Vick Lands in Philly: Now What?

Let me preface this by saying that I am an Eagles fan and am not thrilled with the fact that Michael Vick is going to be suiting up for my team this season. Now, do not get me wrong, I am all for Vick getting a chance to play in the NFL again, that does not bother me at all. I, for one, say he did his time he paid for his crime and I do not think he will do it again, unless he was lying about crying in jail at night while he lay in bed.

My beef is first of all I have never liked the guy. He is an amazing athlete, but there has always been something about the way he carries himself that rubs me the wrong way. Vick has always seemed like the guy who grew up doing what he pleased because he was the gifted athlete that was going places. He was one of those guys who chose to surround himself with enablers and yes men. He was the ring leader and did not surround himself with people who truly had an interest in his well-being beyond him being able to financially maintain the crew, or the entourage if you will. Remember, they nailed Vick because the cops were able to flip a guy who had fallen out of favor with Vick and his crew. He gave up the goods on Vick rather than go to jail for him.

Vick just has a long line of bad behavior and getting his name in the news for all the wrong reasons. That is why it's hard to root for him or be in his corner. In early 2004, two men were nabbed for distributing marijuana and the truck they happened to be driving at the time was registered to Vick. While there was no evidence Vick had any direct involvement in this at the time, in retrospect, one has to wonder how much he did or did not know about it at the time.

In October of 2004, as Vick and his entourage are preparing to board a flight, one of his associates were caught on tape taking a watch that did not belong to them as they passed through security. When the Falcons found out about it, they reportedly interfered with the investigation and the watch was eventually returned. Again, there is no evidence Vick had anything to do with it, but one starts to see how he was not surrounding himself with people that had his best interests at heart. They do not care that Vick appears to be guilty by association on matters like this.

This also the same guy who was sued for allegedly giving herpes to another woman, who flipped off the fans in Atlanta because they booed him, and who had a suspicious-looking water bottle with a secret compartment in it confiscated at the airport. Officials later dropped the case, but it was widely speculated that the compartment was used to smuggle weed on to the plane and not attract suspicion. Of course, Vick claims it was to stash jewelry in while traveling. Then he failed a drug test while out on bail and awaiting sentencing in the dog-fighting case. He just has a history of seemingly taking the easy way out and making bad decisions.

This has translated onto the field, as well. For as many games he would win making an incredible play, he would give just as many away with an untimely turnover. He was notorious for throwing bad interceptions and was always near the top of the league in fumbles because of lax ball security. He would typically try to force the action when it was not there and would try to make something happen rather than throw the ball away or step out of bounds. There is something to be said for trying to make a play, but there is also something to be said for taking care of the ball. As the saying goes, sometimes discretion is the better part of valor.

Another concern with Vick the football player as it pertains to Philadelphia is he never seemed to be able to grasp the West Coast offense and really seemed to regress rather than progress as a quarterback. He took a lot of sacks and his completion percentage had dropped from a peak 56.4 in down to 52.6 in 2006. One wonders if this is a product of him just not having the mental capacity to learn a pro offense or if his off-the-field activities were catching up with him and he was having to give as much attention to those as he was to football. Is it a co-incidence that as his personal life started spinning out of control that his professional life did, as well?

Most people will tell you that when faced with distractions away from the office that their quality of work on the job suffers as well. It is tough to stay focused on one's job when everything around them is a whirlwind. Is Philly a good place for Vick? Is he going to thrive on a team where he has a good friend in Donovan McNabb and a head coach who has no compunction over giving his players some tough love? This could be the best place for him to go this season. McNabb is the starter, so there are no real expectations for him this season and anything he does give them is gravy. They could potentially line him up in different positions and use his elite speed, assuming he still has it, to their advantage.

But the proof is in the pudding with Michael Vick. If he is going to be the same haphazard, undisciplined player he was in Atlanta, then I am not interested, but, if he is willing to be coached up and has learned some discipline and ball security, then I am intrigued by what he could bring to the table. The main thing is Vick is actually going to have to work for it this time around. He is going to have to put the time in that he was not willing to do in Atlanta in learning the offense. The Falcons were perfectly willing to simply let him get by with his superior athletic ability and as long as the team was moving tickets and Vick swag, they were perfectly fine with as long as they were competitive.

