Should Vick be a candidate for NFL Comeback Player of the Year?

A quick Four Downs while wondering what's up with Kansas City flirting with TV blackouts when the Chiefs are 6-0 at home ...

FIRST DOWN:

I didn't think it was right that Randy Moss won NFL Comeback Player of the Year in 2007, when he caught 23 touchdown passes in his first season with the Patriots. Moss wasn't hurt or out of football in 2006. He simply loafed through his last year with the Raiders and was interested again when he landed in New England.

The Pro Football Writers Association disagreed and named Moss its Comeback Player of the Year that season. The Associated Press voters agreed, or at least enough of them than Cowboys linebacker Greg Ellis won.

This year, I have to consider Michael Vick for the award. If one is to believe the blogosphere, Vick will be the runaway winner. There are a number of worthy candidates, such as Seattle receiver Mike Williams, who was out of football in 2008 and 2009, and Vikings linebacker E.J. Henderson, who came back from a broken femur to play from Day 1 this season.

Yes, Vick has had a remarkable comeback from a 21-month prison sentence to MVP candidate in two years. But is it right to honor that comeback when such egregious bad behavior on his part is the reason he suffered the setback from which he had to come back from? There are no rules on what a player has to come back from to be considered for the award. But I for one am struggling with giving this award to Vick.

I'm glad he got a second chance. I just don't think he should win an award for coming back from where he put himself in the first place.

I thought Andy Reid showed some class when I asked him for his reaction to the Donovan McNabb benching in Washington. Remember that Reid was villified for trading McNabb within the division, for gift-wrapping the rival Redskins a franchise QB that would turn Washington around under Mike Shanahan.

Granted, Reid didn't know Michael Vick would quickly emerge as the starter and MVP candidate. But still, Reid could choose to remind all of us that he still knows what he's doing. Instead, he sounded genuinely hurt by what's happened to a close friend.

"[McNabb] is one of my all-time favorite guys," Reid said. "The things he did for this organization, for all of us here in this organization here, are just unbelievable. I wouldn't ever have guessed that this would have taken place or expected it to take place, but it has and he will do like he does with everything, and handle it peacefully and he'll come out on the upper end of it."

THIRD DOWN:

By now, y'all know I've been beating to death the notion that an 18-game schedule will hurt the NFL. Well, Vick is among the majority of players who agree with that feeling. Asked about a proposed 18-game schedule on yesterday's conference call, Vick said:

And detrimental to the quality of games in December, January and February.

FOURTH DOWN: