We won’t be able to evaluate the financial aspects of Michael Vick’s new deal until we see the fine print.
That hasn’t happened yet, but we have learned an interesting nugget. Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports and Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer note that there is no “extra” conduct stipulations in Vick’s contract. The language is standard.
Florio points out that the Eagles may not have been allowed to include such language anyhow. The real protection for the Eagles could arrive with the contract structure. Will it be easy for the Eagles to get out of the contract after, say, two years?
It didn’t take long for some folks in Philadelphia to wonder if the new contract will allow Vick to take his foot off the gas pedal.
“Now the deal is done and [Vick] has 100 million temptations to go right back to his old ways. . . . Now that the deal is done, we’ll start to learn whether Vick really has changed or whether he has acted the part just long enough to regain what he lost,” Phil Sheridan of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes.
This sounds over-the-top, but it’s a fair enough point to raise considering Vick’s past. We suspect the Eagles structured the contract in such a way that Vick will have plenty of motivation to stay near the NFL’s mountain top.
UPDATE: Florio had his say on the Vick contract on PFT Live.