The bottom line is Vick was babied in Atlanta. Will we ever forget the scene of Falcons owner Arthur Blank pushing him around the sidelines in a wheelchair? One has to wonder whether the coaching staff was even willing to be tough with Vick in Atlanta. It just always seemed like the team bent over backwards to accommodate Vick and his lifestyle and were quick to intervene if he got into a scrape. They were always looking out for the millions of dollars they had invested in him and Vick knew it and took advantage of it. They slapped his wrist when he flicked off the fans that time in Atlanta and that punishment came from the league, the team did nothing at all. They essentially made him promise not to do it again and let him have dessert anyway.

This will not happen in Philadelphia. He is going to have to earn his playing time, it will not be handed to him. The stark reality is McNabb is the starting quarterback and have two quality running backs in Brian Westbrook and LeSean McCoy, and have the most depth they have ever had at receiver during the McNabb era. In fact, I cannot remember the last time the Eagles had this much talent at the skill positions on offense. For the Eagles, having an athlete like Vick is a luxury and not a necessity. He will have to learn the playbook or he will not play. The fans are not going to take it easy on him, either; they will crucify him the instant he costs them a game or makes an untimely turnover. His time in Philly is truly going to be one of that which does not kill me only makes me stronger.

Beyond what he is able to do this season remains the caveat of what happens next summer. The Eagles have to make a decision on what to do with Kevin Kolb, who has yet to show he can play at the NFL level. Kolb recently injured his knee and it was not believed to be anything serious, but one begins to wonder how injured he is and whether the Eagles are going to carry four quarterbacks this season, although the consensus seems to be that Vick is going to be utilized more for his athletic ability and not necessarily his quarterbacking skills. Does Vick's presence spell the end of Kolb or A.J. Feeley in Philadelphia?

Will Reid gamble on Vick being able to do the job as a backup if McNabb goes down and will he cut Feeley loose? The stark reality is that Feeley is a better pro quarterback than Kolb is right now and if push came to shove, Feeley would likely get the nod over Kolb if McNabb had to miss more than a game or so. Feeley knows the system and has shown in the past that he won't lose games for you and put up solid numbers and Kolb has yet to do that. At the very least, I am interested in seeing how Reid integrates Vick into the offense, but as I said, if he is the same player he was with the Falcons, then I am not interested.

Ultimately, the question ends up being has prison changed Vick's life for the good? Did his 23 months in the joint teach him a lesson? Obviously, he now knows who he can trust and his real friends truly were, but will he show better judgment as a result of this? He is saying all of the right things and time will tell, but remember that this is the same guy who reportedly hit up the clubs with Allen Iverson his first day of freedom after his house arrest ended. I will leave you with this final tidbit that ultimately has me a bit skeptical as to whether he is truly sorry for what he did or simply sorry he got caught.

I came across this little snippet the other on Sports Illustrated's site that mentions Vick's recent appearance at a summer basketball camp for kids hosted by Hampton University. He told the kids to use him as an example for their dreams and that after accomplishing his dreams he, "allowed someone who didn't have my best interests at heart to take all that away from me." I am not sure that sounds like someone who gets it or is even sorry for what he did. It more or less implies that had he not kicked this guy out of his crew, then he would still be an Atlanta Falcon to this day and still running his dog-fighting ring.

Vick is believed to be the one who bankrolled the operation. It was his kennel that was breeding dogs specifically to participate in fights. It is not as though he simply cut these guys a check to start the whole operation and he was simply taking a cut of the winnings for bankrolling the start up of this operation. I suspect he was in on it from the start, but that comment makes it sound as though he was persuaded to do this and was duped by someone who did not have his best interests at heart. That statement alone does not own up to it and does not take any responsibility for what he did. Instead, he almost portrays himself as a victim in it all for allowing someone else to screw him over.

For his sake, I hope that Vick listens to guys like McNabb and his new mentor Tony Dungy and keeps the negative people and influences out of his life that brought him down in the first place. Hopefully, he starts coming around and owns up to running with the wrong people and letting himself be brought down. It always amazes me how guys with everything to lose are willing to risk it all on such moronic activities like running drugs or dog-fighting. Michael Vick had the world in the palm of his hands and he threw it all away on a dog-fighting operation that was worth peanuts in comparison to the kind of money he was getting from the Falcons, Nike, EA Sports, Coke, etc. He managed to piss away an entire fortune and financial security for the rest of his life for him and his family. All for the sake of getting your rocks off and making a few bucks on an illegal dog-fighting operation.

Vick's life up until this point is the true definition of a tragedy. He was destined for greatness only to be knocked off his perch. For the sake of his kids, let us hope that the remainder of his life becomes a comedy and he shows us that in the end, some lives are worth redeeming. Tony Dungy and the Philadelphia Eagles seem to think so.

This story was re-published with permission from PopPickle.