ATLANTA -- Falcons owner Arthur Blank is accusing Michael Vick of lying to him and the NFL.

In their statements as part of their plea deals co-defendants Purnell Peace and Quanis Phillips said Vick executed dogs that did not fight hard enough.

Blank says it's "sad" that Vick put himself in that kind of situation.

Before Friday night's preseason game Blank said "You think you know somebody for six years and you find out another side of their personality that you didn't know. It's always disappointing. If it's a positive thing you welcome that, but something like this. ... I don't know if any of his teammates anticipated anything like this. I certainly know this owner didn't anticipate anything like this. It's very sad."

Now the Falcons must decide if they will sue Vick to get back some of the $22 million they paid him to cover the last three years of his contract.

That would require owner Arthur Blank to swallow hard and keep Vick on the roster, a smart business move, but a potential public-relations disaster.

Vick is still listed on the Falcons roster on their web site.

He will have to wait to see if NFL Commissioner Roger Goddell will bar him from playing in the league.

There are a number of very good reasons why the commissioner should crumple Vick's future like a paper ball, toss it in the garbage can under his desk and be rid of the problem.

First, Vick almost certainly lied to Goodell when he denied any involvement in the dogfighting ring, let alone financing the operation and personally taking part in the grisly executions of animals that lost. As part of his plea agreement, Vick will have to own up to all those things and perhaps illegal gambling or associating with gamblers, which under NFL policy can get a player banned for life.

Second, the league in general and the commissioner in particular has little to gain by letting Vick put on a uniform again. America loves its pets, and the outrage the indictments sparked outside NFL headquarters continued throughout opening day at the Falcons' training camp, with sign-wielding protesters at the gates and a fly-over by a plane trailing a banner that read: "New team name? Dog Killers?" That was only a taste of what Vick's next employer can expect.

Third, plenty of league personnel directors and general managers already regarded Vick as poison, a me-first personality with a questionable work ethic who would cause problems as a second-string quarterback and wasn't worth the trouble he caused even before this. If reason No. 2 required Goodell to risk his credibility with the public, No. 3 could get him in hot water with a lot of the old-school NFL types who think Vick deserves everything he gets for heaping so much shame on the game.

Under a best-case scenario -- for Vick, anyway -- after he enters his guilty plea, he pulls out his cell phone, apologizes to Goodell and begs for a chance to return when the time is right. Then he goes to jail for a year, sits out a year under suspension, proves all the while that he's deserving of another go-round in the NFL and attempts it in 2009 when he's still only 29.

But Vick better not waste much time deliberating or dialing. Goodell also said last week that if a plea agreement were reached, he could rule on the case in less than two weeks. The guess here is the commissioner's decision will be influenced by how quickly and completely Vick accepts responsibility for his deeds and then makes amends.

Last December, a few months after he took over as commissioner, Goodell dropped by The Associated Press' headquarters in New York for a get-acquainted meeting and sat for a 20-minute interview. The session was dominated by questions about the Cincinnati Bengals' long-running law-and-order saga and Goodell made clear he planned to be firm dealing with players who broke the law.

And he has. Ask Pacman Jones, Chris Henry or Tank Johnson about that. Yet almost every phrase that Goodell used in December that included the word "punishment" was followed quickly by another that included the word "help.

At the moment, punishment dominates every conversation about Vick. But down the road, after he's paid his debt, he'll need plenty of help, too.