Michael Vick hit the highway on his first day of semi-freedom, setting off on a 1,176-mile road trip from Kansas to his Virginia home, where he will make the transition from prisoner to his new career as day laborer/Humane Society crusader.

For some strange reason Vick brought along a videographer to record the trek, bathroom pit stops and all. There was security, too, just in case some deranged PETA sort lurked at a Waffle House along the way.

There’s a good chance you can read all about it in the near future. The whole sordid Vick saga may even make the big screen someday, if plans for book and movie deals pan out.

Expect a lot of tears, and not just from those saddened by what Vick and his posse liked to do with their fighting dogs. No, this would be a tale of redemption and rebirth about a man who once had everything and now has nothing.

Nothing, that is, if you forget the two lavish homes and three luxury cars that are still in the stable. But those could go, too, if a federal bankruptcy judge doesn’t like what he sees when Vick appears before him next month with a new plan to pay the millions owed his creditors.

The man who once dismissed a $1,000 gift to his mother as “chump change” will need to work three weeks in his new construction job to earn that much after taxes. His other duties with the Humane Society have yet to be agreed upon, but the payoff from them will come in a different form of currency.

Together, the two gigs won’t be enough to pay the electric bill or fuel up the Range Rover. They won’t even begin to make a dent in the $8 million or so the bankruptcy judge estimates Vick will need to make over each of the next three years to pay everyone off.

Granted, a book or movie could help. But, really, don’t we know enough about Vick already? Would anyone reach into their pocket to learn more?

My guess is no. And that means any chance Vick has of emerging from his financial mess depends on one thing.

He has to make it on the football field.

The question then becomes, will someone give him that chance?

Ask the players around the NFL, as various Associated Press writers did Wednesday, and the unanimous opinion is that some team should. To a man, they said Vick has paid a huge price for his misdeeds and should be welcomed back into the league, the sooner the better.

“He’s paid his debt,” said 49ers kick returner Allen Rossum, who played three seasons with Vick in Atlanta. “He deserves an opportunity like anybody else. He’s a good guy at heart, and it’s time for people to let him move on with his life and get back in this game, where he’s one of the best players out there. I’ve known him for five years. He’s a good guy.”

A lot of dog owners might dispute that. So might others sickened by the report of a confidential informant who said that in addition to killing dogs, Vick and others would sometimes toss household pets in with their fighting dogs just for the fun of it.

They will be the people holding up pictures of maimed animals outside of stadiums if Vick is allowed to play in the NFL again. They’re the ones who will rally around calls by animal activists to boycott anything that Vick is involved in.