”

Of course, this is the same Vick who, when the feds first raided his canine gulag, told NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell “I love dogs.” Which brings us to the third story.

According to a David Whitley column in the Orlando Sentinel, a confidential report on Vick’s criminal activities paints an even darker picture of the man than we had, including his putting family pets in the ring with fighting dogs and laughing as they were mauled.

Still, in a league that that gives Leonard Little — who has a manslaughter conviction on his rap sheet — Pacman Jones and, yes, Jerramy Stevens multiple chances, what’s to keep Vick from putting on a helmet again?

Nothing that the NFL believes in, that’s for certain.

Contact Jim Gordon at gjames43@msn.com.