Michael Vick

Michael Vick's on-field transformation has been remarkable. ? At this rate, Vick might one day join Doug Williams as the only African American quarterbacks to win Super Bowl championships while also gaining entry to another exclusive club: left-handed Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks. ? Ken Stabler and Steve Young could use some company. ? Young, like Vick a dynamic dual threat, is the only left-handed quarterback in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. ? USC turned back the clock Saturday in its victory at Arizona, dominating with a punishing, clock-controlling ground attack led by workmanlike tailback Marc Tyler . ?

Michael Vick , the NFC's starting Pro Bowl quarterback a year ago, returned to practice Monday after sitting out three games because of two broken ribs, and will play Sunday when the last-place Philadelphia Eagles (4-8) face the Miami Dolphins (4-8). "I'll definitely be out there," Vick said. "I feel like I've got to be accountable for my team. I want to be there. You know, I just want to get back to doing what I love to do, and that's playing the game of football. There's nothing in this world like the game.

What does Michael Vick want for Christmas? A dog, apparently. Don't panic: He's not allowed to get one until 2012, when he finishes the probation that followed his nearly two-year prison sentence for running a dog-fighting ring. But there's much anticipatory anxiety in the air nonetheless. It all started this month, when the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback told a group of children at the Boys and Girls Club of Newark, N.J., that he longed for a canine companion "more than anything in the world.

Houston quarterback Matt Schaub is out indefinitely with a "significant" right foot injury and will miss at least the Texans' next game in two weeks. Coach Gary Kubiak said Monday that Schaub was injured on a quarterback sneak coming out of the end zone late in the second quarter of Houston's 37-9 win over Tampa Bay on Sunday. Schaub stayed in the game, but threw only three passes. "It's disappointing," Kubiak said, "but we'll go to work and try to do the right thing by Matt.

While Michael Vick was screaming toward the sky, a black pit bull named Mel was standing quietly by a door. On this night, like many other nights, Mel was waiting for his owners to take him outside, but he couldn't alert them with a bark. He doesn't bark. He won't bark. The bark has been beaten out of him. While Michael Vick was running for glory, Mel was cowering toward a wall. Every time the 4-year-old dog meets a stranger, he goes into convulsions. He staggers back into a wall for protection.

Michael Vick, sidelined from pro football for two years after a dogfighting scandal, has received a conditional reinstatement from the NFL, clearing the way for him to return this season. But a question remains: Which team is ready to step up and sign the disgraced quarterback? That's the next step after Monday's news that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has lifted the indefinite suspension of Vick in hopes of granting him full reinstatement by Week 6 at the latest, and possibly earlier.

We should have seen this coming: the Philadelphia Eagles ran a reverse with Michael Vick. After repeatedly stressing Kevin Kolb is their No. 1 quarterback and would get his job back as soon as he was cleared to return from his concussion, the Eagles announced Tuesday that Vick will remain the starter. "When someone is playing at the level Michael Vick is playing, you have to give him an opportunity," Coach Andy Reid said, two days after Vick threw for 284 yards and two touchdowns in a 35-32 victory at Detroit.

Barring any setbacks, Philadelphia quarterback Michael Vick , who sat out the last three games because of cartilage damage in his rib cage, is expected back and will start against the Indianapolis Colts on Nov. 7, Eagles Coach Andy Reid said. In fact, Reid expects the Eagles to be as healthy as they possibly can be when they return from the bye week. "I'm feeling better. I think I'll be fine," Vick said after Sunday's 37-19 loss to Tennessee. Kevin Kolb filled in for Vick and was 2-1, beating San Francisco and Atlanta before the loss to the Titans.

Michael Vick is out of prison and headed home, penniless and reviled for running a vicious dogfighting ring. The suspended NFL quarterback served 19 months in prison on the dogfighting conviction that capped one of the most astonishing falls in sports history -- one that took his wealth and popularity. Vick, who turns 29 in June, left the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kan., by car early Wednesday, undetected by hordes of reporters who had staked out the prison.

