Rich Hofmann: Vick and Cunningham: 'Ultimate weapons' who became students of the game

THE MICHAEL VICK/Randall Cunningham conversation is unavoidable for anyone who has lived through both experiences. You understand that completely if you can remember the day when the 1989 Sports Illustrated NFL preview issue showed up in your mailbox with that cover of Cunningham leaping as he prepared to throw, the headline proclaiming him to be "The Ultimate Weapon."

They are first and second now in all-time NFL rushing yards by quarterbacks, Cunningham followed by Vick. Their careers both had two acts - and in both cases, they were better the second time around after an exile from the game. But it is the sheer athletic artistry that binds them most of all.

To live it once and then to begin to live it again, a generation later, marks the football fans of this city as special (despite all of the heartbreak in between).

It is not every day that the Pro Football Hall of Fame requests the jersey of a player because of one particular game - but that is what happened in the hours after Vick orchestrated the Eagles' seminal beatdown of the Washington Redskins on Monday night.

It is not very often that a moment can conjure an era - but that is what Vick did that night of 59-28 (and really has done for the last several weeks), refiring the silent synapses of the part of the brain where Randall once resided: Randall, one name and an uncountable number of memories.

No one can ever take those memories away. That said, Vick is better and more commanding as a personality. And because the light bulb went on for him 5 years earlier than it did for Cunningham, Vick has a chance to be a lot better.

There are still hurdles to clear, obviously, such as staying healthy and dealing with the No. 1 defense in the NFL this Sunday night in the person of the New York Giants - a much more fearsome defense than Vick has seen thus far. But the highlights to this point, and the paralysis that has struck opponents trying to defend him, suggest a kinship with the memory of Cunningham that is hard to ignore.

Cunningham has said over the years that he just wasn't ready to be a student of the game in his Eagles years - but the truth also was that the Eagles did not surround him with much offensive innovation early on. The one coach who really seemed to connect with him, quarterbacks coach Doug Scovil, died of a heart attack before a game late in that "ultimate weapon" season. People who were close to the situation always wondered what might have been, had Scovil lived.

Instead, what you got was head coach Buddy Ryan telling Cunningham to "make four or five big plays a game," never grounding him in the business of quarterbacking. He confounded Ryan's successors, Rich Kotite and Ray Rhodes. He was benched and replaced and then he was out of work in 1996, working in a marble and granite business he created in Las Vegas.

He returned with the Minnesota Vikings in 1997, to hoots of derision around the league. But he was finally ready to be a student at the age of 35, and he was paired with a significant offensive thinker, Vikings coordinator Brian Billick, and in 1998, he had one of the greatest years a quarterback has ever had, throwing 34 touchdown passes and going 15-1 in the regular season before losing in the NFC Championship Game.

Today, while Vick's story is his own, the outlines are similar. He was a phenomenon as a kid, but admits he never did the necessary work to become a great and complete quarterback. He left the game, for far different reasons than Cunningham. He came back, chastened and ready to learn - and this time, he was surrounded by people who had demonstrated knowledge in the business of quarterbacking: Eagles coach Andy Reid and offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg, along with their protege, quarterbacks coach James Urban.

The result was Monday night. In the days since, it has only been natural for everyone to wonder and ask, "What if?"

"I thought about that just a couple of days ago," Vick said. "And you wonder why things happen. Things certainly happen for a reason, but I just thought about that 3 or 4 days ago. If I could've started my career here, where would I be? Would I have ended up in some of the things that I got involved in? You never know, but, hey, you can't say that, you can only think about it and wonder and just appreciate being in this position now."

Reid was asked a similar question. Along the way, he said Vick got good coaching in Atlanta and he likes to think he's getting good coaching here. Then he made the main point.

"It's really the player," Reid said. "If the player doesn't want to absorb it, then he's not going to absorb it. And Michael, since he's been here, has been just a sponge with things and taken everything in, trying it, and then relaying that from practice to the game field. And so, a lot of credit and most of the credit should go to him and his approach to the game right now."

Reid is right. It really is the player. In this case, it is a player with the ability to make you eagerly anticipate the future as you fondly recall the distant past. It is a neat trick that Mike Vick is pulling off these days.

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