The Michael Vick Curse struck Kevin Kolb dead in the back today as coach Reid picked a dog killing felon Michael Vick to lead the city of brotherly love’s NFL team.  After repeatedly stating that Kevin Kolb’s job was safe, Reid reversed himself.  No surprise there.  We’ve seen this broken record before as it played out for Donovan McNabb.

Michael Vick was reportedly surprised and Kevin Kolb was reportedly pissed off (angry might have been a different way to paraphrase his emotion).

This all came after Michael Vick’s performance up against a lack luster Lyons team.  Michael Vick appears to be finally warming up to playing in the NFL, but he has yet to play well and consistently against a good team.  We’re not going to try and find any rhyme or reason in this latest failure of Philadelphia Eagles leadership.  Its just another bad decision following many as the Eagles dig a deeper and deeper hole in Michael Vick cursed soil.  Its yet another sad day to be a Philadelphia Eagles fan.

Update

On a related note, Gregg Doyel points out that most sports writers and fans have (accidentally?) forgotten about Vick’s past while forgiving him.  In our opinion that is one of the primary reasons why he shouldn’t be in the NFL today.  Preventing violent felons from playing in the NFL is not about continued punishment, its not about a lack of forgiveness, its about not forgetting that these ARE violent felons!

See, dogs are part of who Vick is. Lance Armstrong is a cancer survivor. Pete Rose is a gambler. Michael Vick is a dogfighter. Always and forever. ~ Gregg Doyel

We realize that not everyone agrees with this perspective, today.  We realize that the majority of people do not always agree with many views.  Sometimes the majority gets it wrong, because they forget.  The majority was quick to fight against civil rights in the sixties.  They have been quick to fight against equality for women, fight against equality for gays and lesbians.

Here the majority is weirdly FOR more rights for violent felons.  They are FOR super star status for violent felons and the pay that goes with it, even when that status and pay helped to fuel the crimes that resulted in the felony conviction.

Its easy (after the fact) for the majority to recognize when they were wrong to give a group more rights.   This makes the debate around Michael Vick a political tight rope.

We jail and imprison almost 2.5 million Americans.  The majority of those Americans are African American males.  There is something inherently wrong with a system that generates that type of result.

But should we put a man up on a $7 million soap box to promote sending more African American males to prison?

Hell no.

Michael Vick should not be the example set for kids, teens and young African American males.  Playing good football does not absolve someone of their crimes, it does not justify having done those crimes.

BP has more money than Michael Vick, but that doesn’t absolve those bastards of their crimes.  They should be tried and if found guilty they should be locked away for life.

The point is that success in a given profession does not fix a crime, especially a violent felony.

As long as Michael Vick and other violent felons stays in the NFL, stays on the payroll, he is promoting the current reality that its OK to commit violent felonies as long as you make good somewhere else financially or make good on the field on any given play or two.

But life doesn’t work like that.  For the majority of felons in prison, their crimes are not absolved or negated if they go out and throw a pass, run for a touch down, make a basket or even make a few more bucks (off their crimes).

In the 1800′s the concept of an Uncle Tom supporting the system of slavery and inequality in America helped our country see that supporting a system passively could in some cases be just as evil as participating in it or supporting it directly.

Michael Vick has not only committed crimes in the past, but he has allowed himself to become the poster child, a new category or classification, of the type of person that helps to promote violence and criminal behavior in young teens and young men in poor neighborhoods if they just go along with the system, the sports system.

Play along, play by the rules in the house and you will get extra privileges that others do not get. Set a good example for the masses to follow, to help keep them under control and you will be rewarded.

Play along, play by the rules on the field and you will get extra privileges off the field.  Set a good example for the masses to follow, to help keep them under control and you will be rewarded.

Throw a good pass and we will look the other way if you fund illegally dog fighting rings on your property for drug dealers and gangsters.  Put on some extra muscle and set some passing records and we’ll look the other way if you want to force an under age girl to have sex with you in a bathroom while your body guard prevents her friends from getting that under age girl from getting out of a dangerous situation.

