Two Words of Advice for Vick: Reality Series

As long as everyone else is throwing in their two cents about disgraced NFL quarterback Michael Vick's next career move, I thought I should chime in because the answer is just common sense.

Mike -- can I call you Mike? -- this is what you should do: Forget about a return to pro football for 2009 and contact dog whisperer Cesar Millan about becoming his sidekick.

Seriously.

It's evident by the latest unconfirmed internet reports that Vick, the former Atlanta Falcons quarterback went to a Virginia Beach (Va.) strip club just hours after he completed a 23-month sentence for operating a dogfighting ring, that he's still too much of a hot button for any NFL franchise to touch.

Leaving the morality issue out of attending a gentlemen's club, even if Vick did attend such an establishment, who cares? He's not Pac Man Jones. Vick's never been accused of making it rain with either money or bullets at a strip club. Billions of men frequent such places without incident.

There's worse place that Michael Vick could be caught visiting -- like a Vegas casino. Or in a pet store.

If Vick were in Vegas, I'd have a much bigger problem because of the gambling aspect of his dogfighting operation. Serious questions would have to be raised about his integrity with respect to football in that regard.

Former NBA star Antoine Walker's publicized gambling debt of more than $800,000 should remind us the dangers of excessive Vegas jaunts. It's a good thing for NBA commissioner David Stern that the letters E and X are in front of Walker's NBA status.

But going to a strip club? Where's the harm? Admit it, they do have great food specials.

OK, OK, a guy like Vick shouldn't go anywhere that raises any morality question; I get that from a PR aspect. He should be the poster child for every good deed that goes on in America if he wants to get in the good graces of NFL commissioner Roger Goddell and the American public.

The headache of bringing him into any NFL training camp still looms as too much trouble for his talent to help on the football field. The wounds he's inflicted still are too fresh, too raw. The backlash still is too great for any organization to manage.

That's where Millan comes in. If someone in Vick's shrunken camp would reach out to Millan, the likable host of "Dog Whisperer " on the National Geographic channel.

Even a rumors or "internet reports" of a letter to Millan, let's say, explaining how Vick wants to learn how to understand and appreciate dogs would be at least as positive for his image as going to a strip club is negative.

Can you imagine the ratings bonanza "Dog Whisperer" would get if Vick were to appear on the show as Millan's apprentice? If "Jon and Kate Plus Eight" can explode in popularity because of rumors of infidelity, surely "Dog Whisperer" can entice a few more viewers, too.

Don't act like you don't know who Jon and Kate are.

And this boon to another otherwise niche reality show would be attributed to something positive.

The type of image-rebuilding acts that would get Vick back on an NFL roster. Then all the talk of his next destination -- the Dallas Cowboys, Miami Dolphins, Oaklan Raiders, Minnesota Vikings, New England Patriots, Cleveland Browns -- won't come with all the baggage of the rest of his saga.