HAMPTON, Va. (AP) -Michael Vick has managed to remain mostly out of sight since returning to his Virginia home from prison. For those times when he does go out in public, he’s been fitted with an electronic monitor.
Federal officials will track Vick’s movements, and they won’t be the only ones watching the former NFL star.
Vick may have gotten a sense of what’s ahead on his first day at home Thursday after his release from federal prison in Leavenworth, Kan.
Within 90 minutes of his return, probation officials showed up with the monitoring device. They walked Vick around the back of his house checking to see if the device worked.
before leaving the porch, then immediately called a friend to boast he had just spoken with Vick.
Surrounded by family members and supporters celebrating his return, Vick also still had the security team that accompanied him on the trip looking out for him on Thursday.
But on Friday, he’s scheduled to head to Norfolk to check in with his probation officer at the Norfolk federal courthouse, and he’ll presumably begin the construction job next week.
At either place, or stops along the way, he’s as likely to encounter people on his side as those who believe his crimes were so egregious that he should never be allowed to play again.
Some of those showed up at his house on the cul-de-sac on homecoming day, too.
“It’s really inhumane what he did,” said Shaun Brantley, 30, of Chesapeake, who spent hours outside with his pit bull. “He deserves a whole lot more than what he got.”
Vick will spend the next two months confined to his home as he completes his 23-month sentence for dogfighting. He is scheduled to be released from federal custody on July 20.
There has been no word directly from Vick, and may not be for days.
Larry Woodward, his Virginia-based attorney, accompanied the probation officers to the home and explained afterward that the former Atlanta Falcons quarterback remains a federal inmate and cannot speak to the media without permission from the Bureau of Prisons.
Efforts to get permission are under way, Woodward said, but he gave no further information.
Vick, who arrived in a sport utility vehicle with blackout curtains, made the 1,200-mile trip in 28 hours. The SUV, leading a four-vehicle caravan carrying a security team and others, cruised directly into a side garage.
Vick’s ultimate goal is to convince NFL commissioner Roger Goodell that he is truly sorry for his crime and that he is ready to live a different life. Goodell has said those are the main factors that will guide his decision on whether to lift Vick’s indefinite suspension.
“I definitely support his efforts at re-entering society and hope the public understands he’s paid his debt, and I know he’s remorseful,” Tennessee Titans tight end Alge Crumpler, a former Falcons teammate, said Thursday. “Nothing I can say matters. It’s all about Mike’s actions, what he does, how people perceive the things that he does and how he reaches out and tries to help people understand the things that he’s lost.”
If Vick is reinstated by Goodell, one team he won’t get a shot with is Jacksonville. Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver said Thursday that he is “not interested” in Vick.
ate dogfighting among urban teens.
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Associated Press Writer Larry O’Dell in Hampton and AP Sports Writer Teresa M. Walker in Nashville, Tenn., contributed.
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