By FRANK WARD
DailyPhiladelphian.com Editor

He said all the right things. He did all the right things during the season. Apparently, however, jail hadn’t changed Michael Vick enough from his days preceding being convicted of running a dog fighting ring.

In this week’s Sports Illustrated cover story, Vick admits that he went right back to partying at the conclusion of last year. He was literally 15 minutes away from not showing us the brilliance he displays on the field each Sunday this year.

A piece of wedding cake did what jail couldn't. It forced Michael Vick to leave Virgina behind him and focus on the NFL and his life. He almost fumbled away his second chance at a career this summer.

Vick recounts the night that his fellow felon and running partner Quanis Phillips was shot outside his birthday party. Apparently Vick was to go to the club, listen as his closest friends with $20 and a pair of white pants sang happy birthday to him, eat some cake and roll on home. Then, his fiance shoved a little cake in his face and he got upset.

That’s when Phillips decided to smash the cake in his face, too. Vick admits to flying off the handle, but walking away. He says that was hard to do and the old Mike wouldn’t have. Maybe his stint in the pen helped him keep from throwing down with his boy Phillips. Vick stormed away and then found out 15 minutes later that Phillips was shot. Had Vick not left, he would have been there and who knows what would have transpired at that point.

It’s good that Vick left, but he was still in the wrong place and coach Reid let him know that. Vick admits that he and his brother were back to partying and kept doing it since nothing happened.

He could have lost it all and there was a point when most Eagles fans expected him to have been cut or waived. Honestly, if it wasn’t for Kevin Kolb being so inexperienced as a starter, he likely would have been run out of town and the NFL.

The man being mentioned as an MVP candidate now explains how his mother was ready to disown him and how he was ashamed, but Marcus wasn’t.

“I’m sitting on the chair crying, looking all crazy in the face,” Vick said in the story. “My brother, he’s sitting there, he ain’t got no expression on his face because he ain’t going through what I’m going through. I’m going through something totally different: I know what I want in life. I’m sure he do too, but I love the game of football. I know what I can do on the field and what I can provide for a team. That’s where my heart’s at, and it would’ve killed me to have that taken away.”

The bottom line is that Vick says he now stays home and has left Virgina behind him. That piece of cake apparently forced him to change his ways. That’s all well and good. But, he has to leave Marcus behind, too, since he’s trying to cash in on Mike’s fame. The fact that Marcus showed no emotion after the shooting while Mike was crying displays his lack of concern for what had happened, as well as the fact that he still has a lot to learn.

Leaving Marcus behind will be the hardest test of all, in our opinion. That doesn’t mean to abandon Marcus completely. However, he can’t be his little brother’s wingman anymore. He can’t be in business with Marcus and he can’t party with him.

Staying away from Virginia and Marcus can’t simply be a current choice made for the moment. This has to be a life decision. Otherwise, he could end up destitute like Iverson, or maybe in jail like some other former all-pro players. He could also end up dead.

Had Vick not left when he did that fateful night in June, is there any guarantee that a bullet doesn’t fly his way?

Make it a good life or not, Michael; the choice is yours. You will not get another chance.