Now that Michael Vick’s dogfighting sentence is over, it’s possible for him to return to the NFL. Whether commissioner Roger Goodell will allow it is another thing entirely. Jim Trotter and George Dohrmann, in Sports Illustrated, are divided. “It’s time for him to have an opportunity to return to work,” Trotter writes. “If Vick knocks on the office door of each of the league’s 32 owners and … is turned away, so be it.”
And “the argument that Vick’s return would cause a loss of fans or sponsors is laughable,” Trotter continues. “Its game is bigger than any one individual.” Not so, writes Dohrmann, noting that 70% of fans don’t want Vick on their team. There’s also a moral issue. “When millions of people have lost their jobs, why is it unthinkable to some that Vick, after throwing away his football career, should be forced to ply a different trade?” (More Michael Vick stories.)