Lovie Smith: Mike Vick = Martha Stewart

Three weeks back, I wrote about Michael Vick needing to nail his apology in order to get back to his vocation of playing professional football.

Last week at the NFL Owners Meetings in California, Commissioner Roger Goodell validated that story, saying, "He's going to have to demonstrate to the larger community -- not just to the NFL community and to me -- that he has remorse for what he did and that he recognizes mistakes that he made. Everyone makes mistakes, but he has to show that genuine remorse in his ability to be a positive influence to correct the things that he did wrong publicly."

And then from there, presumably, each team weighs the package that is Michael Vick and decides whether it wants him and the good and bad he brings with him among its employees.

It's not an easy call. The guy was convicted of a serious crime, there are no guarantees he won't have any lapses back into a life of stupid and what he did was - to some extreme segments of the populace - more heinous than an act perpetrated on a human. That stuff sticks even after the prison term's over.

Yet Bears coach Lovie Smith would have folks believe that all crimes are created equal.

"I would look at Michael like I look at every other prospect that's available: He goes back into the pool," Smith said. "That's what everyone in society does. Martha Stewart went to prison. She paid her time. Now she's back in society."

Martha STEWART?! Stock fraud and lying to the gummint are what she did her five months in prison and five months of home confinement for. She'd never been in any kind of trouble (unless being serially annoying counts). Why, of all the public figures convicted of crimes, would Smith seize on Martha Stewart as an example? (It's also worth pointing out that Stewart doesn't craft for the Denver Doilymakers of the National Craftspeople League. She's self-employed).

But this is the kind of moronic red herring that's going to be floated down the river when Vick conversation goes from a trickle to a torrent in the coming months. Deal in reality. Which Smith did a sentence or two later, saying, "Mike made a mistake, and he's paying the price for that mistake. Once you've paid your debt to society, you have to say, 'OK, let's go on from there.' "

But "going on" doesn't mean what Vick did goes away. It becomes part of his "package" so to speak. He has the chance to go back to his job. But no one is compelled to hire him.