Mike Celizic

The Rams gave Lawrence Phillips a second chance. The Broncos invited Maurice Clarett to show how much he had matured. Both were bigger busts than New Coke. But whether the NFL’s talent evaluators learned anything from either of them won’t be known until spring, when Marcus Vick enters the NFL draft.

There’s no guarantee Vick will be available for drafting four months from now. The way he’s going, he could be working on his three-step drop in the county jail — or the Virginia state pen — by then. But if he somehow manages to find a lawyer who can talk him out of his legal troubles, NFL personnel directors are going to have a decision to make.

The great majority of sports fans, I’m pretty sure, could tell them what to do: Just say no. But history has taught us that there’s always someone willing to play Father Flannigan and give a troubled young man one more shot, which may be a bad choice of words in the present instance, but it’s the thought that counts. And for some reason, the more talent the player has, the more willing draft directors are to believe that the poor fellow deserves another chance.

It’s the same way in all sports. If the bullpen catcher for the Kansas City Royals were found to be gambling on baseball, most fans would agree that hanging him by his ear lobes from the big video board in Times Square and inviting passersby to hurl rotten vegetables at him would be too good for him. But if it’s Pete Rose who’s caught, there’s considerable sentiment to forgive and forget.

I know how it should be with Vick. I wouldn’t touch him with a 10-foot night stick, and nobody else should either. If he wants to play, let him go to Canada, where Lawrence Phillips landed for a bit, or NFL Europe or the Arena League. (It’s times like this you wish the XFL were still in business. Instead of a name on the back of his jersey, he could have his inmate number.)

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But there is that talent that some said might be even better than that exhibited by his brother, Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick. During his abbreviated college career, Marcus Vick was compared frequently and favorably to Michael. The comparisons should stop. By all accounts, Michael Vick is an exemplary citizen who has done his best to point his brother along the straight and narrow.

Given what Michael has done in Atlanta, which is revive the team, fill the stadium and bring huge heaps of national attention on the city and the team, I know some teams are going to be tempted. If a team can go for Phillips, a serial woman-beater, a team can go for Vick.