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.
