NFL Capsules: New league will consider signing Vick

NEW YORK - When the United Football League debuts in October, Michael Vick could be one of its players.

Michael Huyghue, the commissioner of the new four-team league, says the UFL is willing to give Vick a place to play - provided there are no pending legal issues. His rights belong to the Orlando franchise.

"One of the things that is important in our premiere season is to showcase the quality of talent and the coaches, and to be able to show outstanding players who find themselves in this quagmire the NFL creates," Huyghue said. "Michael Vick might be that kind of player because he is ... a phenomenal talent, but he needs transitionining back into the NFL.

"Also gaining as much widespread exposure for the league as possible might be addressed with Michael Vick."

Huyghue said he will monitor the Vick situation closely and "if he is free and clear of legal issues, we will look at the situation."

Vick already has served an 18-month sentence in federal prison for his involvement in a dogfighting ring. He is under home confinement until July 20, after which the NFL is expected to announce whether the former Atlanta Falcons quarterback will be suspended.

Vick, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2001 draft, has not played football since the 2006 season.

The UFL will have teams in Orlando, New York, Las Vegas and San Francisco, playing games mostly on Thursday nights in October and November. The championship game will be Nov. 27, the day after Thanksgiving.

Orlando acquired UFL rights to Vick in an allocation draft of players not under contract in the NFL.

"I don't know if the NFL will suspend Vick," said Dennis Green, coach of the San Francisco team and the chairman of the UFL's competition committee - a role he also held while coaching in the NFL. "What he did was very wrong, and he paid his debt to society. He was a model inmate, otherwise he never would have made it out from prison early.

"Now he has to show he loves the game and is a responsible citizen. You can't show you love the game if you're not able to play the game. So if Michael Vick were to say, ‘I will play for not a lot of money,' well, hello. We're here.

"If he is not allowed back into the NFL and he wants to show he is a model citizen and he loves the game, there is not a better situation for him."

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the league would have no comment. Joel Segal, Vick's agent, did not immediately respond to a message left by The Associated Press.

While it sounds as if Vick will be welcomed into the UFL, Huyghue would not address the situations of Plaxico Burress, Donte' Stallworth or other NFL players with legal problems.

"Every player will have to be unique and different," he said.

Green reiterated there have been no UFL discussions about those players, and he emphasized the UFL will not be an outlaw league.

"We don't want to be known as a league where if guys are in trouble, that is where you go," Green said.

NFL coaches visit troops in Iraq in first USO trip

The soldiers expressed their gratitude over and over to the NFL coaches who made the trip to Iraq.

"They kept thanking us," said the Tennessee Titans' Jeff Fisher. "We kept thanking them."

Fisher, the New York Giants' Tom Coughlin, the Baltimore Ravens' John Harbaugh, former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher and former Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden are taking part in the first NFL-USO coaches tour over the Fourth of July weekend.

A world they knew only through the distant glimpses of news reports turned very real for the coaches as they met with hundreds of soldiers in three cities in a long first day Thursday. In a phone interview from Baghdad, Cowher recalled talking to military members on their second or third deployment who described how much the bombs and casualties have decreased from several years ago.

The coaches wanted to know about the troops' lives; the soldiers wanted to know about their favorite NFL teams. The coaches began the day meeting for about an hour with Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq. They all talked about the similarities between football and the military.

"The whole concept is about trying to build a team based on trust, camaraderie, sacrifice," Cowher said. "They can identify with our game."

Fisher was impressed by soldiers asking about some of the Titans' backups and wondering how the draft picks are doing. He signed one servicewoman's Mother's Day present from her husband: a Titans jersey with the name "Mom" and the No. 1.

There were so many Terrible Towels being waved that Cowher declared Iraq to be "Steelers Nation."

After two days of travel, the coaches arrived in Iraq late Wednesday night. On Thursday they met with soldiers in Mosul, Kirkuk and Baghdad.

The NFL has been working with the USO to send players to visit troops overseas since 1966. Last year, commissioner Roger Goodell joined players on a trip to Iraq and Afghanistan. In March, Jared Allen, Danny Clark, Larry Fitzgerald and Will Witherspoon spent 10 days traveling through Iraq and Kuwait.

But this is the first coaches trip.

Fisher has frequently taken his players to meet with soldiers from Fort Campbell, which is about an hour north of Nashville. When the commissioner's office asked him to participate, he was told to think about it for a couple of weeks and get back to them.

"I didn't think about it for more than a couple hours," he said.

Cowher fielded plenty of questions from the troops about whether he'll coach again. But his thoughts were far from football at the end of the first of the trip's three days.

"Sometimes we worry too much about ourselves," he said, "instead of about what kind of difference we can make in the big picture for other people."

-- Rachel Cohen

Sandoval, Lions' director of security, dies at 49

ALLEN PARK, Mich. - Ricky Sandoval, the Detroit Lions' director of security since 2001, has died. He was 49.

The team says Sandoval died Thursday at a hospital in Detroit after a battle with pancreatic cancer that lasted more than three years.

Team president Tom Lewand says Sandoval "set a new standard for courage" in fighting cancer.

The Lions' indoor practice field recently was named "Sandoval Field" in his honor.

Sandoval in 2006 was named the team's recipient of the Ed Block Courage Award, which recognizes men of courage in the NFL and is awarded to a player from each of the league's 32 franchises. But Lions players, coaches and staff agreed the much-loved Sandoval deserved the award.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

He is survived by his wife, Gael.