Unfortunately for him, the Eagles didn't.
A couple days later, Leone, 32, was let go. But he didn't go quietly. He began giving interviews and quickly became a poster child for what can happen when you trash your employer online. Thanks to the growing popularity of social-networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, Leone's termination tale went viral.
Leone, who had been the Eagles' West Gate chief, eventually settled back into anonymity, his saga largely forgotten. Then, last week, he learned along with the rest of us that Vick, who served 18 months in prison for running a dogfighting ring in Virginia, had signed with the Eagles.
In the midst of the resulting controversy, a friend posed the question to Leone that if Vick could be granted a second chance, why couldn't he? That got Leone asking himself the same thing.
Didn't he deserve another shot, too?
"For a guy who's committed a crime to get his job making millions, why can't I get my job back making $12 an hour," Leone said when I spoke with him yesterday. "It's like a double standard. 'Cause he can win championships, it's like it's different. I helped the team in other ways."
He and other workers like him are "the team off the field," he said. "I was given service awards and different things to commend me for what I had done. I just want another shot."
Callers to WIP and other sports-talk stations think he deserves one.
After all, Eagles coach Andy Reid said: "I'm a believer that as long as people go through the right process, they deserve a second chance."
But it doesn't look like that's going to happen.
Eagles spokeswoman Pamela Browner Crawley said yesterday of Leone, "He was in a leadership position. He understood the rules. Not only did he understand them, but he was responsible for conveying them.
"Since he was let go, he has continued to do what the guidelines say he was not supposed to do. He has, basically, maligned the organization in local, regional and national media."
In his defense, Leone acknowledged that while it's true he talked with reporters, "I didn't go to the media until I was fired."
Meanwhile, Leone has increased the hours he works as a security guard at the Wachovia Center, but he still could use the extra money he earned with the Eagles.
"I didn't hurt nobody. I may have hurt somebody's feelings or something, but I didn't go killing dogs. But this is what I get."
As reprehensible as Vick's crime was, the former Atlanta Falcon served his time. He has every right to rebuild his career.
Leone wants to do the same thing, albeit on a far smaller scale.
He says he's sorry, and I believe him. I'm a sucker, though, for anyone pleading freedom of expression.
But all Leone did was engage in the same old blow-hard discourse you hear all the time on talk radio. His crime was in behaving more like a fan than an Eagles employee.
If I were running the Eagles, I wouldn't appreciate that, either. Loose cannons are annoying. But since the Eagles have offered a second chance to Vick, it would be a nice gesture if they did the same to Leone.
Send e-mail to heyjen@phillynews.com. My blog: http://go.philly.com/heyjen.
