Though it shouldn't come as much of a surprise, it's still pretty surreal to hear Michael Vick will be the starting quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles. For this week at least...
After Kevin Kolb failed two concussion tests this week, it was basically a forgone conclusion that Vick would be starting this weekend in Detroit. In many ways, this is Michael Vick's biggest shot at professional redemption since he returned to the NFL. Whether or not he can ever rehab his personal image remains to be seen, but if he comes out and plays well against Detroit his professional image may very well be restored. Vick is in the final year of his contract and in all likelihood he won't be back with the Eagles next year, so this week he's likely playing for the chance to win a starting job somewhere else in 2011. It's a pretty good motivation.That said, Vick downplayed what the game could mean for his future.
"Well, I don't really go out to try to prove to anybody that I can still play this game. The primary focus is to put this team in a position to win whenever I'm on the field. If it's just doing the Wildcat offense, just trying to help this team move the chains and produce. That's the ultimate goal. You can't go out trying to prove yourself because that's adding more pressure to this game and it's already hard as it is."
Of course, this is also his chance to repay Andy Reid and the rest of the Eagles organization for the chance they gave him. He's been saying since the Eagles signed him that his number one goal is to become a starting QB in the NFL again. Well Mike, you got your wish. It may not be for more than this week, but that really shouldn't be important to him right now. This is the most important moment of his post prison career and it comes against the 2nd worst team in the NFL last year.
"Since the day I got here I've been working as hard as I can and as diligently as I can to just try to get better. You want to strive to be great and you want to be perfect. We all know that you can't be perfect, but you can strive for perfection. That's what we try to do as players and that's the ultimate goal. You give yourself the best chance to perform on a consistent basis when you do that."