SANTA CLARA, Calif. — There’s a good chance Michael Vick will be playing football in San Francisco in 2009. However, it probably won’t be for Mike Singletary and the 49ers.

Instead the better fit as Vick begins his transition from federal prison inmate to professional football player would be with Dennis Green and the San Francisco franchise of the United Football League, which plans to play its first games this fall.
The fledgling UFL — which continues to insist it will play one game in Sacramento — appears to be the ideal stepping stone both for Vick, who must convince a skeptical public that he is rehabilitated, and the NFL, which is trying to improve its own image and has mixed emotions about allowing Vick back into their league.
The overwhelming sentiment voiced by NFL owners at least week’s league meetings in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is that Vick deserves a second chance. But none of those owners were exactly laying out a welcome mat for a man convicted of running a brutal dog fighting operation.
To do so would invite an avalanche of criticism to your team and an army of protesters and reporters to your doorstep. Which is why the UFL, which is seeking an affiliation with the NFL, seems to be a perfect compromise for all parties involved.
The four-team UFL’s inaugural season doesn’t begin until Oct. 8, which would allow Vick more time to readjust and get his affairs in order. The NFL’s season begins a month earlier and training camps begin in late July. Vick’s federal sentence comes to an end on July 20.
Before Vick plays in the NFL, he must be reinstated by commissioner Roger Goodell, who wants to ascertain that Vick is truly remorseful. Banishing Vick to what is a de facto developmental league for a season would give Goodell both an opportunity to observe Vick from afar and maintain his reputation as the law and order commissioner.
The attention that would come to any team that signs Vick would be focused on the new league, which might want some media glare, and not the NFL, which has plenty of it already.
A season in the UFL would give Vick plenty of time to sharpen his skills after 19 months in a Leavenworth, Kan., prison. If he proves those skills still exist, he only increases his NFL value next season.
Vick would have a better chance of playing quarterback in 2009 in the UFL. After two years away from the game, and with little offseason work, he might be relegated to a Wildcat role at best in the NFL.
The UFL also is unsure whether it wants players with troubled pasts to be the highlight of its inaugural season.
When he was in San Francisco in March, UFL Commissioner Michael Huyghue was asked about the prospect of signing players like Vick and free-agent cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones.
“We don’t intend to be a league of renegades, but having said that, there will be opportunities for players who have had incidents in the past,” Huyghue said at the time. “Each case will be balanced against the risks associated with that. But I would say if the right circumstances exist, we would welcome Michael Vick into our league.”
Huyghue said the league would pay close attention to its potential fans on the subject. To that end, Huyghue is currently soliciting feedback about Vick on his Twitter account — UFLCommissioner.