"The Kimmel Center more resembled a football game than a graduation.

Complete with whistles and air horns, wild cheers and even a round of boos, it was the day nearly 450 graduates had been waiting for.

Not only were they graduating from one of Camelot Schools' five Philadelphia high schools on Friday, but Michael Vick was giving the commencement address.

Camelot's schools are either for over-age students who have fallen at least two grades behind or have dropped out, or for students who have been expelled for behavioral issues from their mainstream schools.

Each one of the students, even at a young age, had been given a second chance at life, a second chance to go to high school and perhaps go to college.

And who better to address such students than the Eagles quarterback, the spokesman for second chances.

"I think God is using me as an example to the youth, to these kids who are ambitious and want certain things in life," Vick said.

"Sometimes they may fall or there may be hurdles or obstacles they have to overcome, but looking at my situation and seeing first hand, they know and have the confidence to go out and do it right."

Vick's rise, fall and rise again has been well publicized, but what these students had gone through in their lives before making a change is often ignored, often looked over as just another sad story in a long list of the troubled Philadelphia youth."