What has been a slow hum for months is rapidly turning into a loud buzz with Michael Vick’s release from federal prison. This morning Vick departed through a back door to avoid the media horde in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. While no public statements were uttered this morning the sports world is buzzing over where Vick will end up. Few athletes have ever experienced such dizzying heights, only to be followed by such extreme lows. While Vick has yet to make a public statement, he did say in a bankruptcy hearing that he could end up playing in the United Football League. This was groundbreaking because it was the first time, in public, that he admitted such.

Now Clark Judge of CBSSports.com has a major piece out connecting Vick to the UFL:

Here’s a prediction: Michael Vick plays this season, but he doesn’t play in the NFL. He plays in the UFL.

That’s the fledgling league that hired Jim Fassel, Jim Haslett, Ted Cottrell and Dennis Green as head coaches and is expected to open in October.

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It’s also a league starved for attention, and in Michael Vick, it would have it. Not only would he attract thousands of fans, either to support him or protest his return, but he would deliver a buzz startups crave. Moreover, he would bring in a media army, and if you don’t believe it, you didn’t see reporters camped outside federal prison in Fort Leavenworth on Wednesday.

Anyway, the UFL could do for Michael Vick what the NFL might not, and that’s give him somewhere to play this season.

I don’t know that Vick is suspended again, but I know it’s a possibility. I also know that I didn’t hear of one team at this week’s NFL owners meetings that expressed interest in the guy if and when commissioner Roger Goodell reinstates him.

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“My guess,” said Atlanta owner Arthur Blank, “is that if the commissioner lifts the suspension in the National Football League and clubs have an interest in him, he would prefer to play in the National Football League as opposed to the UFL. I don’t know that, but I would suppose that.”

I would, too, provided clubs have an interest in him. I haven’t found any that do, and that’s partly because they’re waiting on Goodell and mostly because Vick is a public-relations bomb waiting to explode. San Francisco experienced it, and so will the next team that leaves its front door yawning, inviting Vick to step in.

“I’d think you’d want to be very careful about it,” said Houston owner Bob McNair. “The last thing you want to do is annoy your fan base, because without our fans we have nothing. You don’t want to put together something that will turn them off. That could be a disastrous situation.”

Which is why the UFL makes perfect sense. First, there are some league executives who think Vick will be suspended at least part of the upcoming season. So there’s a window there. Second, the UFL has no fan base. So there’s the door. Put the two together, and you have the perfect home. Nervous NFL teams that might have an interest once a suspension is lifted could measure fan reaction while he plays in another professional league.

“It makes sense to me,” said one executive. “I talked to our general manager this morning, and he brought it up, saying he could see it happening.”

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So let him do it in the UFL. Vick can sharpen his athletic skills there, rehabilitate his public image, then graduate to the NFL when he believes he’s ready — or, more accurately, when it is ready. Vick needs time to straighten himself out on the field and off, and the NFL needs time to get used to having him back. So send him to the UFL and let the games begin.

Source: CBSSports.com

At the time this piece was published it was on the front page of both CBSSports.com and their NFL page – granting the UFL priceless exposure. The buzz will only continue to build which, regardless of whether or not Vick ends up in the UFL, can only be considered a positive for the league.

Also of note – this was the first time to UFLAccess.com’s knowledge the UFL was ever spoken about on the record by a major NFL figure.