According to no greater an authority than Mark Twain, in life, there are no second acts.

He didn’t see Michael Vick on Monday Night Football.

The first time he touched the football from scrimmage, Vick dropped back in the pocket and with his foot on the three-yard line, he launched it 65 yards in the air to a startled DeSean Jackson who was so open he ran it into the end zone backwards.

The play went eighty-eight yards and took just 17 seconds, but for the Redskins, the game was already over.

The next time Vick had the ball, he ran it in for another score. 14-0. The next time? He threw it 50 yards in the air for another TD. 21-0.

In the end, it was a 59-28 slaughter.

“It’s tougher than what it looks,” Vick said. “It may look easy from the outside, but it’s definitely hard.”

It didn’t look easy. It looked preposterous.

It looked like Gretzky in his prime. It looked like Bird at his best.

He wasn’t just better than everyone else, it was like he was the veteran pro at the game, and his opponents were just trying their pads for the first time. But they weren’t. Before Monday Night the Redskins had allowed the fewest points in the NFC.

On the same day, his opposing quarterback Donovan McNabb was awarded a five-year, $78 million deal by the Redskins, you gotta ask yourself, how much is the guy who accounted for six touchdowns against him worth?

Just how much money is there?

The only problem is, it’s Michael Vick we’re talking about.

He’s had some issues.

This has been a very odd NFL season thus far. There are no dominant teams, and certainly none in the NFC. Yet the most dominating player in that conference by far, when he’s been able to play, has been Michael Vick.

If he keeps this up, considering their semi-soft schedule and the rest of the weakened conference, the Eagles could have a relatively easy path to the Super Bowl.

With Michael Vick as their quarterback.

What will that be like?

It’s certainly hard to imagine any of this as being even possible. Here’s a guy who has had two years off in prison, who barely played last year, who couldn’t make it as the starting QB coming out of camp and his team couldn’t give him away, yet in the past two games he’s been simply unreal. There he was beating up Peyton Manning. Then he was murdering Donovan McNabb.

What’s next?

Next comes the pressure of dealing with being a great story. Redemption narratives are irresistible to a lazy press because they write themselves. Now Michael Vick will have to deal with the ever-present media looking for a new angle, any angle to exploit.

It’s already happened actually. Overexcited by the romping win, DeSean Jackson described the Eagles start like they were “pit bulls coming out of their cages.”

Michael Vick will have to deal with that.

And he’s also going to have to deal with those of us, like me for example, who aren’t that forgiving because he can throw it from here to there better than practically anyone else right now. Like animal rights groups: “As long as he’s throwing a football and not electrocuting a dog, PETA is pleased he is focused on his game.”

Yet there he was on Monday, doing stuff so unfamiliar on the field that I along with most everyone else had to be cheering for the guy.

How soon we forget. How soon we forgive.

In sports anyway.

It was just a few months ago that the last of Vicks dog’s that was deemed as unsalvageable had to be put down.

I guess out of sight. Out of mind.

Especially when Vick is playing out of sight and out of his mind.

Cheers – Gavin McDougald – AKA Couch