He deserves a second chance at living outside of jail, because life in prison would be too harsh of a criminal punishment. That does not necessarily equate to him deserving a second chance at being people's "hero."

I really couldn't care less about the NFL letting him back in; I was never under any illusion that they wouldn't. Pretending that the NFL is anything but a business is a practice in delusion, and businesses don't care about morality when money is involved. But that does not mean I respect Vick any more, because he deserves none. I do think it is very unfortunate that the public has so readily forgiven him (or just forgotten about the issue) now that he's playing football again. He deserves much more public scorn.