Uncertainty About Football Future Looms for Vick

Michael Vick was released from federal custody Monday, intensifying the debate about whether he should be permitted to return to the NFL after serving a nearly two-year sentence for his role in a dogfighting operation in Virginia.

A former standout quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons, Vick remains on indefinite suspension by the NFL, and Commissioner Roger Goodell has not given a timetable for ruling on Vick's possible reinstatement. Vick also is without a team after being released by the Falcons, and he was out of the NFL for two full seasons while serving his federal prison sentence in Leavenworth, Kan., and being on home confinement in Hampton, Va.

Those in and around the NFL wonder what sort of player Vick, 29, would be at this point, and it's unclear if any teams are interested in signing him if he is reinstated by Goodell.

"You really don't know about the two years off because there's basically never been anyone who's been in that position," former NFL coach Dan Reeves, who coached Vick with the Falcons, said in a telephone interview Monday. "That's going to be a difficult thing. The other difficult thing for him will be finding someone to give him a chance. My hopes are that somebody will.

"I hope he does get that opportunity because he was such an exciting player. Two years away is a long time, but hopefully the commissioner will reinstate him and he can get with a team for training camp so we can see what he can do."

Goodell, who suspended Vick prior to the 2007 season, has said in recent months that he would not begin the decision-making process until after Vick's legal case concluded. He has said that Vick must demonstrate genuine remorse to be reinstated.

League officials said little Monday about the case.

"The review of his status is ongoing," Greg Aiello, the NFL's senior vice president of public relations, said in a written statement.

William Moran, an attorney who advised the New York Giants on the investigation of wide receiver Plaxico Burress accidentally shooting himself in the leg at a nightclub, said that what Vick says during a prospective face-to-face meeting with Goodell could be a significant factor in his reinstatement decision, and that Vick will have to be similarly persuasive when meeting with any potential NFL employers.

"As far as what he needs to do to satisfy the commissioner that he is deserving of reinstatement and a chance to play, he needs to sit down and demonstrate he is accepting of the wrongful nature of what he's done and outline what he's going to do to avoid anything of this nature ever happening again," Moran, a partner in the New York office of the firm McCarter & English, said by phone Monday.

"As far as dealing with teams, I think it's along the same lines. . . . I think [Vick's crime] is of such a nature that teams are going to have to consider it and what implications it will have with the public going forward. On the other hand, the balance to that will be the obvious raw talent of the player."

Vick also could draw interest from the United Football League, which is scheduled to begin play in the fall and has hired former NFL coaches Dennis Green, Jim Fassel, Jim Haslett and Ted Cottrell as the coaches of its four franchises. However, some people close to Vick said he has little interest in playing in that league or in the Canadian Football League and is focused on a return to the NFL.