Hmm. This is interesting. Some thoughts on this follow, with the admission that I was never a Vick guy in the first place. I always thought he was an over hyped ESPN product to a certain extent. Sure he can run, but he was never an effective passer and he was never going to become one. One of the most comical things out of this so far was hearing Andy say Vick "knows the offense". Vick did run the WCO in Atlanta, but maybe Andy forgot how horrific he was at it, and they really only won game when they pounded the ball with Duckett and Dunn. He is/was an unquestionably great athlete who couldn't/wouldn't ever be a great quarterback in the NFL.
My biggest confusion about all this is I don't quite understand how the positives outweigh the negatives here. The Eagles believed, or at least they claimed to believe, they had the best team in football before this. Does Vick make the roster better on paper? Sure, probably. Of course, we are talking about a person who hasn't stepped on a field for two years and they didn't even work him out, but we will assume that on pure talent alone he adds something to the roster. Does that addition outweigh the three ring circus that is about to descend on NovaCare? This is a team that hasn't always handled the pressures of extreme media scrutiny very well, an issue on display just a few weeks ago when Andy had a hissy fit because a reporter called Stewart Bradley.
Donovan is currently on Comcast saying how great he thinks this is. And that's all fine and dandy. But we all know the first pass that bounces in front of a receiver will bring out the vocal minority in this fan base that despises McNabb. And there will be boos. And there will be scores of calls to WIP demanding the Eagles start Vick. In the past, Donovan hasn't always handled these things that well. He gets....pouty. Maybe that shit doesn't affect his on field performance, but it sure gets the media frothing at the mouth. Quickly that three ring circus will become a five ring circus. And again, when this team gets surrounded by large media gatherings, things haven't turned out well.
The other issue, for me anyway, is I kind of think Vick is a gigantic douchebag. Even before the dog mess, the coaching staff in Atlanta had declared him an uncoachable malcontent who refused to work at becoming an effective NFL passer. I mentioned my belief that he was overrated above. And how quickly people forget the Ron Mexico mess. The man used to spread Herpes around like the Easter Bunny does candy. He is a dirtbag. His brother is a dirtbag. I understand the "second chance, this is America..." stuff, but I will choose to believe he has changed when he shows it. I don't buy it. I think it is generally sociopathic behavior to hang a living thing who can clearly feel and express pain upside down and electrocute it for up to three hours until it is dead. I don't like people like that. I don't want to be around people like that. I don't want to root for people like that. (And I know that "OMGBRETTMYERS" is the default response here, but I can assure you it is different for alot of reasons. Simply, Myers is an asshole who presumably did something horrible once. Vick did a horrific act repeatedly and tried to drag out the suffering as long as he could to a victim that was completely defensless. One makes you an asshole. One makes you a sociopath. If Myers hit his wife nightly and went out of his way to make it as terrible as possible while doing it, he'd still be rightfully locked up and it wouldn't be an issue. Hitting a woman is far worse than killing a dog. It is the viciousness and repitiveness that makes what Vick did particularly disgusting.)
So how am I going to feel the first time I see Michael Vick in an Eagles uniform? Not very good, most likely. I don't like the guy. I don't generally wish him success. I would actually like to see him fail miserably. A feeling that has now come in direct conflict with my desire to see the Eagles do well. Will victories and successes mute that feeling some? Probably. But it sucks it even has to be considered. In the end, I guess this is teaching me I am not a win at all costs person.
Don't get me wrong. I am not one of these people who are "outraged" or will claim to stop rooting for the Eagles. I'll still root for the Eagles and I am not angry or bitter about this is. I think Vick served his time, and has every right to play again the NFL. I just wish Michael Vick wasn't playing as an Eagle, and I am not convinced they needed this to win. I could see a Buffalo or a San Francisco making a last ditch effort to sell tickets and become competitive in league where their franchises don't matter anymore. But the Eagles were probably going to win anyway.
There is, of course, always the possibility they don't win at all. A likelihood that I think actually becomes higher with this signing. There is three possible outcomes to this signing. Vick could come in here, set the world on fire, e wildly effective and play a key part in helping this team win games. Vick could come in here, be about as ready to play as Pacman Jones was last year, be generally ineffective, rarely see the field and not be much more of a factor than Hank Baskett or the whoever the third running back is. Vick could come in here, be a huge distraction, never help on the field at all, cause a shit storm in the locker room, and maybe even get in trouble off the field again. I'd say the likelihood of these possibilities is like 20/60/20.
My question is: Is a 20% chance of major improvement worth all this? Maybe Andy thinks its higher that that. Maybe he's right. I hope he's right, I guess.
I end with a thought that I stole from a message board. When a potential signing/trade/whatever comes up in NFL circles circa 2009 and the first reaction of nearly everybody is "Al Davis will sign him",.....isn't that something you generally want to stay away from?
