The Daily News reports that infamous dog-fighter/former NFL star, Michael Vick (who’s currently bankrupt), is planning to join the line of celebrity memoirists and is shopping for a publisher through literary agent Scott Waxman. Vick, who has taken hits from both PETA and the NFL since his release from prison late last month, has been splitting his time between a $10-a-day work release program, church, and time at home in Hampton, Va., with his fiancée and two of his children. The Daily News notes that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told Vick “that his chances of playing football again depend on whether he demonstrates sufficient remorse.” So they’re guessing it’s a big mea culpa.
This is hardly the first time we’ve seen a celebrity try to rehab thier image (and cash flow) by putting out a post-scandal tell all, but the real question is, does it work? Another former football player nearly blew himself apart with his little media bomb a while back when he attempted to cash in (if you don’t know who we mean, go have a glass of orange juice and see if it comes to you). Likewise, former NJ Governor James E. McGreevey and the Mrs. got the autobiography combo-bonus, managing to sqeeze two seperate books out of the same scandal without actually making either of them look better.
So is Vick simply looking for the dollar-dollar-bills or does he genuinely plan on getting an image boost out of the thing? As NFL FanHouse notes, this won’t help get him back out on the field: “…it’s a lose-lose situation for a team that has him on the roster. Even if Vick begs for the public’s forgiveness in the book, it still ensures that he’ll get another wave of questions about dog fighting when the book comes out (publishers expect authors to do some publicity), which is not something that any NFL team will want to see.”