"I said to Michael repeatedly, we're looking for a success story here," Goodell said. "We would like to see him be successful, and this is a transition to hopefully maximize the opportunity for him to be successful."
Vick was relieved.
"I'm going to try to do all the right things to make sure I stay on course," he said after he played in the Eagles' 38-27 exhibition loss to the Jets in East Rutherford, N.J. "I can't complain about anything. If it was a six-game suspension, if that was the ruling, I would have been happy and would have just said I would have worked on personal development and working on my game."
Eagles president Joe Banner said before the game that the team was "guessing" that the suspension would be between one and three games.
"Certainly, it was within the range of what we expected and we appreciate the commissioner's thoughtfulness," Banner said. "We think this is a good outcome and we look forward to having him. . . . I think Michael wants to play as soon as he can."
As of last night, the Eagles had not decided whether to put Vick on the 53-man roster, which must be set by 6 p.m. tomorrow, or to put him on an exempt list, which would give a roster spot to someone else but would prohibit Vick from practicing with the team.
"We'll wait until the dust settles tonight and we'll see where we're at, figure out the cuts," Banner said.
After Vick served 18 months of a federal prison term for his involvement in a dogfighting operation in Virginia, Goodell conditionally reinstated the former Atlanta Falcons quarterback and said at the time full reinstatement might not happen until Week 6 of the regular season.
