Defenders of Michael Vick are wont to talk about second chances, while his critics worry about another clich: that he might put it all behind him and move on. Neither camp has it right.

Strictly speaking, second chances are for people who are taking another whack at an endeavor at which they’ve failed. Vick, for all his enormous talent, was not a roaring success as a football player; but he held his job.

Now, he is doing what any factory worker or accountant would attempt to do after serving a prison sentence and being pronounced free of his legal debt to society: going back to work.

It’s baffling, frankly, to hear animal-welfare activists and other moralizers vent outrage at the Philadelphia Eagles for hiring the man. True, he committed a despicable act some years back. Unlike so many celebrity miscreants, he got busted and did time. He is no longer a guest of the government, and therefore must earn his own living. What should he do? What are his skills? Hmmmmm. Carpentry?

Glamour and wealth may be more than the average ex-con hopes for when he faces the free world; but Vick didn’t create the market. He could continue his penance by mopping floors for minimum wage; but that would imply that menial work is stigmatizing rather than noble. Surely, the good people who want Vick held accountable can’t countenance that idea.

In fact, he is accountable; which brings us to Clich Two.

Having served a longer sentence than some homicide perpetrators, having renounced dog fighting and having been ordered to put his newfound faith into action, Vick is doing the opposite of putting this behind him as he re-enters the public arena.

Indeed, his is the face of this otherwise under-appreciated issue, a constant mass-distributed reminder of a cultural cancer, a victimizer version of what Ryan White personified in the early days of HIV/AIDS. Vick will evangelize against cruelty, out of necessity and perhaps out of desire; but whether he does that or not, he will carry a message just by being visible. He’ll take tons of grief for doing so, it might be added.

In keeping with our lust for melodrama and sentimentality, much is made of Vick’s capacity to change, to achieve a conversion. Tony Dungy’s presence at his side speaks to that hope as much as to the public relations needs of the Eagles and the National Football League. But when all is said and done, Vick’s heart is none of our business.

We want Oprah drama from these stars. Big man goes bad, descends into hell, reconnects with God and remakes himself as a humanitarian. When the fairy tale is too much to buy, we turn on this stranger we think we know, begrudging him even the chance to return to work.

Let’s try what Vick has had to do, and get real. Put him to work for us. Just imagine what the proceeds from his Eagles jersey could do for the Humane Society’s budget.