"Even Mr. Humorless himself, Bill Belichick, took time on Sunday to speak to Michael Vick.

Before the Pro Bowl turned into a 55-41 NFC rout, as Vick was warming up throwing passes to Atlanta Falcons receiver Roddy White, the New England Patriots coach crossed the field at the 50-yard line, approached Vick, and shook his hand. Belichick spoke to the Eagles quarterback for at least a minute, a one-way conversation toward the end of which Vick draped an arm around Belichick's shoulder in a gesture that let observers know that whatever Belichick was saying, it had meaning and Vick appreciated it.

It seems everyone within the tight-knit National Football League community is pulling for Vick. That is why the league gave him the 4,200-square-foot presidential suite at the team hotel for the week of the Pro Bowl and why, before the game began, most players expected Vick to be named the most valuable player. (He wasn't.)

Before he went to prison for dogfighting and killing dogs, Vick was wildly popular among his peers because he played the game at a speed unmatched by other quarterbacks and with a determination that was infectious. He never was arrogant or aloof. He wanted to win. The biggest knock on Vick was that he relied too much on natural ability and did not work hard enough at his craft.

But a jerk? A diva? An elitist? Vick was never those things. Still isn't.

If anything, those within the NFL have been impressed by Vick's obvious work ethic. You don't miss out on two seasons and play sparingly in a third and return at the level Vick played this season without an awful lot of time and hard work. You don't go from jail to a Pro Bowl starter by accident.

"I don't think anybody can really know how difficult that is to do," Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning told me on Friday. "I can just only imagine the challenge - the timing, seeing defenses, and the game changes every single year. Defenses change.

"I think when a guy sits out a couple of weeks, I feel like they're behind. He's talking about a couple of years. It's a great challenge. It's a great credit to him. It's a very difficult thing to do."

It will be interesting to see how Ben Roethlisberger is received at the Super Bowl in Dallas this week. Vick killed and maimed dogs, and served 18 months in prison and a two-game, NFL-mandated suspension. Roethlisberger has twice been accused of sexually assaulting women, once in Lake Tahoe, Nev., and in Milledgeville, Ga., last March, when a college student said Roethlisberger forced her to have sex with him in a bathroom at a bar."