"Not many Lincoln Financial Field fans were in the mood to really savor the irony, when Kevin Kolb started warming up on the sideline after Michael Vick twisted an ankle on a second shot at a two-point conversion attempt, with 4 minutes and 2 seconds remaining in yesterday's 21-16 Eagles' wild-card playoff round loss to the visiting Green Bay Packers.

The whole Vick season of redemption began at the Linc against the Packers in the season opener, 4 months earlier, when Kolb was driven from the game with a concussion. Now Kolb might have been called upon to save the season, against the Packers, in the playoffs.

But Kolb knew pretty quickly that wasn't happening. He went over to Vick, as he said he always does in such situations. "I let him, usually, calm down, then I go over there and talk to him, say, 'Look what do I need to do?' He gives me a straight-up answer a lot of times. [This time Vick said] he was all right and would go play," Kolb said.

Despite the Fox broadcast report about trainers trying to hide Vick's helmet so he couldn't go back out, the quarterback got his ankle retaped and seemed to move fine in the final drive, before the season ended with an end-zone interception. Vick was not limping later in the locker room.

Kolb said he anticipates he will sit down with Eagles coach Andy Reid and talk about the things they have avoided during this most unusual, unscripted season, the season that was supposed to be about Kolb taking over as the franchise quarterback following the Easter trade of Donovan McNabb.

"I haven't given it a whole lot of thought, to be honest with you. Now it's time to do that," Kolb said. "I don't know yet" what the conversation will entail, what questions Kolb needs to ask about his future. "I'm ready to start, I'm ready to take that next step in my career. But I do love this city, and obviously love this team."

The assumption is that Kolb will be traded in the offseason; he has 1 year left on his contract and will have much less value a year from now. But on the other hand, Vick is not under contract right now. The assumption is that he will be franchised, or whatever the device is called when there's a new collective-bargaining agreement. But everybody knows what happens when you assume.

It seems incomprehensible that the Eagles would say goodbye to Vick after a near-MVP season and give the job back to Kolb. But would they keep Kolb as an insurance policy for 1 more year, eschewing what could be a first-round pick in a trade? Would Kolb stand for it, if they did?"