National Football League

Finding the best home for Michael Vick

Published Jul. 29, 2009 8:40 p.m. ET

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So now America's former Public Enemy No. 1 is free, but after two-plus years on the most humbling sideline of all, former superstar Michael Vick tries to piece his civilian life back together.

So now the big-money question: Which teams will make a run at him?

Sure, it's a fairly simple exercise to run down the teams struggling at quarterback, teams that could use a new starter to plug in — especially a guy with the three-time Pro Bowler's credentials on the field.

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But which team should sign Vick? Or rather, which team would give him the best possible chance to succeed, both for the team and the player? No ordinary team will do.

In the grand scheme of where Michael Vick should resume his NFL career, the perfect landing spot would have been Indianapolis ... that is, if Tony Dungy was still coaching the Colts. Dungy would have been the perfect mentor for Vick. And in fact, he will be serving that role, albeit not in an official capacity as Vick's coach.

So that needs to be one of Vick's first criteria: a rock-solid head coach.

The second is the football support staff, from the owner to the player development employee. If there's heat from the community, the owner must be able to defuse it. But his employees must be able to deal daily with Vick's acclimation and needs.

And, finally, the locker room must have tolerant leaders, men who have empathy but also the resolve to cope with the initial media onslaught while supporting their new teammate.

Still, deciding to employ Vick will be a difficult decision, considering he lied to his previous owners, coaches and teammates about his gambling and dog fighting operations and even had the gall to lie to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.

But when he played, Vick was a top-10 NFL performer in my eyes.

As of right now, I am assuming he will be a bargain-basement acquisition because he is 29 and two years removed from the football field. And even if he says he's reformed, he must prove it on a daily basis while also overcoming the stigma of being a dog killer and a liar.

There are so few great starting quarterbacks in the NFL. When he last played, Vick was among the elite, although totally different from a Peyton Manning or a Tom Brady. He was never the prototypical quarterback. Vick was a unique talent. Vick was the first visiting quarterback to win a playoff game in Green Bay and later took Atlanta to within one game of the Super Bowl. It's why Falcons owner Arthur Blank agreed to pay him more than $100 million.

If you assume Vick is still capable of contributing on the field, it now becomes a question of where.

When it comes to football people and the guys in the locker room, the Colts would provide constant positive reinforcement. There are a lot of high-character players there, many of them brought in by GM Bill Polian and Dungy. Those qualities will be important for any team truly interested in signing Vick. The team must be able to absorb the PR hit; be above the fray, so to speak. For a lot of people, the Colts walked on water in Indiana when Dungy was the head coach.