VICK APPARENTLY THINKS HE’LL PLAY IN 2009

In paperwork filed in connection with pending federal bankruptcy proceedings, the lawyers for Falcons quarterback Mike Vick indicate that Vick intends to return to the NFL after being released from prison next year. “The Debtor has every reason to believe that upon his release, he will be reinstated into the NFL, resume his career and be able to earn a substantial living,” Vick’s lawyers wrote. Though we lawyers are known from time to time to engage in a little hyperbole in the name of helping advance a client’s interest, the insertion of the clause “every reason to believe” seems to be a bit over the top, even as we lawyers go. Vick is indefinitely suspended from the NFL. His reinstatement won’t be taken up until he’s out of jail. And since he’s in the process of pleading guilty to a couple of felony charges in Virginia, apparently so that he can spend the last six months of his confinement in a halfway house, we have “every reason to believe” that the NFL will have serious reservations about not imposing an additional penalty for his entire range of violations of the law -- and other admitted conduct (such as participating in the killing of dogs) for which he was never charged.