Vick may not have appreciated the irony of the dog that inadvertently saved other dogs, but he most certainly did not appreciate the prospect of having to own up to what happened at his property or to acknowledge his part in it.
"I'm never at the house," he said after the raid. "I left the house with my family members and my cousin. They just haven't been doing the right thing."
Turn your back for a minute and a dogfighting operation just springs right up. What's a man to do?
This may seem like old ground - Vick lying for the sake of expediency - but the Eagles are risking a good deal on the premise that the quarterback's word is worth more than it once was.
Of all the participants in the news conferences at which Vick's signing was announced and he was welcomed to Philadelphia, the only one whose motivations were completely understandable was Vick.
The man is broke - bankrupt, in fact - and needs a job. If any of us were in his position, we would also say whatever was necessary to get and keep that job.
We would sit for hours with Roger Goodell and Andy Reid and Jeffrey Lurie - good lord, wasn't prison enough suffering? - and repeat the I-know-I-did-wrong-and-must-make-it-right mantra until they seemed to believe it.
We would memorize the key phrases:
Playing in the NFL is a privilege, not a right. I had a lot of time to think in prison. I want to end up helping more animals than I hurt.
