Michael Vick: Spectacular So Far, but Let's Not Go Too Crazy Yet

I know, I know.

I'm about to come off as a hater, or maybe the fun police, or some variant that really isn't me.

Fans by their nature are fanatical, fanatics are not supposed to be rational, and as  lifelong sports fans, who can blame us? And it's even harder to stay reasonable when the 24/7 print and electronic media is constantly tossing around best-evers, GOAT lists, and frothing at the mouth every time a player performs some magical feat.

And make no mistake: Michael Vick had a magical game for the ages last night, leading the Philadelphia Eagles to a 59-28 slaughter of the host Washington Redskins that did not even seem to be that close.  Remove the "s" from slaughter, and you get laughter, and this game was also a laugher, unless you were a Skins fan getting pelted by the rain while watching your team get demolished by an NFC East rival.

In the wake of the rout, Vick was hailed for giving perhaps the best-ever performance by a quarterback in the history of Monday Night Football.  I don't possess a photographic memory, but have seen most of these games, and it's hard to top these stats: 20-28 for 333 yards, including 4 touchdown throws and 0 interceptions. Oh yeah, Vick toted the pigskin 8 times for 80 yards and two more scores.

On the Eagles first five possessions (completed in just over one quarter of play), they scored five touchdowns, their first play from scrimmage being an 88 yard perfectly thrown bomb from Vick to the almost equally electric DeSean Jackson. Oh yeah: Vick seemed to effortlessly flick the ball about 65 yards in the air.

One really could not expect anything more from their new apparent franchise quarterback.

But is it premature to consider Vick the leading MVP candidate? 

He's certainly in the mix, as the Eagles are 4-0 in the games he's started and finished this year.  He has thrown 11 td's against zero picks, and his passer rating is an NFL-best (and almost obscene) 115.1. And one should consider that passer ratings do not even count his NFL best (for qb's) 341 yards, 7.8 yards per carry, and four rushing touchdowns.

So yes, if he stays healthy and the Birds at least make the playoffs, he should be a leading candidate.

Is he the NFL's best quarterback?

He's playing like it right now, but I simply need to see more. Admittedly, he still possesses a stunning array of skills, and appears to have the potential to be the best.  But in a league that includes Drew Brees, the defending Super Bowl MVP in his prime, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Philip Rivers, I need to see more than four to six games to proclaim him as such?

Should we prepare his Canton bust? 

Let's put the brakes on here.  I'm actually in the camp that thought Vick was better than he was given credit for in Atlanta.  Yes, he had a low career passer rating, but his running stats did not help him with that metric. He also elevated a mediocre Falcons team, taking them to the playoffs twice, winning the first ever playoff game by a visiting team at Lambeau Field, and making it to an NFC Championship game.

He's only 30, seems to be playing his ball ball ever, is coached well, and surrounded by some exciting weapons like Jackson, Jeremy Maclin, LeSean McCoy and Brent Celek. If he stays in Philly, and stays injury-free and stays clean, he still has the opportunity to make a run for the Hall of Fame. Again, inquiring, rational fans need to see a lot more.

What about that great triumph of the human spirit? 

Forgive my skepticism here, as I don't know the man.

It would be nice to celebrate a true comeback story, as a human being and as a player. All of us know at least some of the details of the heinous acts he committed, for which he served time and temporarily lost a whole lot of cash. And, he deserved to lose it all, as he deserved that second chance.

Having good mentors like Tony Dungy and erstwhile teammate Donovan McNabb apparently have helped to set him on the right path. But again, I need to see more, a whole lot more.  How about the rest of this season (including playoffs) to judge him as a player, and at least the following offseason to begin to assess his reformation.

I rooted for Vick when he starred at Virginia Tech  (like most fans, I marveled at his pure athleticism) and tended to root for him in Atlanta before it all blew up because of all of the poor choices he made.

It's impossible to judge remorse from a TV set, or from some print interviews. He's mostly said the right things in his two years with the Eagles, even if I can't forget about that offseason nightclub incident where his co-defendant just happened to be shot at a publicly promoted birthday bash in Vick's honor.

Nothing about that smelled right, even if the justice system, the Eagles and the NFL seemed to all turn blind eyes and clogged noses toward this miserable breech of judgment, and maybe more.

Perhaps, Michael Vick really did regard that incident as the wake-up call and third chance he needed, and his on-the-field performance has been amazing so far.

Here's hoping that  the new, improved, and much wiser Michael Vick is here to stay, as he is arguably the most exciting player in the NFL once again. If he continues to approximate the numbers he's posted so far this year while truly helping others avoid the type of self-destructive path he chose, his redemption will truly be something to celebrate.

But for now, like so many things in the world of sports and entertainment, the hype is a bit out of hand. It's not unreasonable to ask to see more—a whole lot more—before anointing Michael Vick as the best player in the game, a future Hall of Famer, and a great humanitarian.