Through all of the explanations and discussions and soul searching by Andy Reid, Donovan McNabb and Jeffrey Lurie over the signing of the Michael Vick, what has been most intriguing, and confusing, is the idea that a major part of this move is the Eagles’ desire to “save” Vick. As much as the team’s brass believes that Vick will be able to help them on the football field, they appear to want to help Vick off the football field even more.

So for Eagles fans everywhere wrestling with their own feelings and beliefs over Michael Vick and his abhorent actions and whether he deserves a second chance and whether they want him on their beloved football team, the question is: why do we care about saving Mike Vick?

“My hope as we go forward is Michael will prove his value in society,” team owner Jeffrey Lurie said during his press conference on Friday. “Whether he becomes a good football player again, it’s possible. He’s got an opportunity to become a good member of society. That’s the goal here.”

Did I miss something? I thought the goal was to win football games. Why are the Eagles interested in rehabbing Vick? I can understand if McNabb wants to reach out to his old friend and try to help him get back on his feet, but he could do that from behind the scenes. McNabb could go to events and public speaking engagements with Vick, as a show of good citizen support, and speak out against dog fighting in Philadelphia and elswhere around the country. But Vick doesn’t have to be a member of the Eagles for McNabb to do that.

Bob Ford, columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, made a great point in his column today when he said: “Most puzzling is that Reid has done all that to acquire a quarterback who isn’t all that good. Vick can run well enough, or could at one time, but his completion percentages and passer ratings were mediocre by NFL standards.”

The further along we go through this situation, the more confusing it gets. He’s definitely a quarterback, but multiple Eagles sources have publicly and privately indicated that the jobs of current quarterbacks McNabb, Kevin Kolb and A.J. Feeley are all safe. So are the Eagles going to carry four quarterbacks? Where is he going to play? What kind of plays is he going to be involved in? Is he a running back? A wide receiver? Just a Wildcat option, or an option in some other gimmick formation? No one knows, as the usually tight lipped Reid is holding his cards ever closer to his chest.

Which leads us to believe even more that a major motivation in signing Vick was to help him rehab his life. And as a lifelong Eagles fan, I could care less if Michael Vick gets his life back in order. If he does, great, good for him, I hope he’s learned his lesson and is truly sorry for what he did, although I do not yet believe him that he has genuinely changed. If he never got another job playing football in the National Football League, that would have been fine with me too. I think he deserves a second chance, but I certainly would not have lost any sleep over it if he hadn’t.

My care is about the Eagles winning games and winning the incredibly elusive SuperBowl. Will Vick help the Eagles do that? Who knows. If he can, then great, I’m bursting with joy that they signed him.

But we have yet to see any proof that Vick will be able to contribute in a meaningful way, on the football field, which should be priority number one for the Eagles. The rest is, as they say, for the dogs.