Nike has re-signed Eagles quarterback Michael Vick to a sponsorship deal, four years after dropping him for his involvement in a dog-fighting ring that landed him in federal prison, Darren Rovell of CNBC reports.

“Michael acknowledges his past mistakes,” said Nike spokesman Derek Kent. “We do not condone those actions, but we support the positive changes he has made to better himself off the field.” Vick’s longtime agent Joel Segal told Rovell that “Michael is excited to have a long-term and strong relationship with Nike.”

Rovell writes, “It is believed to be the first time in the history of sports marketing that a brand that dumped an athlete came back to re-sign him.”

Sunday marks the 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500, the pinnacle of American open-wheel racing—and yet a race that probably won’t post better ratings than NASCAR’s Coca Cola 600, which runs later the same day. NASCAR is king in the hearts of American race fans, with its Super Bowl of racing, the Daytona 500, posting higher ratings than the Indy 500 in each of the last 15 years.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Times-Dispatch notes that Daytona has more than doubled the Indy ratings in many of the years since 2000. Meanwhile Indy, which is run at midday, has bested the Coca Cola 600, which is run at night, only once in the last five years.

That came in 2009, when the Coke race was rained out and run the following afternoon.

Last year the Indy 500 posted a 3.6 national television rating, in comparison to a 7.7 for the Daytona 500 and a 4.0 for the Coca Cola 600. Each ratings point represents 1 percent of homes with a TV.

Fox Sports networks has ordered a weekly, half-hour baseball series, “The Boys in the Hall,” which will be hosted by former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw. The series will feature interviews with former Major League Baseball commissioner Fay Vincent and a slew of Hall of Fame players.

After it airs on FSN, it will be made available in full to the MLB Hall of Fame.

“This project has been a labor of love and was conceived by myself and longtime friend and Columbia Pictures colleague Herbert Allen as a way of memorializing the personal stories, insights & reflections of some of the most extraordinary players in baseball history,” said Vincent in a statement.

More information, after the jump.

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The ratings game is simple, really. Take the biggest off-season story involving a player so reviled ESPN created an entire website dedicated to him, throw in the most storied franchise in NBA history, add a dose of Shaq, and voila people watch.

Tuesday night’s game between the Boston Celtics and Dwayne Wade‘s Miami Heat scored a 5.6 overnight rating for TNT, up 75 percent from last year’s Celtics-Cleveland Cavilers match. The following game also benefited, as the Los Angeles Lakers-Houston Rockets show saw ratings jump 40 percent from 2009, which, oh by the way, was TNT’s biggest Opening Weekend ever.

Okay, so maybe it’s not that simple. Or it is, but the NBA won’t be able to keep up the momentum. But for a bit there (last night), it really was wonderful, wasn’t it?

Yesterday quarterback Brett Favre announced he would be returning to the Minnesota Vikings for another season. Now Broadcasting & Cable‘s Ben Grossman reports that NBC’s Al Michaels has secured the first sit-down interview with Favre which will air during halftime of NBC’s broadcast of the Minnesota Vikings-San Francisco 49ers preseason game Sunday.

The game will also (probably) mark Favre’s return to the football field. Assuming he is in football shape by then.