When Mike Vick was sentenced to 23 months in a federal prison back in August of 2007, I thought the punishment was a little ridiculous. While I don’t condone dog-fighting in anyway, two years in prison for killing dogs seemed a bit extreme. After all, there are far worse crimes being committed daily and some people don’t serve that much time for killing other people, let alone dogs.

So far Mike has served 15 of those 23 months, and if he’s lucky, he may only end up in prison for another month or so. Mike was facing another charge of promoting dogfighting back in Virginia to which he plead guilty this morning in exchange for probation and an extended sentence. Though the real reason Vick pled guilty to the Virginia charges was so he can be eligible to move into a halfway house in January.

From PRO FOOTBALL TALK:

The presiding judge approved the deal, which included the dismissal of an animal cruelty charge.

Vick will be on unsupervised probation, and he must stay out of trouble for four years.

The resolution of the Virginia charges clears the way for Vick to enter a halfway house as early as January, six months before his release from federal custody in July.  If the state court charges were still pending, he would not have been eligible for finishing his term in a halfway house.

Mike’s also now eligible to serve the final three weeks of his sentence under house arrest.

Now while I’m sure Mike’s going to miss all the friends he made in prison the last 15 months, this is probably the best move for him to make. While he’s in the halfway house he can get himself a job flipping burgers at a nearby McDonalds, which should help get his arm back in shape to tryout for NFL teams.

I hear the Philadelphia Eagles will probably be looking for a new quarterback for the fans to blame all the team’s problems on by then.

*UPDATE*: Even though he’s about to be sprung, Mike might soon end up right back in jail for tax evasion.