by Thomas Keister

Glad to see they can still make room for non-issue scandals with all the lip service being paid to town hall meetings and the latest on the continued  catfight between Meghan McCain and Michelle Malkin, and the biggest non-issue scandal at the moment seems to be the ongoing debate about Michael Vick's  return to the NFL, if and when it finally happens.

America's most talked-about former dogfight afficianado, recently reinstated to the National Football League by commissioner Roger Goodell, has yet to sign  with a new team, and thus far, no team has stepped forward to show anything resembling interest, and as a result, here comes the talk of conspiracy.  Naturally.

No less than Alan Dershowitz and the Rev. Jesse Jackson has weighed in on the former Atlanta Falcons star, and it boggles the mind as to why either man would  get involved in the first place. Dershowitz, a legendary legal mind, has said that if Vick were banned by the NFL, it would be "denying the right to an  occupation."

Whoa there, counselor. The National Football League, regardless of their feelings on the matter, is not the only football game in town. Run the term  'football league' through any reputable search engine, and this question will be answered in mere seconds. While no NFL team has shown interest, there is  nothing stopping Vick from shopping himself around to the Canadian Football League, the North American Football League, the United Football League, or the  upcoming relaunch of the United States Football League, not to mention AF2, the still-operating minor league for the currently stalled-out Arena Football  League. Any one of those choices may not be the big time Vick craves, but it would allow him to shake off the rust from two years away from the game and re- establish himself as a marketable player. That, and the NFL did not, in fact, ban Vick at all. Objection overruled.

In an equal turn, however, where the hell is it carved in granite that the only job for Michael Vick is quarterbacking in the National Football League? For  all of the people complaining that the guy still has a right to make a living, has none of them figured that out? The guy did put in a couple of years at  Virgina Tech, so it's not like football is the only thing he knows...oh, wait. Tell Vick to try a 9-5 job until he gets the football worked out. That might  go longer in repairing his image that having notable public figures rattle off nonsensical soundbites.

Speaking of nonsensical, that is exactly where Jesse Jackson comes in. In a telephone interview with New York Times columnist William C. Rhoden, Jackson  claimed collusion among the NFL team owners in Vick's inability to get on with another team in light of his release from prison and subsequent reinstatement.

Yeah, Jesse Jackson said there is a conspiracy to keep Michael Vick from playing in the NFL. Maybe someone should grab a dictionary and explain just what  collusion means to the Reverend. In that very same dictionary, you should be able to find a picture of Vick under the definition of 'overrated.' The guy  never quite latched on to the concept that the quarterback THROWS the ball, rather than scrambling from the pocket in 95% of the plays from scrimmage. This  is why the Atlanta Falcons were usually on the "disappointment" list when it came time for the playoffs. It can't be a coincidence that Matt Ryan led Vick's  former team to a solid season after he was gone. When it happens again this year (which I believe is likely), that will just further state the obvious.

Bottom line, the only person to blame for Michael Vick not being on a NFL roster is Michael Vick. The only thing stopping Michael Vick from returning to the  NFL is the owners, and it is their right to field the team they think is capable of winning championships. The only constant in this is the fact that Michael  Vick did not show that ability the first time around, and the job of making Michael Vick look like a winning bet again is Michael Vick, not a law professor  or an activist who has his own agenda, which hardly has anything to do with football, last time I checked.