Tonight is Vick's Night

What a difference a year makes.

Last season, Michael Vick was nothing more than a decoy.  He stood on the sidelines in the ridiculously large shadow cast by Donovan McNabb.  His presence here was kind of a joke.  He was a charity recipient, taken with the intention of being traded.

Yeah, that's all changed.

Tonight, with a chance to put the Eagles in a first place tie, Vick will take on Donovan McNabb on Monday Night Football.  You have to wonder how often, while sitting in his jail cell, he dreamt about a moment like this.  Vick comes into the game as an MVP candidate.  He just rattled off one of the best three-game stretches ever for an Eagles quarterback.  McNabb, on the other hand, will enter the game on the heels of two weeks of controversy surrounding his conditioning, work ethic, coach, and, once again, his race.  Who would have thought, even as recently as September, that the storyline for tonight's game would be about Vick's resurgence?

Last week, in an effort to revamp his image and increase his earnings potential, Vick and his agent signed with French sports management firm Lagardere Unlimited.  They know that now is the time to rebuild him. It's no coincidence that Vick recently re-branded himself on Twitter (@mikevick) and Facebook.  While Donovan McNabb was being threatened with JaMarcus Russell, Vick was Tweeting with LeBron James. Truth.

And fans too.  Yeah, that's a Happy Birthday wish from #7:

Previously, Vick's Twitter account (@mikevickzone) appeared to be run by a PR staff.  Now, it is Vick who is interacting with fans.  He's actually making the best of the second chance he's been given.  Weird.

It sounds kind of a lot corny to say this, but tonight will be the biggest game of Michael Vick's career.  It's the stuff movies are made of.  He has a chance to put his team in a first place tie with the Giants by beating Donovan McNabb on Monday Night Football.

For those of you who read this site, you know that I am rarely melodramatic.  But this is an incredible story that is playing out before our very eyes.

I got my popcorn ready.