Vick's redemption off to slow start

There were two reasons the personal Michael Vick moratorium was over before it began.

Reason No. 1: Vick made the first of his local anti-dogfighting appearances at Nueva Esperanza Academy in the Hunting Park section of the city yesterday. Because owner Jeffrey Lurie created the "proactive" gold standard for judging the Eagles' signing of Vick, it is important to hold him, the organization, and especially Vick to that standard.

Reason No. 2: This might be a little harder to follow, but those of us who have come down heavily against the Vick signing owe it to the man and his new employers to keep our minds as open as possible. If Vick is really here as some kind of experiment in football-based redemption and rehabilitation, it is only fair to give him a chance to prove himself.

So it is with apologies to the Vicked-out that we take one more preseason look at this situation. After today, we promise, the Vick moratorium and the regular season will begin. No more Vick until he's on the team and playing football and it just can't be helped. Promise.

Let's revisit Lurie's heartfelt remarks the day the Eagles introduced Vick. They are the criteria on which this pass-fail exam will be graded.

"If we don't have an extremely proactive player here off the field, then this is a terrible decision," Lurie said. "It's going to be initially disappointing to some people that we have given him the second chance, and I'm aware of that. . . . My hope is that as we go forward, that Michael will prove his value in society. Whether he becomes a good football player again is possible, but more importantly for Michael and for the National Football League, he has an opportunity to be a very valuable member of society, and that's the goal here."

The Eagles reportedly will roll out a bunch of initiatives to raise awareness of animal cruelty, and that's all very nice. But this is about what Vick says and does, and on the first day of school, he addressed about 200 incoming freshmen at the mostly Latino charter high school.

So how did he do? Was Vick the high-impact spokesman for animal rights that he, the Eagles, and the Humane Society of the United States have promised he will be?

Not really.