Vick: Goodell Helped Convince Me To Sign With Eagles

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by 12thMan

On the surface, it looks like Roger Goodell was/is meddling and perhaps overstepped his authority here. But let's be honest for a second, this wasn't Joe Blow quarterback that was released from prison and wanted to come back to play football. Had this story not taken on national and international importance, maybe Goodell steps back a little and allow things to run it's course. This story was dominating headlines for sometime. Wherever Michael Vick landed it would have come back to Roger Goodell's judgement or lack thereof. Tony Dungy would have suffered no repercussions if Vick went rogue again. So either way, Goodell and Vick were partners in his ultimate decision.

Roger Goodell is running a multi-billion dollar global enterprise, not your local Walmart. He is very much involved with not just the business side of the NFL, but also responsible for fashioning the image and making the product more accessible to consumers around the world as well as local communities. And players and what uniforms they put on are a big part of that. I'm sure he weighed all of this during his meetings with Vick.

I don't know if Michael Vick is the face of the NFL, but it's hard to argue that he's not in the top two or three right now. And if Philly goes to the Super Bowl, Goodell will get a lot of credit for helping Vick make a stunning comeback.

To me, maintaining the integrity of the league takes priority over making the business decision to help Vick minimize the risk (to both Vick and the NFL itself) of a relapse.