Mike Vick’s chances of playing football in prison

December 12th, 2007 | Posted by PostmanR

So we know it might be a bit of a challenge for our good friend Mike Vick to get back on an NFL football field once he’s out of prison — although some are pretty certain he’ll be back in the league — but what about in prison? Will he be able to parade around the prison yard throwing the football to fellow felons or perhaps using his legs for a first down, all the while avoiding the fate of a soap-dropper?

Slate has the answer:

The federal Bureau of Prisons operates 114 facilities, and it’s up to each institution to organize recreational activities for its own inmates. While it’s official bureau policy to encourage organized sports and other activities for inmates to pursue during their leisure time, officials tend to avoid contact sports like football that can quickly get out of hand. So if Vick wants to play football behind bars, he’ll have to get lucky and end up somewhere that offers the sport.

Wardens prefer team sports like basketball, softball, and volleyball, which involve less physical interaction between players. But some curtail those activities as well, to avoid “Club Fed”-style accusations that prison is too easy for the inmates. When they do allow prisoners to play with the pigskin, it’s usually flag football. Even if a warden wanted to allow full-contact football, most prisons don’t stock, or can’t afford, the padding and other equipment necessary for tackling.

Even flag football can cause problems for prison guards. In 1991, a Colorado facility went into lockdown after a fight broke out; one player felt he’d been “hit a little hard” during the game. In 2004, a small riot started at a penitentiary for troubled girls in Florida when several inmates tried to hang themselves with the flags.

So yeah: probably not. However, rumor has it there’s an opening for Michael Jackson in prison’s latest version of Thriller.