Two of the Eagles defensive leaders, Sheldon Brown and Quintin Mikell, are not only excited to welcome Michael Vick as a teammate but excited that they won't be having to line up across the line of scrimmage from the newest Eagle in a game this season.
"All I know is I'm glad he's on our team and not a team that we're going to be playing," Mikell said, "Because he causes fits for teams.
"He can run, he can throw, he's got a cannon. He's definitely, in my opinion, going to come in with the right attitude. He's going to be ready to work."
"He's one of those quarterbacks," Brown said, "Kind of like Donovan, where the play doesn't have to be perfect for him to make something happen."
Both players, two of the longest tenured Eagles, are happy that the organization brought in the talented former No. 1 overall pick.
"I think it's a tremendous thing to be honest," Brown said. "I'm glad somebody stepped up.
"I got tired of watching ESPN saying this team didn't want him ... At least somebody's giving the man an opportunity to do what he knows how to do and play the game he loves. I give the organization a lot of credit for that and hopefully he does really well, I want to see him succeed."
As for the extra media attention that is sure to surround the team with Vick's addition to the roster, the veterans have been there before.
"There's pretty much nothing that we haven't experienced," said Mikell, citing the Terrell Owens era, last year's miraculous late-season run, and a Super Bowl, among others. "So we're ready for all this stuff."
"From day one, we thought that, to be honest, it wasn't fair," added Brown, the Eagles NFLPA player representative, about Vick's situation.
Brown and Mikell agree that this locker room is very well suited to bring Vick into the Eagles family.
"We're going to put the right people around him," said Mikell, "And let him know that we don't care about people's past."
"Everybody has a job to do," said Brown, "Worry about your own job and do it well."
-- Posted by Bo Wulf, 12:55 a.m., August 14