Dog lovers don't have to like it, but patience, humility and, of course, enormous physical gifts brought Michael Vick back after a wildly out of whack moral compass led him astray. … You're probably a close relative or a soothsayer if you predicted as recently as last spring that Vick would be an NFL starter this season and "playing out of his mind," as Philadelphia Eagles Coach Andy Reid noted this week. … Sixteen months ago, the ex-ringleader of the Bad Newz Kennels dogfighting ring was still imprisoned at Leavenworth, Kan. … Ichiro Suzuki is a marvel.

Detroit Lions running back Jerome Harrison was scheduled for surgery for a brain tumor Friday, according to a report in the Detroit Free Press. Harrison's agent, Mitch Frankel , did not immediately respond to text messages from the Detroit newspaper seeking comment, and Lions Coach Jim Schwartz announced only that Harrison was placed on the reserve/non-football illness list. The tumor was discovered during a physical that nullified Harrison's trade to the Philadelphia Eagles.

The NFL is a passing league. That's more evident than ever this season with all sorts of yardage records being set each week. But the NFL is also a rushing league. If a player is injured — particularly a quarterback — he's routinely rushed back into action. Among the recent examples: •A flak-jacketed Tony Romo played Monday for the Dallas Cowboys despite suffering cracked ribs and a punctured lung the week before. • Philadelphia's Michael Vick was back in action a week after suffering a concussion.

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick says he's ready to play against the New York Giants on Sunday, a week after sustaining a concussion while playing the Falcons last Sunday in Atlanta. Vick missed practice on Wednesday but was checked out by a neurosurgeon and allowed to resume practice and playing.   According to Eagles coach Andy Reid, Vick has shown no ill effects of the concussion in the ensuing practice sessions. "I'll tell you, he's been sharp," he said, according to Associated Press.

Philadelphia's Michael Vick will be the man in the spotlight Sunday when he returns to Atlanta to play his old team. But Casey Matthews will be the man in the middle. Matthews, a rookie from Oregon, will make his second start at middle linebacker for the Eagles, who will be put to the test by a Michael Turner-led Falcons run game. The Eagles gave up 154 yards rushing at St. Louis last Sunday, underscoring some concerns about their inexperienced linebackers — Matthews flanked by a pair of seventh-round picks, Jamar Chaney (drafted in 2010)

Michael Vick's journey of exorcising negativity reaches another crossroads Sunday night when the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback ventures back to Atlanta as a starter to meet the wounded Falcons and their jeering fan base. "He'll be excited," Eagles Coach Andy Reid said of his quarterback this week on a Philadelphia television show. "Michael is a competitive guy. Quiet. But very competitive. " Atlantans embraced Vick's fire when he took them to the NFC championship game in 2005 (against the Eagles)

Michael Vick signed a one-year contract with the Philadelphia Eagles. The Pro Bowl quarterback was designated as the team's franchise player Feb. 15. He signed the franchise tender Wednesday. Under rules of the collective bargaining agreement that expires at midnight Thursday, a team must pay a franchise player the average of the top five salaries at his position. Vick would make an estimated $20 million under this tag. Vick led the Eagles to a 10-6 record and the NFC East title after replacing an injured Kevin Kolb in Week 1. Despite sitting out three games because of an injury, Vick had his best season.

As one of the country's leading animal-rights advocates, Wayne Pacelle never imagined he would be here -- eye to eye with Michael Vick, engaged in a heartfelt and productive conversation with the disgraced quarterback. But Pacelle, president and chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States, made two trips in the last month to meet with Vick in the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kan.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Friday that team owners are committed to working out a collective bargaining agreement with players and are ready to engage in "intense negotiations" with the NFL Players Assn. to get one done. The current deal expires after March 3, opening the door to a lockout that could threaten training camp and possibly games in the 2011 season. Goodell, speaking at his annual pre-Super Bowl news conference, said he hopes something can be worked out "in the next few weeks.

One career playoff victory, and Aaron Rodgers already has his ring. That is to say, Rodgers and his Green Bay Packers have taken Philadelphia full circle. Green Bay beat the Eagles in their opener, then ended their season on the same field four months later, posting a 21-16 victory over Philadelphia on Sunday before a frigid fan base at Lincoln Financial Field. In the process, the Packers closed the book on the comeback season of Michael Vick, and started a new chapter of their own ?