I sat in amazment yesterday. I saw four men risk everything they hold dear in their professional lives for a man they barely know.
I don't know that he is, but the truth of the matter is that Michael Vick could be lying through his teeth.
I doubt that he is going to get involved in any more dog-fighting but it still doesn't mean that he won't get caught smoking some marijuana or smoking some crack or whatever.
Don't get me wrong I commend Jeffrey Lurie, Joe Banner, Tony Dungy, Andy Reid and Donovan McNabb for the fact that they're giving Michael Vick a second chance but they're surely putting a lot on the line to do it.
The Eagles have Super Bowl-winning talent on their football team. I'm not saying they will be a Super Bowl-winning team because that's something completely different.
This team must be able to focus themselves on the work at hand and polish their craft in order to become a Super Bowl team. Now they'll have to do it in a spotlight brighter than anything Lurie, Banner, Reid and McNabb have ever seen.
Michael Vick on the other hand could flush all they have worked for down the drain in one moment of selfish indulgence.
I was astonished that they decided to do this and the more I look and think about it, the more astonished I am.
Lurie is putting his own reputation and the image of his billion-dollar franchise at stake for a man he barely knows.
Tony Dungy has built a reputation for living with character and honor, and then he put it all on the line of Michael Vick.
Banner has agreed to pay this man millions of dollars in order to please his boss. He might not be able to regain his speed and playmaking abilities.
Reid had been a coach who demanded his players exemplify character, but he can't say that any more with the signing of Vick.
McNabb has brought in a former quarterback who was the number one pick in the draft because of the way his skills can make scouts drool. Those skills may still be capable of making the Eagles fans scream for him when McNabb goes on a cool streak.
The big question here isn't about what they're doing, the biggest question is why they are doing it. The following is my take on it.
Clearly Reid's experience with his kids a couple of years ago seems to be source of the motivation for his efforts.
He has publicly covered up the way he felt about all of that but it hurt him and changed him.
He has been looking for someone to help but is Vick the right one. I don't see how Reid could know.
Michael Vick expemplifies the kind of person that merges the two great causes of Tony Dungy's life, football and rehabilitating ex-convicts. I'm sure it looked like the perfect case to him, but I know of numerous pastors who were let down by people who swore to uphold the faith.
Vick may have sincerely received the Lord into his life, but that doesn't mean he's going to obey Him in the wee hours of the night.
Banner wants to reshape his image as a hard, cold business man who would do anything for another buck. He wants to show that deep down in there is a heart that cares.
McNabb, who has been challenged by the likes of Bernard Hopkins for not being "black enough," wants to leave a legacy of helping young black quarterbacks. He's putting what could have been the greatest year of his career on the line.
Lurie is a liberal thinker who doesn't want to be caught turning his back to the disadvantaged. He's putting a billion-dollar company on the line for this man whom he hardly knows.
I hope Michael Vick doesn't let them all down.
