By Tim Kelly, Sports Talk Philly Editor
Former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick remains unsigned in free-agency, though the 36-year-old remains an interesting talking point in NFL circles. Case in point: Bleacher Report released a documentary entitled "Vick" this month that features a look at Vick's childhood, college career, time with the Atlanta Falcons, time in prison on federal dogfighting charges and career rebound with the Eagles.
In the portion about the Eagles, Donovan McNabb, who is featured throughout the documentary, discusses the role that he played in bringing Vick to Philadelphia, which seems to be more prominent than previously thought.
"I remember one Saturday, I think it was a Saturday, and my financial guy called. And he's like, 'hey, I want you to talk to somebody.' And I was like, 'talk to who?'. He's like, 'you'll like this man, you know, you've talked to him enough. He needs your help.' And I'm like 'well alright, who is it?'. And I heard him in the background and I'm like, 'seven!'.
We start talking, what's your goals? What do you want to do? And he's like 'I gotta get back in.' And I said, 'Do you want to get back in, or do you want to get back in and take over?'. And he told me, he said 'five, I want to take the game back over.' I said 'well, how 'bout this?'. And I shot a a bullet in the air, you know, I said 'what if I talk to Andy, about bringing you back in gettin' back on your feet and learning the game and how to be a professional, and then see what happens?'. He stopped and he's like, 'you would do that?'. I said, 'why not, I take care of my brother.' And he's like, 'I would love that.'
I talked to Andy and Andy had the same reaction. Andy said, 'are you serious?'. I was like, 'yeah'. I said 'hey, he's like my little brother.' I said 'I think it would be good for him, but I think it would also be good for our team.'"
The way that the signing had been presented publicly at the time was that the Eagles made an organizational decision to give Vick a second chance, and McNabb, who seemingly had a stable future with the team, was on board with the decision. This suggests that McNabb brought the idea of signing Vick to the Eagles first, something he says that he didn't feel threatened by:
Interestingly enough, McNabb discussed earlier in the documentary how he unsuccessfully tried to recruit Vick to play his college football at Syracuse, where McNabb was starring at the time.
The entire documentary is available on Vick's Facebook page. It features Vick himself, McNabb, Vick's college coach Frank Beamer, former NFL quarterback Aaron Brooks and ESPN's Michael Wilbon, among others.
