Andy Richardson
Across the country, people are faced with the question of whether or not to add Michael Vick to their team. Not just the handful of NFL GMs with a need at quarterback -- those teams, at least, won't do anything until (if) Commissioner Roger Goodell reinstates him.
Fantasy owners have the same dilemma, and I think it's interesting that -- at least in my personal experience -- there are plenty of owners who will avoid him not based on his potential to contribute to their fantasy teams, but because of his participation in the crimes which landed him in prison in the first place.
I'm in a 12-team dynasty league with 26-player rosters. That's more than 300 rostered players, but they don't include Michael Vick. He's available, and has been since free agency opened six weeks ago. Nobody has made the leap.
I could say it's because as a suspended player who doesn't have a team and might not play this season, Vick simply isn't worth a roster spot from a strategic perspective. Of course, it would be a lot easier to say that if players like Seneca Wallace and all three of the possible Tampa Bay quarterbacks (Byron Leftwich, Luke McCown, Josh Freeman) didn't have jobs in our league. Freeman is a given, but the point is that in a league this large, every possible starting quarterback in 2009 is being held somewhere. Except Vick.
My league isn't representative of every league, clearly. The software tells me that Vick has been added in nearly 8 percent of leagues over the course of the spring. In some of the other leagues he was already on a roster, no doubt, while most others probably haven't gotten started yet -- haven't even had their preseason drafts.
Anyway, my guess is that the only reason Vick hasn't been added in my league is that nobody wants to be the owner who brings the bad karma of a dog-killer onto his roster. I suppose if Goodell reinstates him and a team like the Rams signs him, somebody will hold their nose and add him - but the fact that it hasn't happened yet at least makes me think that maybe, just maybe, it won't.
I wonder how he's being treated in other dynasty leagues these days, and how many late-round draft picks will be used on him in re-draft leagues this summer. At least based on my league, I suspect the answer is, not many.
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