Vick likely to make case in court for NFL return

[April 03, 2009]  NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) -- Michael Vick is determined to return to the NFL after he finishes his prison sentence for bankrolling a gruesome dogfighting ring and he planned to describe those plans in court Friday, his lawyer and agent said.

Vick was scheduled to testify after appearing in court for the first time in his federal bankruptcy case Thursday. Vick left a federal prison in Kansas last week to travel to Virginia for the hearing.

"You will hear from Mr. Vick his future intentions, how he's going to change the way he lives his life," his lawyer, Michael Blumenthal, told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Frank J. Santoro during the first day of a hearing to assess Vick's plan to emerge from bankruptcy. The plan was designed with the goal of Vick returning to a professional football career.

Vick's agent, Joel Segal, testified that he hoped Vick could return to the NFL by September.

First, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell would have to reinstate Vick, who was suspended indefinitely after he was indicted on the dogfighting conspiracy charge in 2007. Goodell has said he would consider Vick's case after his release.

Segal said he would try to negotiate a short-term contract filled with incentives for playing time and starts that could bring in millions. He also said Vick has agreed to plans for a television documentary that will pay him $600,000. Neither Segal nor Vick's attorneys would elaborate.

Vick was once one of the NFL's highest-paid players, but lavish spending and poor investments, coupled with the backlash from his dogfighting case, led to his financial ruin. Vick filed for bankruptcy in July claiming assets of $16 million and debts of more than $20 million.

Earlier this week, Vick and the Falcons agreed he would repay $6.5 million of his Atlanta contract, moving closer to cutting ties with a team that doesn't want him. Segal said he hasn't spoken to teams because Vick is still under contract with the Falcons, but that he is in shape and will be prepared for his return.

"There will be determination like we've never seen before to be structured and disciplined," Segal said.

A committee representing most of Vick's unsecured creditors has endorsed his Chapter 11 plan because the alternative -- a Chapter 7 liquidation of his assets -- would not provide them any portion of his future earnings. But some other parties, including a former agent who won a $4.6 million judgment against Vick, opposed the plan.

Vick is scheduled for release from federal custody in July, but he could be transferred to home confinement in late May.

After that, Vick will have a 40-hour-a-week, $10-an-hour job at one of W.M. Jordan Co.'s 40 commercial construction jobs, said John Robert Lawson, whose father helped start the Newport News company.

Lawson, 57, said that he has known Vick for more than 10 years and that they have been involved in charitable work together. He said Vick's representatives approached him when the former hometown hero was turned away by other employers.

"I believe all of us make mistakes, and once you've fulfilled your commitment and paid the price, you should be given a second chance," Lawson said in a telephone interview. "He's not a bad person. He made some bad choices."

[Associated Press; By DENA POTTER]

Associated Press writers Larry O'Dell and Steve Szkotak contributed to this report.

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