McNabb missed his second straight game with a broken rib. He broke the rib scoring a touchdown in the season opener on the sort of play Cunningham made routine.
Vick yesterday played in his first game since a 2-year absence from the league as he served prison time for his role in a dogfighting ring.
Cunningham visited Eagles practice Saturday. He approached both McNabb and Vick. Now an ordained pastor for a growing church in his native Las Vegas, Cunningham told each of them he was praying for them.
Certainly, the thrust of those prayers is different. Time is sure to correct McNabb's problems. Vick's are less predictable, but Cunningham is glad he's aboard.
"I'm excited Mr. [Jeffrie] Lurie brought him here," said Cunningham, who added that he had sincerely hoped Vick wouldn't land with Jerry Jones in Dallas. "This shows he cares, not just about winning, but about players."
Cunningham predicted "amazing" success for the Eagles when both McNabb and Vick finally hit the field together.
A derivative of "amazing" once was the apt adjective Cunningham used in reference to plays that defined his own career.
He insisted that it wasn't eluding pursuers like Carl Banks and Bruce Smith that he remembered best; rather, it was hard hits and the lone playoff win against New Orleans after thein 1992 season.
Now, it seems, being Randall Cunningham in retirement suits him. He beamed when owner Jeffrey Lurie recounted the adulation Cunningham enjoyed in the locker room after Saturday's practice, as Eagles players shook his hand and asked him for autographs.
Yesterday, in that moment's afterglow, Cunningham said, "This is my Hall of Fame. I'm satisfied now."
There is the argument, as Lurie stressed, that Hall of Fame voters should measure Cunningham's significance as much as his statistics.
