NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is expected to announce this week when Eagles quarterback Michael Vick will be permitted to play during the regular season. Shortly after Vick was released from federal prison, after 18 months on dogfighting charges, the commissioner conditionally reinstated Vick. That allowed Vick to play in the final two preseason games. His upcoming decision will determine when the speedy lefty is back for good. Earlier, Goodell said he might not permit Vick back until the sixth game of the regular season, which means that the Philadelphia Eagles would be compelled to put him on the exempt list. This would preclude Vick from practicing and thus retard his flow back into productive, full-time pro football. The Philadelphia Eagles, which must cut its roster to 53 players by Saturday evening, say it is imperative to know when Vick will be allowed back. The team signed the former Atlanta Falcon to a two-year contract, worth close to $7 million. However, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello denied ESPN reports that the commissioner would decide this week. “I don’t know when the commissioner will make his decision,” Aiello said. “He hasn’t told me yet.” Vick will play in tonight’s final exhibition game, against the New York Jets, at Giants Stadium.

When the Philadelphia Eagles take the field against the Jacksonville Jaguars tonight, fans – as well as the anti-fans – will witness the second coming of Michael Vick. Word is, dog lovers will throw a tailgate party for the “2nd Chance Dogs campaign to put a spotlight on the dogfighting scourge and to prompt folks to adopt formerly abused pit bulls. As this group’s members are happy to point out, these canines, like Vick, deserve another chance. Ever since the Eagles announced that it had signed Vick, following an 18-month stint in federal prison for dogfighting, the critics have been out in force. The City of Brotherly Love is no place for the three-time Pro Bowl quarterback, who committed such egregious acts of cruelty at his Bad Newz Kennels in Virginia, the critics claim. And the fact that the speedy, lefty provides the Super Bowl-starved team with another weapon in the battle for a championship is immaterial, argue opponents like Sue Cosby, chief executive of the SPCA. “As a lot of people have pointed out, (Vick’s) animals never got a second chance,” Cosby said. “We need to speak for them.” It only remains to be seen whether others will follow through with a promised boycott of the Eagles – and whether it would have any impact if they did. Meanwhile, the NAACP and Black Clergy of Philadelphia are planning protests of their own. Both groups contend that Vick has paid his debt to society and deserves an opportunity to work in his profession, which happens to be an NFL quarterback.

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Michael Vick, signed last week to a two-year contract with the Philadelphia Eagles after spending nearly two years in prison, said that he cried his eyes out after being locked up – and not because he had lost the most lucrative contract in the NFL. “When I was in prison … I was disgusted, you know, because of what I let happen to those animals,” Vick told CBS’s “60 Minutes” in his first interview since being released. “I deserved to lose the $130 million. “Why would a guy who was making a $130 million … on the flip side … killing dogs … he don’t deserve it.” Last week, Vick, who is now millions of dollars in debt, signed a one-year contract with the Eagles worth $1.6 million; if the team decides to keep the speedy, left-handed quarterback for a second year, it must pay him another $5.2 million. When he completed the 23-month prison sentence — 18 months of which he did at the federal penitentiary in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas —NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell allowed him back into the league, after a six-week suspension. Vick told “60 Minutes” commentator James Brown that he understood why people are still angry at him, even though he has paid his debt to society. “I understand why,” Vick replied. “And I’m going to say it again. Sickens me to my stomach. And it was, you know, the same thing that I’m feeling right now. …I could’ve put a stop to it. I could’ve walked away from it. I could’ve shut down the whole operation.” All it would have taken, Vick said, is for him to have stood up to the buddies with whom he ran Bad Newz Kennels. His mistake, he said, was “not being able to say, or tell … certain people around me that, ‘Look, we can’t do this anymore. I’m concerned about my career. I’m concerned about my family.’”

