What about Bob? Glauber's NFL Blog

By all indications, the Falcons are doing everything possible to distance themselves from the player who has been the face of the franchise since 2001. Their announcement yesterday that they had planned to suspend him four games and their unwillingness to guarantee he will be their quarterback once the case is resolved suggests that Vick's future is tenuous at best.

Now the question begs: Is Vick through in Atlanta? And for that matter, is he through with the NFL?

Answer: Not necessarily.

While it all looks bad for Vick now - as it should, considering the gruesome details of his alleged involvement in the operation - we are still in the very, very early stages. Time will pass, and the courts will eventually decide the matter, and that includes the possibility that Vick pleads out and does some jail time or is slapped with a heavy fine and lengthy probation.

But who's to say Vick can't eventually restore his reputation, the way other athletes caught up in criminal activities have? Does the name Ray Lewis ring a bell?

The Ravens' star linebacker was accused of a double murder in Atlanta following a post-Super Bowl party in January, 2000 and spent 15 days in jail. After months on trial, Lewis was cleared of the murder charges in exchange for a guilty plea to obstructing a police investigation and was fined $250,000 by NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue, the largest player fine ever. The negative publicity against Lewis was 10 times worse than it is for Vick.

A year, later, he won Defensive Player of the Year and led the Ravens to the Super Bowl.

These days, Lewis is known as a football player, with very few references to his involvement in the murder case.

I'm not comparing the crimes of Vick and Lewis. But it's worth pointing out that athletes - or other public figures, for that matter - can overcome horrific circumstances over time. Vick's alleged behavior is reprehensible, and he must pay his debt to society. But it's just too early to say it's over for him as an athlete, especially if he fesses up, helps animal rights causes, and turns into a decent human being.

Once the court case is completed, Vick must undergo the kind of public makeover that will allow him to move on from this ugly chapter in his life and resume his career. And it's silly to think that he can't make some kind of amends, even if the charges stick and he is imprisoned for his misdeeds.

Vick can start by turning his home in Virginia, once a burial ground for dead fighting dogs, into a rehabilitation center for animals.

He can stand up and say how wrong he was in front of the good folks from places like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, The Humane Society and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. And he can back up that remorse by donating hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money to those and other animal-related organizations.

And he can offer himself up as an example to other would-be breeders to make sure they don't get involved in something that is completely barbaric.

The first step is an acknowledgement that what he actually did was wrong, something Vick might not be able to do just now because he still doesn't understand how brutal his behavior has been. But if he comes to realize the enormity of his alleged involvement, then he can begin to repair an image that is so broken that his future in football is uncertain at best.

If not, then he should never throw a football in the NFL again.