Vick should consider UFL

DETROIT – There’s justice in NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s treating Michael Vick like a dog – although still better than the way Vick treated the dogs he once owned.

Vick, a federal ex-convict, must exhibit obedience when he meets with Goodell – perhaps as soon as today – to learn his fate. Vick must beg for the simplest validation and do whatever tricks Goodell demands with the hope he will win a small treat and an appreciative “good dog” from the commissioner.

Vick deserves the humiliation. He put himself in this submissive position, placing himself at the mercy of an authority figure’s compassion, and now he must appeal to his humanity.

Like dogs do.

It’s all about interpretation, now that we’ve reached the subjective phase of the Vick case. The dispassionate certainties that dictated the terms of his felony conviction and prison sentence are irrelevant. Objectivity had its day. Emotion and its ripples are more important now.

The smart move for Vick would be to take his immediate future out of Goodell’s hands. He should sign with the fledgling, four-team United Football League.

That decision would accomplish two objectives: Vick would make more money in the UFL, because the best he could hope for from an NFL team would be the league minimum of $720,000. More important, it might convey a genuine sense of humility and contrition more so than any token platitudes expressed during his meeting with Goodell.

It also would be a sign that Vick is serious about starting over and working his way back up the football ladder.

But Vick isn’t exactly the sharpest pick in the prison rock pile. It’s much easier surrounding himself with sycophants bent on turning Goodell into a heartless villain, piling on somebody who already has lost his money, his good name and his fame.

Vick has the right to seek employment with the NFL. And the NFL has the right to say no, you can’t work here.

It has the right as a privately operated entity to make that determination on the basis of a stringent employee code of conduct. It has the legal right to force team ownership to obey.

There’s a misconception that the 32 NFL owners can act independently of league doctrine, but the Lions, for example, are no different from a neighborhood McDonald’s. William Clay Ford Sr. is a franchisee.

The NFL really owns the Detroit franchise. It sells the license to distribute its product to an ownership group under its strict authorization. You won’t find a renegade burger baron changing the recipe of a Big Mac without corporate approval. You won’t see Al Davis inviting Vick to Oakland’s training camp unless he receives Goodell’s blessing.

Goodell is in no rush to render his verdict. He likely will grant Vick a conditional reinstatement, an act of forbiddance more than forgiveness. Vick would be free to sign with any team, but Goodell would still have until Sept. 1 – the date of the first mandatory roster cuts – to decide the result of Vick’s indefinite suspension. No NFL team will chance bringing in Vick as a quarterback under those circumstances.

Vick has received a second chance to forge his independence from the sociopathic behavior that cost him his freedom.

But the smart path toward that redemption is taking the road away from the NFL.