Quarterback-turned-convict-turned-quarterback Michael Vick apparently did enough to convince NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell that he’s sorry for acts of animal cruelty that landed him in the federal penitentiary for nearly two years, but PETA isn’t buying it. Just moments after the Philadelphia Eagles announced inking a two-year deal with the former Atlanta Falcons quarterback, the animal-rights group lashed out. “You’ve got to wonder what kind of message this sends to young people who care about animals and don’t want to see them be harmed,” Dan Shannon, a spokesman for the group said in a statement. “We hope Vick has learned his lesson, we hope he feels remorseful for his crimes, but there’s not a lot of public indication that that’s the case. At this point, only time will tell.”  PETA members weren’t the only ones expressing outrage. Sports-radio shows were clogged with callers blasting the Eagles’ organization for signing Vick to the deal, worth $1.6 million this year and an additional $5.2 million if the team decides to bring him back in 2011. But the 29-year-old lefty wasn’t without his share of supporters. Donovan McNabb, the Eagles’ quarterback for the past decade, said he actually pressed management to add Vick to the squad. “I pretty much lobbied to get him here, because I believe everyone deserves a second chance, and what better place to come [than] here,” said McNabb, contradicting early reports that he was averse to bringing in such talented competition. “I look forward to him joining us in the next couple days.” Coach Andy Reid said, “Michael has proven he’s on the right track,” Reid said. “I’ve had a chance to talk to Michael a few times to make sure I know exactly where he’s at, and he’s in a good place. …I’m very excited … to have a good football player. You’re talking about one of the top quarterbacks in the league when he was playing, and he’s familiar with our offense, having done it the last few years in Atlanta. It’s a very exciting thing. We feel very good about it.” Ironically, the last time Vick played an NFL Game, he donned a Falcons helmet and played against the Philadelphia Eagles. On Dec. 6, the Eagles face the Falcons.

Eagles’ Defensive Coach Dies
Jim Johnson, the defensive general for the Philadelphia Eagles who led his team to one Super Bowl and five NFC title games, has died. He was 68. Johnson, who had been an NFL assistant coach for some 22 years, succumbed to cancer in his spine. The Eagles announced his death Tuesday afternoon, The Associated Press reports. Johnson had been on a leave of absence since May. “For 10 years, Jim Johnson was an exceptional coach for the Philadelphia Eagles, but more importantly, he was an outstanding human being,” said Eagles chairman Jeffrey Lurie. “As an integral part of the Eagles family, Jim epitomized the traits of what a great coach should be — a teacher, a leader, and a winner… It was easy to feel close to him.” Johnson was a defensive demon, known for his quick, blitzing defenses. From 2000-08, Johnson’s Philadelphia defenses ranked second in the NFL in sacks (390). During his 10-year tenure, the Eagles made the playoffs seven times and he produced 26 Pro Bowl selections, according to AP.

Will Michael Vick Find a Team
Disgraced NFL quarterback Michael Vick might be allowed to play pro football again, but so far nobody seems interested. Perhaps squads are merely waiting until the fervor dies down, but the frenzy over the speedy, former ball-slinger for the Atlanta Falcons is nonexistent. At the time Vick was convicted for financing a dogfighting operation in Virginia, he was the highest-paid player in the league. Today, he’s scrambling for a job. “We’ve had long discussions about Michael Vick and we have a feeling about how he would impact our team and not impact our team,” Baltimore Ravens Coach John Harbaugh said, acknowledging that he has considered Vick’s services. But Ozzie Newsome, the Ravens’ general manager, said his team has enough quarterbacks. Last week, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell met with Vick and said that he can immediately take part in preseason practices, workouts and meetings and can play in the final two preseason games. But that is contingent on him finding a team who wants him.

Serena in Rare Major Defeat

After 18 straight wins at a major tournament, 10-time Grand Slam champ Serena Williams was ousted from the French Open Wednesday, getting upset 7-6 (3), 5-7, 7-5 by Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova. “Honestly, I think I lost because of me and not because of anything she did,” said Williams, careful not to give too much praise to her opponent. “I had an opportunity, and I got really tight, and I pretty much gave it to her. It was like, ‘Here. Do you want to go to the semis? Because I don’t.’ She was like, ‘OK.”‘ The second-seeded Williams is at least partially correct. She outright blew her 3-1 lead in the third set, looking as if her energy was sapped as she came up short too often down the stretch. The Russian, on the other hand, appeared to gain confidence with every misstep by her opponent. Kuznetsova, the seventh seed, moves on in the semifinals to play No. 30 Samantha Stosur of Australia, who defeated Sorana Cirstea of Romania 6-1, 6-3.
Eagles Westbrook to Undergo Surgery
The Philadelphia Eagles front office is looking like a pack of geniuses, having drafted high for a running back despite having workhorse Brian Westbrook in the backfield. That’s because the speedy Pro Bowl ball carrier is headed under the surgeon’s knife Friday morning for a troublesome high ankle sprain he suffered last year. The Eagles organization is using a million-dollar word to describe the procedure – “a debridement” of the ankle – but it still comes down to one simple fact: The team knew it was time to invest in an insurance policy if it plans to go beyond last year’s early elimination from the playoffs. That policy is running back LeSean McCoy, who the Birds drafted in the second round in April. Westbrook, who had 936 yards rushing, 402 yards receiving and 14 touchdowns last season, also underwent minor knee surgery after the Eagles were booted from the 2009 NFC championship game by the Arizona Cardinals. Westbrook turns 30 on Sept. 2.

