Dear NFL

via Washington Post:

Michael Vick was released from federal custody Monday, with the sentence for his role in a dogfighting operation in Virginia expiring after he was imprisoned in Leavenworth, Kan., then on home confinement in Hampton, Va.

There still is no indication, however, about whether he'll be reinstated by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

... There is likely to be a face-to-face meeting between Goodell and Vick before Goodell makes a ruling. Goodell has not indicated whether he will make a decision before the upcoming season.

In all honesty, I think Roger Goodell is a decent commissioner. He's firm with his decisions, decisive with his ideology and a really good speaker. However, I think the man is wayyyyy too judgmental. When Michael Vick is allowed to take off his tracking device and finally step outside of his home, he will begin 3 years of probation. That's in addition to the 18 months he spent in a federal jail. Not only did he go in early, he did EVERYTHING that the judge asked him to do. To that effect, Vick's record in terms of the NFL should be clean. As a friend of mine vehemently states, the NFL should have no place in telling you what you can and cannot do off the field, as long as it isn't affecting your play on the field. By doing such a thing, the league is legislating taste and behavior, not ensuring that it's league is at its highest standard possible.

Michael Vick has served his time, and no PETA advertisement, tree-hugger or uber-liberal should sway Goodell's decision. It's time for the most electrifying player to take to the field in my lifetime to do just that again. Being a dog-lover, his actions were shocking, yet I think the government, as well as the NFL grossly overreacted. The man has lost everything because of some dogs, not people, dogs. It serves to show where the minds of the NFL and Michael Vick's corporate sponsors are: on the money. I find that ironic considering how much money Vick has made both of these parties. To conclude, I think you guys at the NFL have a lot of work to do in the player conduct department. If Goodell doesn't reinstate Vick, that will not only be an egregious wrong, it will indicate how quickly the powers that be are to cut someone loose if the person doesn't act in a manner they find acceptable. Here in America, we legislate taste more than we legislate the law, and Michael Vick probably won't be the last to be struck by the long arm of that said law...