Steve T. Gorches: Vick doesn’t deserve big contract

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Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick smiles during a news conference about his new contract with the NFL football team, Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2011 in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Updated: November 5, 2011 1:13PM

Six days and counting and Hank Williams Jr. and I are definitely ready for some football.

It was a long offseason of uncertainty in which the words “labor” and “litigation” and “collective bargaining” were heard instead of “OTAs” or “mini-camp.”

There were no free-agent contract signings or veteran contract extensions. Just enough legal mumbo jumbo to give any red-blooded fan a migraine.

After this week’s meaningless fourth session of exhibition games, it will be all about football and games that count.

All about whether the Green Bay Packers can repeat.

All about whether the Bears can put together a second straight playoff campaign after losing to those Packers in the NFC Championship game.

All about whether Michael Vick is worth $80 million.

Oh, you didn’t hear? Yes, Vick signed a contract extension on Tuesday for a reported $100 million over six years, but it’s not really that much.

ProFootballTalk.com reports the contract isn’t worth $100 million, but more like $80 million. And the former federal prison inmate will not get a reported $40 million guaranteed, but closer to $35 million up front.

Why is it being inflated and misreported?

Insert your own conspiracy theory here.

Do you think it’s ESPN trying to generate more interest in its recent magazine story on Vick?

How about a bigger conspiracy that it’s being done to raise sales of his jersey?

But whether it’s $100 or $80 million, the bigger debate might be whether the former head of Bad Newz Kennels dogfighting ring in Virginia is worth any new deal?

Yes, I’m intentionally mentioning his dogfighting past because, at least in my opinion, it’s still part of his present and future.

Sorry, but I don’t totally believe in “he served his time so let it go and give him a second chance.”

Yes, the justice system says he’s done his time and everybody deserves a second chance at some point. But he still has plenty of time to serve in the court of public opinion.

And why did his second chance have to come so quick?

Do you really think if one of us was caught running an illegal dogfighting ring — or any other illegal venture for that matter, like selling drugs or laundering money — that we’d not only get our old job back less than two years after sitting in prison, but that our salary would be close to what we made before prison?

Anyone who answers yes to that question must think they’re the chief executive of fantasyland.

He served his time in prison for the illegal act, but where did the “time served” in the football world go? He wasn’t suspended any more games after prison. He didn’t have to play in a lower football league before being allowed to return to the NFL. He walked out of prison after wearing an orange jumpsuit or black-and-white stripes or whatever they wear in prison now and was given back a NFL uniform soon afterward.

Does it make me unsympathetic because I was brought up knowing the difference between right and wrong? Then again, it doesn’t take a Harvard education to figure out that killing dogs is wrong.

So what are we telling kids when a convicted felon can be back on top of his professional world just two years removed from being one of the most vilified athletes ever?

Should I tell my son, “Hey Johnny, it’s OK to kill dogs because guess what? You’ll be able to bounce back and make plenty of money as long as you’re good at what you do?”

A smart person, a smart parent knows that is not what you teach your kids. But that’s the perception the NFL and the Philadelphia Eagles are giving to us.

I won’t even go down the road that as a football fan, I wouldn’t give Vick $80 million and that I think other quarterbacks being paid less are much better — Aaron Rodgers should and will eventually be paid more, and for all his faults, I think Jay Cutler is a better overall QB than Vick.

I believe in karma coming back to get you, and Vick has earned a boatload of bad karma for his bad decision-making. It’s a shame that a franchise thinks he’s worth a boatload of money so soon after making those stupid choices.

Pro athletes are worth as much as some owner is willing to pay them, but that doesn’t mean every one of those athletes deserve the money as people. There are good people and bad people in all walks of life, and Vick needs a lot more than two years to prove to me he’s a good person.

Way to go Mr. President: Speaking of people making stupid decisions, how about President Barack Obama succumbing to House Speaker John Boehner and moving his jobs speech from Wednesday to the next day.

That would be Thursday, the opening night of the NFL season with the last two Super Bowl champions — the Packers and the New Orleans Saints — facing off.

Good decision ... not.

So CBS and ABC and CNN and every other national network will be airing the important speech while NBC will be airing the first game of a sport that is more popular than eating and breathing. NBC likely will move the speech to one of its sister networks — MSNBC or CNBC — and the game will probably garner the highest TV rating ever for an NFL opener, maybe any regular-season game since most of us are getting sick of political gridlock in this country.

Boehner’s decision to push Obama to move the speech was stupid. Obama’s decision to move it to Thursday was worse, since Friday or Saturday would be perfectly acceptable.

Then again, maybe he moved it to Thursday because he’s a Bears fan and doesn’t care about the Packers — though he is now a Packers’ shareholder, thanks to Green Bay’s Charles Woodson.