Conference Champion Matchups
The Philadelphia Eagles, Arizona Cardinals, Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens are a notch closer to the Super Bowl. Over the weekend, the Eagles, who were written off more than once this season (and slipped into the playoffs with a less than stellar record of 9-6-1-) shocked the New York Giants and will square off against the Cardinals in the NFC championship next week. The Eagles blew out the Cards in the 13th week of the season, but Arizona is riding high after whipping up on the Carolina Panthers Saturday. The Steelers shut down the San Diego Chargers and will now represent the AFC in the conference championship against the Ravens next week.

Serena Wins
Serena Williams, who was visibly vexed by the chair umpire’s mistake during the Australian Open Sunday, pulled it together and defeated her opponent, Australian Samantha Stosur, 6-3, 6-7 (4), 7-5. “I felt like I was going to win that second set,” Williams said.  “And then I hit a massive net cord and the guy didn’t call it. Even Sam knew it was a net cord. It was frustrating at that point. These types of things seem to happen to me a lot.” Williams was serving for the match at 6-5 and 30-30 in the second set when umpire Asitha Attigala of Sri Lanka missed the let call. Stosur broke Williams and then won the tiebreaker. “It was definitely tough conditions with the wind,” Williams said. “With that being said, I just made so many errors, and that was a little frustrating because I feel like I’ve been working hard and to come out and perform at the level I did, I wasn’t extremely happy.”

Eagles’ Reid and McNabb Are Suddenly Golden
My, how things have changed in the City of Brotherly Love. It seemed like just yesterday that Philadelphia’s infamously fickle fans were willing to dump their all-time winning coach and Pro Bowl quarterback as the team fumbled away victories to such league also-rans as the Cincinnati Bengals and Washington Redskins. But on Sunday, shortly after Coach Andy Reid and quarterback Donovan McNabb had dismantled the Minnesota Viking’s powerful offense, Eagles’ owner Jeffrey Lurie made it clear that he had no intention of booting the duo and starting from scratch. “With Andy’s leadership, we were in four straight NFC championship games and a Super Bowl,” Lurie, who grew up in Beantown, told The Boston Globe. “We haven’t won a championship, but the quality of coaching and the quality of the performance of the team has been at a very high level.  I think if you know you have really good coaching, you want to surround it the best possible way. That’s more where we’re at – try to keep improving the team; try to maximize all our resources; and think strategically. It’s not about making the coach the target of frustration.” As for his quarterback, who is entering the final year of his contract, Lurie said, “Donovan has had a very good year, but it also has had its ups and downs. You have to know, in this sport, especially at the quarterback position, you’re going to have your ups and downs. Hopefully the ups are predominant, and he’s proven with him at quarterback, you have a very good chance of winning and winning big.” McNabb, who is under contract with the Eagles through the 2010 season (with a base salary of $9.2 million in 2009 and $10 million in 2010), has stated that he would like a new contract. The Eagles have “every intention of having him back,” Lurie said. “He’s been great to work with.”

Colts Coach Ponders Future in NFL
Will the NFL’s rapidly evaporating pool of Black head coaches get even more shallower over the next week? There’s a strong possibility that Indianapolis Colts Coach Tony Dungy could add his name to the list of African-Americans who are no longer commanding NFL teams when next season kicks off. But speculation about Dungy’s future is nothing new. For the past four years, at least, the Super Bowl-winning Dungy has announced that he would take a week off to decide whether he will return to Indianapolis or head back to his Tampa Bay home. This year marked Dungy’s NFL-record 10th straight playoff appearance. Unfortunately, his 23-17 overtime loss to the San Diego Charges was the fourth time in seven years that his powerful Colts bolted after just one playoff win. On Sunday, Dungy told NBC’s Al Michaels that if he stays, it’s because of the fans, MVP quarterback Peyton Manning and an owner who appreciates him. “When I do leave, I’m going to be leaving. Not taking a year off or two years off, so I want to make sure,” Dungy said. “I’m leaning a certain way, but every year I’ve kind of learned,” Dungy said. “My wife told me, ‘Don’t make a decision and then go back, so take some time’.”

Shortly after the Philadelphia Eagles punk-slapped the Dallas Cowboys out of the playoffs on Sunday, quarterback Tony Romo collapsed in the shower, scaring his teammates who yelled for help as they pushed reporters out of the way. A stretcher was brought into the locker room for the 28-year-old slinger, but he was able to stand and walk into the training room under his own strength, according to published reports. “Um, you know, I was just a little banged up, I guess. …I’ve got to play better. The team’s got to play better. We didn’t play good this December. That’s obviously the story.” His girlfriend, Jessica Simpson, “rushed to his side as soon as she found out that Tony got hurt,” according to a source close to the singer.