Its arguable that Michael Vick is actually doing something more harmful to society now after prison than he did to get into prison.  He’s blinded by his drive to be successful on the field and failing to see that he’s helping to send more people to prison and helping to subjugate more people to inequality.

He’s doing this because he let himself be used.  He’s doing this because the NFL and its fans have forgotten what he did, blinded by a performance on a field.  We’re not talking life saving stuff, we’re talking entertainment, a ‘performer’.

He’s not alone in this, but he is the poster child, possibly the name that will be used in the next century to help document how millions of people let themselves be fooled, and guided down a path that would result in crimes, violent crimes, drug abuse, and imprisonment in an unjust system.  Michael Vick’s curse isn’t just striking the Philadelphia Eagles, his team mates, his coaches, his fans, its a direct shot into the bow of America’s poor communities.

Its selfish and irresponsible and its as despicable as his past crimes.

The curse of Michael Vick on the Philadelphia Eagles cost the team four Players in the first half of the game.  Surprisingly in the fourth quarter of the game it also seemed to take out Andy Reid’s mind as he seemed to help insure the team’s defeat by burning time outs for no apparent reason.

Despite ludicrously poor performances by Michael Vick since returning to the NFL, he played well for a backup quarterback.  That opportunity came at a huge price, and as this second season with Michael Vick 1 concussion away from the helm it doesn’t seem likely that the Philadelphia Eagles team can continue to pick up the tab.

Now the Eagles are staring at the quarterback showdown scenario that wasn’t supposed to happen after a lackluster performance by Kevin Kolb and a good (for Vick) performance.  Its not likely that Reid (if he takes his brain off the injured reserved list) will make a change to his starting QB position if Kolb is healthy by next week.  It was pretty obvious that Vick’s lack of experience playing with the other starters (or playing at all) left him with few tricks taped to his arm band.  Other teams will have his number (its a 7) pretty quickly and today’s average performance will be halted before you can say McNabb.

Its an ugly time to be an Eagles fan, but its an uglier time still for the NFL as it continues benchmarking this professional wrestling business model.

This Thursday (tomorrow) Michael Vick gets an opportunity to lead other backup players as one time starters against the New York Jets.  Technically, he’s getting a chance to start in a meaningless game, so Philadelphia is not really risking anything that they haven’t already risked in negative PR.

Ultimately, Vick has an opportunity to show that he still has some remaining NFL level strength, speed, or ‘talent’.  Three things that have been difficult to spot in Philadelphia in general and Michael Vick specifically since he made dog fighting a priority and left the NFL to head to jail.

All in all, as this second stringer plays in a preseason game supported by other second stringers and possibly playing against the Jets second stringers, this game will likely be more of an exhibition game than the normal preseason hodge podge.  With all those less skilled players on the field at once, things are bound to fall apart and look undisciplined.  That could give Vick an opportunity to run as he doesn’t seem to have much in the way of targeting skills anymore(yeah I know, questionable how good they were to begin with).

If he has any type of positive showing, the Eagles can leverage his performance to stir up controversy (and free press) about a contest between Vick and Kolb for the starter position later on.

On the good side, if he really plays badly and can’t use the excuse of other backup players (which I expect will be the case) this could set the stage for Michael Vick to be ultimately dropped all together.  I doubt this will be his last game by any means, but it could be another step in the beginning of the end of his NFL career as a QB.

In other completely unimportant news, Keanu Reeves called the Eagles and wants his story line back.  [satire]

<h3>Post Game Update</h3>

Michael Vick played like a dud in his first start since 2006.  His originaly expected play time of 2 quarters only ended up being 1 quarter.  Might have been cut in half due to lack luster performance or might have been off in the early estimated reports of how much time he’d get.  Either way, doesn’t look so hot for his future with the Eagles.