LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Onetime National Football League star Michael Vick was expected to leave prison for a term of house arrest after serving 18 months behind bars for his role in a brutal dogfighting ring.

"Tomorrow is the day," Vick's criminal lawyer Billy Martin told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper on Tuesday, although details of Vick's scheduled time of release from federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas, were not disclosed.

Upon his release, the former Atlanta Falcons quarterback was expected to serve two months of home confinement - with his movements monitored electronically - at his five-bedroom house in Hampton, Virginia.

Vick, 28, was sentenced in December of 2007 to 23 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to operate a dogfighting enterprise across state lines. He had surrendered to authorities a month earlier.

The explosively talented player sparked outrage across the United States when he admitted sharing responsibility in the slayings of six to eight dogs who had performed poorly in fights, including deaths by hanging, drowning and beating.

Once among the NFL's highest-paid and most popular players, Vick is now battling bankruptcy and indefinitely suspended from the league.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell reiterated on Tuesday at the league owners' meetings in Florida that he would only reinstate Vick when the player had convinced him of his remorse.

"Michael is going to have to demonstrate to myself and the general public and to a lot of people, did he learn anything from this experience? Does he regret what happened," Goodell said. "Does he feel that he can be a positive influence going forward? Those are questions that I would like to see when I sit with him."

Goodell said no such meeting would happen until Vick's entire sentence had been discharged.

Vick's imminent release had US airwaves humming with debate on whether he should be reinstated by the NFL, and US media reported that the player had expressed an interest in working with the Humane Society of the United States on a programme to eradicate dogfighting among urban youth.

Society president Wayne Pacelle said Tuesday that he met in prison with Vick, who wants to be involved in such a campaign.

"Nobody was tougher on Michael Vick than we were," Pacelle said Tuesday in a telephone interview with the Los Angeles Times. "I did not imagine 23 months ago that I would be sitting opposite from Michael Vick at a small table and contemplating the idea of him joining our campaign against dogfighting."

Before that can happen, Vick must serve out his transitional period of home confinement, during which he will be allowed to leave his house for work at a building job he has lined up that pays 10 dollars an hour.

He made it clear during bankruptcy court proceedings last month that he does hope to return to the NFL, saying he belived Goodell would eventually reinstate him "if I do the right things ... show true remorse."

Vick's agent Joel Segal told ESPN.com that the former player would put football "on the back burner" during his home confinement period, when he would focus on "reacquainting himself with his family."