The return is complete. On August 13, Michael Vick signed a 2-year contract with the Philadelphia Eagles. The terms of the agreement include a salary of 1.6 million dollars with an option for a second year for 5.2 million dollars. However, the incentive laden contract also allows Vick to earn up to an additional 3 million dollars during the life of the contract, ESPN is reporting.

“I’m a believer that as long as people go through the right process, they deserve a second chance,” Eagles coach Andy Reid said during a press conference Thursday night. “He's got great people on his side; there isn’t a finer person than Tony Dungy. He's proven he's on the right track.”

Per the terms of his reinstatement, Vick can immediately practice with the Eagles. However, he cannot play in the preseason until week 3 and will not be eligible for full reinstatement until Week 6 (October 18-19), at the latest.

According to Reid, the Eagles fully performed their due diligence prior to signing Vick. As part of that process, team President Joe Banner reached out to various constituencies of the Philadelphia community to see how the public would react if the franchise signed Vick. These individuals included Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and local animal rights organizations within the city.

While the response from these sources must had been somewhat encouraging, as the team went on to sign Vick, now the organization is faced with the difficult task of dealing with a media frenzy in reaction to the Vick signing for the foreseeable future. Already stories are being written disparaging Vick’s association with the Eagles and predicting that there will be protests in front of the team’s training facility.

PETA, who is planning protests against the Vick signing, released a statement criticizing the Vick signing:

“PETA and millions of decent football fans around the world are disappointed that the Eagles decided to sign a guy who hung dogs from trees. He electrocuted them with jumper cables and held them under water,” PETA spokesman Dan Shannon told The Associated Press.

During today’s press conference regarding the Vick signing, team owner Jeff Lurie was asked how Vick would be measured – his activities in the community, or yardage. Lurie said, “We won’t be measuring him on yardage. My own measurement of Michael Vick will be 100%, ‘Is he able to create social change in this horrendous arena of animal cruelty?’ Whether he’s successful with us on the field? Sure, I hope he is. But, his legend and whether we are giving him a second chance will be successful if he can diminish the level of animal cruelty. That’s it. And if he’s not proactive…If he’s not proactive, he won’t be on the team. That’s part of the agreement.”

Since leaving prison, Vick has worked with various community outreach programs; some of those programs were for animal abuse awareness. Thus, it is up to Vick and his management team, which includes well respected former coach Tony Dungy, to continue this important community service work.

Although there certainly will be some negative publicity with the Vick signing, an upcoming episode of “60 Minutes” may assist in beginning the rehabilitation of Vick’s persona.

During the interview with CBS’ James Brown, the former Virginia Tech standout takes sole responsibility for not ending the illegal dog-fighting ring that led to his arrest, subsequent imprisonment and disrobement from professional football.

“I wasn’t a leader, I should have took the initiative to stop it all…I didn’t. I didn’t step up.”

Vick certainly has expressed enough remorse for his role as the financier of a dog-fighting ring.  He would not have been partially reinstated by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell if this were not the case.

While the Eagles are proceeding with caution in bringing on Vick, the team is still taking a gamble in associating the fallen star with their organization. Nobody will deny that the Eagles signed the athletically talented quarterback at a discounted rate; however it is unclear whether the Eagles actually needed to sign Vick and whether this will eventually create a quarterback controversy.

Right now everyone within the Eagles’ organization is communicating the right message: “Donovan McNabb is the starter and Vick is going to be a complementary part of the team’s offense. Michael needs to get his life back on track before he can focus on being a featured football player once again.” However, how will all of this change once McNabb goes down with a serious injury and the team has to turn to Vick?

Donovan McNabb has been plagued with injuries over the last few seasons. Although it is uncertain whether McNabb will be injured, chances are he will miss some time during the season. At that point, assuming he is reinstated, Vick will be thrust into the spotlight and be asked to once again be a team leader. If this occurs, how will affect team chemistry? Will the team become fractionized in a similar method to what happened not so long ago when Terrell Owens was an Eagle? One has to ask whether the Eagles have thought of this scenario and whether the organization would be agreeable to Vick becoming the face of the team.

Regardless of who he surrounds himself with or what he says in the media, Vick (for the moment) is still a public relations nightmare. For the foreseeable future, Vick will be a traveling show of negative publicity until animal rights’ groups decide that enough is enough. Further, Vick might not even be fully reinstated by Goodell.

From a revenue producing standpoint, it is unclear how Eagles supporters and sponsors will react to the signing. Depending on how smoothly the Michael Vick experiment goes in Philly, sponsors may not be inclined to renew their sponsorships at the conclusion of the season.

For now, hold on, it may be a bumpy ride as Philadelphia boards the “Michael Vick Experience,” reloaded.

Jeff Levine is a staff member of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey. He is a sports attorney, and the Executive Director of One Sports and Entertainment, International.

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