Michael Vick was grateful, even for 11 little snaps yesterday, including one rush and two passes. It wasn't much, his long awaited debut after an eternity away from football, but for Vick, it was enough. For now.
It's hard to imagine the relentlessly competitive Vick will be satisfied for long with a small-time role on a big-time team, but for an afternoon, he was. He got to hear a crowd cheer him again. He got to feel a defender crush him again. And he got to promise his grandmother that he would never squander an opportunity again. Certainly not this one. Not this time.
And so the Michael Vick story continued.
After his two years away from the game, Vick's performance in the Eagles' 34-14 win over the Kansas City Chiefs was more about muscle memory than anything else. Andy Reid wanted to knock the rust off Vick, and that seems to have happened. Reid did not ask Vick to do anything spectacular. He got one shot at the end zone, threw another wobbly pass in the vicinity of Jason Avant, and otherwise handed the ball so his teammates could make plays.
It wasn't what Vick had been used to all those years in Atlanta. He wasn't the man with the football in his hands 50 times a game. He had to figure out how to keep his arm loose and his body warm, because his opportunities, in the grand scheme of a 60-minute game, were few and far between.
Vick finished 0 for 2 passing and gained 7 yards on one run. On the 11 plays when Vick was on the field, the Eagles gained 30 yards. They weren't phenomenal numbers one way or the other, but Vick promised the Eagles have more - much more - drawn up for him. This was just the start.
"I think I played fairly well," Vick said afterward. "I think I made good decisions with the plays that I had. I missed one ball across the middle. I feel like I could have hit that. I guess I just have to make sure I keep my arm warm on the sideline so when I go in there I'm not cold. Other than that, I made good decisions with the ball. My focus primarily was to be smart and not turn the ball over."
For sure, this wasn't the role Vick envisioned for himself. It seemed that Reid bent over backward when the Eagles signed Vick to say how much they liked him as a quarterback, and that he would be a backup quarterback. Reid shied away from pigeonholing Vick as a wildcat, but that's what Vick will be here - or so it seems today.
Reid doesn't trust Vick as a true quarterback, at least not yet. That's why he sacrificed a special-teams player to activate Jeff Garcia along with Vick and Kevin Kolb. Reid could have made Vick the No. 2 quarterback and Garcia the emergency, but in that scenario, had Kolb gotten hurt, Garcia could not have come into the game until the fourth quarter; otherwise, Vick would have had to sit. If Vick hadn't realized what his role was going to be, certainly he should know now.
"It is a definitely a different scenario," Vick said. "It's hard. I've never been in this situation before. So the thing I tell myself is to stay warm, try to stay loose, and try to stay in gear so when my number is called, I'm into the game and I'm in tune with what's going on with the offense and I can go out there and play within the framework of the offense. It's a different role. It is what it is."
Of course, Vick wants to start. The questions I have about this arrangement between Vick and the Eagles are these: What happens when Donovan McNabb comes back, presumably in two weeks when the Eagles resume their schedule against Tampa Bay (0-3), which was shut out by the Giants? What if McNabb, who has considerably more clout than Kolb, doesn't like having to run off the field for 10 or 15 plays a game? What if Vick starts to get frustrated being a gimmick rather than a quarterback? What then?
From what I can tell, Vick is well-liked in the locker room. He's reserved to the point of almost being quiet, but he asks a lot of questions and isn't afraid to ask for help. He's working hard off the field - a first for him - and his teammates respect what he's been through.
And Vick appears grateful - to the Eagles, to his teammates, to the NFL - for allowing him a second chance. That's why during the national anthem before the game, he was thinking about his grandmother Caletha Vick, who died on May 2, 2008, while he was in prison in Kansas.
"I made it back," Vick said he had told his grandmother. "I made it back. This time, I won't let you and the family down."
We'll see.
Contact columnist Ashley Fox at 215-854-5064 or afox@phillynews.com.
