Michael Vick Receives Vindication From His Teammates

The Ed Block Courage Award is an award given by each team to one of its players as voted on by the team. Well, the Eagles themselves have voted and their winner for the 2009 Ed Block Courage Award is none other than Michael Vick. According to the it's website, "The Ed Block Courage Award recipient symbolizes professionalism, great strength and dedication. He is also a community role model." From the Inquirer's Eagles Blog

"I've had to overcome a lot, more than probably one single individual can bear," Vick said. "Take a look at what I've been through. You ask certain people to walk in my shoes, they probably couldn't do it -- probably 95 percent of the people in this world. Because nobody had to endure what I've been through -- situations I've been put in, situations I've placed myself in, decisions that I've made -- whether they were good or bad. There are always consequences behind certain things and there are repercussions behind them, too. Then you have to wake up every day and face the world, whether they perceive you in the right perspective or it's a totally different outlook on you."

Eagles coach Andy Reid said the vote was a unanimous one. Actually, it wasn't. Vick said he had a vote and that he didn't cast his for himself.

"I won't say who I voted for," Vick said.

Reid was asked if he was worried about how the award would be interpreted in light of Vick's past. In case you just awoke from a 3-year coma, Vick served 18 months in a federal prison for his role in running a dogfighting ring, was released in the summer and signed not long after by the Eagles amid a storm of controversy.

"I'm not sure you can explain it, unless you've kind of gone through it here with him," Reid said. "Everybody is going to have their opinion on it I'm sure. Until you've been with him for the hours that his teammates have been with him and seen him through all these different things that he's had to go through, that time-tested part of it, you can't appreciate it.

"I don't expect everybody to understand it. I think it's a tribute when it's a slam dunk by his teammates voting him that. It was an unanimous vote. It's not something that we as coaches ... or anybody else promotes. We don't sit there and promote a player to win the award. It's picked by the players and only by the players."

While PETA is certainly not a fan of this award, you cannot doubt that no one has displayed courage quite like Mike Vick has, coming into a very liberal city filled with animal lovers, Mike Vick has triumphed overall and has without a doubt silenced all of his naysayers who criticized that he would not be able to make it off the field. While Andy Reid's usage of him certainly has been questionable, I see this award as something that should be given for actions off the field, and off the field, no one has triumphed over more adversity than Michael Vick has. Congrats to him and congrats on the Eagles for unanimously recognizing the strides that Mike Vick has made in the city of Philadelphia over the past 4 months.