Vick says his mistakes instilled a new respect for the game

THE CROWD surrounding Michael Vick's locker yesterday was about five reporters deep and 10 wide (though some were wider than others).

The scrum pressing toward the Eagles' quarterback is only going to get more unwieldy. Is there a more intriguing story in the NFL in 2010? OK, one that does not involve alleged cell phone photos of some grizzled old QB's private parts?

Vick, whose jersey from Monday night's 59-28 torching of the Washington Redskins is en route to the Hall of Fame, was asked yesterday if he ever wakes up and struggles to reconcile where he is right now with where he was 2 years ago - i.e., Leavenworth.

"I think about it all the time. That's my motivation, that's what drives me," said Vick, who missed two NFL seasons while serving 21 months because of his role in a dogfighting operation. "Every time I step out on the field on game day, it's like Christmas to me."

Monday night certainly was Christmas to Eagles fans, who saw their team set an NFL road record for first-half scoring (45 points), as Vick electrified the entire league with a performance that made him NFC Offensive Player of the Week for the second week in a row. No less an authority than Patriots QB Tom Brady declared: "With the way he can move the football and his style of play, and when he throws the ball like he did [Monday] night, he's damn near impossible to stop."

Suddenly, there is talk of the Super Bowl and the MVP award for a quarterback who has done something Eagles coach Andy Reid said he thinks is "unique" - reinventing himself, fixing fatal flaws, at age 30.

Vick is officially a very big deal again in the NFL. It is hard to forget that he was in this place once before, in terms of celebrity, if not overall performance, and he didn't handle it so well.

Is that a concern this time?

"Listen, Michael knows this better than anybody, and I don't really have to say a word to him - you could be on top of the mountain one day in the National Football League, and at the bottom of the well the next day," Eagles coach Andy Reid said yesterday. "That's how this thing works. Michael has been in this league a long time, so he understands it."

Vick said he isn't changing anything, isn't getting caught up in the attention.

"Don't change your regimen and don't start feeling like you know it all, just maintain your humility and keep pushing," he said. "It's not hard to do at all."

The problems of the past will have a hard time resurfacing, Vick said - though he ended up having to meet with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell last summer after a former dogfighting co-defendant was shot in the aftermath of Vick's 30th birthday party.

"A lot of people don't have access to me, so they can't reach me anymore, which is a good thing. I've totally separated myself from a lot of people, [I'm] just back dealing with the people I know, love, and care about," said the man whose 115.1 passer rating leads the NFL by more than 10 points.

Vick acknowledged pondering how his life and career might have been different, had he been drafted into this sort of structure in 2001, gotten the instruction he is getting now from QB coach James Urban and offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg. Reid is usually careful - as he was yesterday - to note that "Michael's had good coaching in the past," but Vick makes no bones about the way paying more attention to how he sets up has made him a much more consistent passer. That "throwing platform" work reflects long hours with Urban and Mornhinweg.

"I thought about that a couple days ago. You wonder why things happen. Things certainly happen for a reason. I just thought about that . . . If I could have started my career here, where would I be? Would I have ended up in some of the things I got involved in?" said Vick, who played for the Falcons from 2001-2006. "You never know. But, hey, you can't say that, you can only think about it and wonder and appreciate being in this position now.

"I can't say what we would have accomplished, but as far as my growth as a passer, it would have been expedited tremendously."

He said changing footwork is much easier for a quarterback than changing his throwing motion, which he said he has not done.

For things to have really been different, though, Vick would have had to have been receptive to the coaching back then, where ever he played, and he has acknowledged that was an issue. Humility has as much to do with Vick's rebirth as instruction, maybe even more.

"All of the stuff that he's doing off the field, and the person that he's becoming, learning from his mistakes, I think that's helping him on the field," wideout Jason Avant said yesterday. "A mistake really can help you more than doing it right sometimes can. Because it made him refocus, it made him realize what was important, and that mistake made him a better man. Sometimes trouble is the only thing that can help you in life."

The locker room showed it wasn't at all put off by Vick's past when it voted him - unwisely or not - as winner of the Ed Block Courage Award last year.

"All the guys around here love him, and we look up to him, and I think that's helping his play," Avant said. "People make mistakes. It's how you respond to it.

"Guys look at him not as a quarterback, we look at him as an inspiration on this team. We look at him as a guy who's been through hell and back, and he's conquered it.

"The biggest thing that he gets respect for is that he's humble. Anybody in the locker room feels like they can go up and have a conversation with him. They feel like they can share their thoughts with him. Once you have that type of aura about yourself, and you have the respect that you're just a regular person, guys just look up to that."

Of course, that isn't how everyone outside the locker room sees Vick. It never will be, regardless of yards, touchdowns and victories. Vick was asked yesterday if he expects his return to prominence to bring renewed protests from animal-rights groups.

"I don't think [so]," said Vick, whose agreement with the Humane Society mandates regular community appearances. "My life is moving in a positive direction, I'm doing all the right things, on and off the field. I try not to worry about the negatives now."

Leonard Weaver said he underwent surgery to clean out some scar tissue in his repaired left knee yesterday in Alabama, by Dr. James Andrews . . . Running back LeSean McCoy (AC sprain in shoulder) and defensive end Juqua Parker (hip flexor) didn't practice, right guard Nick Cole was listed as a limited participant. All are expected to play against the Giants . . . Free safety Nate Allen said he is "good to go" after missing the Washington game with a neck strain . . . Andy Reid said, "We'll just see how it all works out this week" between Cole and Max Jean-Gilles, both reasonably healthy . . . Asked about "spitgate" - Mike Mc-Glynn's allegation that the Redskins' LaRon Landry spat at him twice during Monday's game - Reid said he will let the league handle it, without commenting. But he also managed to comment: "I know there was a lot of talking, it looked like, that first game. I thought our guys did quite a bit of playing this past game, and didn't do a whole lot of the talking part," Reid said. *