I watched every episode of “The Michael Vick Project” because I wanted to see if Vick had really changed.  It is hard to make those determinations from a “reality show” because  they wanted to show Vick in the best possible light.

With that being said, I came away with two conclusions:

1- Mike Vick is not a bad guy, thug, or any of those negative terms that are thrown around too loosely in our society.

2- Mike Vick is not too bright.

The second conclusion is what I believe has caused the majority of his problems both on and off the field.  It is his bad judgment more than anything else that has cost him his career, millions of dollars, and his reputation.

I have put on my detective hat and pieced together what happened at Vick’s birthday party where his co-defendant Quanis Phillips was shot.

The first problem was that the party was made public.  You could RSVP via Facebook, for goodness sake.  They way it was being promoted basically invited trouble.

When you are on as thin of ice as Michael Vick, everything should be a private, low key event with a very selective guest list.

You can’t be like Diddy and just have everyone come through.   Once again, this speaks to Vick not paying attention to what the people around him are doing.

As far as Quanis Phillips — he wasn’t invited, but he didn’t need to be.  Most people couldn’t pick Phillips out of a line up (pun intended) and since the party was basically a free-for-all, it isn’t surprising that he was able to make his way in.

This is the part that is a little shady.  Phillips caused some sort of commotion, with whom is unknown.  Could have been Vick or it could have been an associate of Vick, but he started some sort of ruckus.

Vick’s lawyers say he wasn’t around when this all went down, but the producer of his reality show, Ahmadu Garba, accidentally contradicted that.  Here are the details from ProFootBallTalk.com:

The man who produces Vick’s reality show on BET has spun a different yarn.  Appearing Friday on WGFX in Nashville (via SportsRadioInterviews.com), Ahmadu Garba talked about the shooting.

“I got a call last night from this guy whose name is John, he’s Vick’s wife’s assistant, Kiafa.” Garba said.  “It was probably about 4:00 a.m. Nasvhille time.  He told me that, ‘Something just went down.  We’re at this party and shots rang out.’  As far as I know from what it sounded like, Mike was there and they left shortly after that. . . .  I have a couple of years of law school experience, so he was asking me,’What’s going on?  Is everything going to be OK?’”

That account sounds more in line with what I have heard happened.

Which once again speaks to Vick’s judgment.  As soon as he found out Phillips was at the party, he should have done one of two things:

Leave immediately, contact his probation officer and the NFL letting them know the situation … or have security escort Mr. Phillips out and once again let his P.O. and the NFL know what happened.

The police have no interest in Vick.  He wasn’t around when the shooting took place, but the Feds and the NFL are going to want to know what happened.

If they find out Vick was lying about anything, the last thing he will have to worry about is throwing a football again; his major concern will be staying a free man.

Don’t know how many times I have to say it…

SMARTEN UP NAS