Posts Tagged ‘Michael Vick’

Wednesday's Philly Daily News makes the obvious joke.

Philadelphia – Michael Vick arrived in Atlanta knowing the Falcons would someday be his team to run. He signed with the Eagles last August assured of nothing except a paycheck and a chance. But there he stood Wednesday, ringed at his locker by a media throng 50 members strong, a sign bearing the words “Walk Your Talk!” above his head.

There he stood, again an NFL starting quarterback.

“I’m very gratified to have this opportunity,” Vick said. “I’m very humbled by it.”

And that, it must be said, is how he seemed. This isn’t the cocksure No. 7 who came to the Falcons looking to revolutionize his position. Too much scar tissue has formed, the bulk of it self-inflicted. Michael Vick is 30 now, and he has been to jail. There was never a guarantee that he would work another day in the only league that matters, let alone run another team.

“Plenty of times,” he said, “I doubted I’d have [this] opportunity.”

But now he does. In a …

Continue reading Michael Vick: ‘There’s no question this is a blessing from God’ »

Arthur Blank and Michael Vick before the Eagles beat the Falcons last year. (Photo by M. Bradley)

Philadelphia — Talk about timing. I was planning to stop by the Eagles’ practice facility tomorrow en route to the final game of the Braves-Phillies series. My intention was to speak to Michael Vick about how graciously he has accepted his role as the Eagles’ No. 2 quarterback behind Kevin Kolb. And then …

Ten minutes ago the press box at Citizens Bank Park, which is just across the street from the Eagles’ stadium and down the road from the training complex, went nuts, and it had nothing to do with the Phillies or the Braves. The Eagles just sent out a blast e-mail announcing that coach Andy Reid has named Vick the starting quarterback. (This represents a major reversal on Reid’s part: Even after Vick had led Philly to victory Sunday over Detroit, the coach maintained that Kolb, who missed the game with a concussion, would remain No. 1.)

And I’m thinking: Good for Michael …

Continue reading News from Philly: Vick named starting pitcher … er, QB »

I was encouraged to hear that Michael Vick, in advance of his reality show that debuts Tuesday on BET , is saying he led “a double life,” and I use the word “encouraged” advisedly. Because you don’t know how many times I’ve asked myself and asked people who worked inside the building at 4400 Falcon Parkway if I/they had any hint — any hint — of what was to come.

And I did not. Which might make me the world’s worst reporter, except that I’ve not yet found anyone within the compound who saw it coming, either.

I know, I know. People on the outside will harrumph and say they knew  it all along because he wore his hair in corn rows and dressed in a manner different from, say, Peyton Manning. But I grew up in the ’60s and have had some fairly extravagant hairdos myself, and I attended my high school graduation wearing platform shoes with four-inch heels. Me, I stopped judging on appearances long ago.

And even if you believed Vick mightn’t have been a model citizen, you knew this … …

Continue reading Michael Vick and his ‘double life’: How exactly did he do it? »

The Los Angeles Times reports that Michael Vick will star in a reality series on BET, only it really won’t be a reality series. Writes Greg Braxton:

“Producers of the Vick series emphasized the program should be considered a docu-series — not a typical reality show like VH-1’s ‘The T.O. Show,’ which revels in the excesses of its flamboyant star, wide receiver Terrell Owens. The tone of Vick’s show, say producers, will be serious and somber as it focuses on his personal struggles since his release, including the strains on his relationships with his fiancée, Kijafa Frink, and his children. It will also revisit the federal prison in Leavenworth, Kan., where Vick spent 1 1/2 years behind bars and the Virginia property where he ran and financed a dogfighting ring.”

The eight-part series, Braxton reports, is scheduled to air next year and is being financed in part by MV7, Vick’s production company. And it has, you should know, already drawn the boilerplate complaint from our pals …

Continue reading Michael Vick gets a reality show, but hold the outrage »

I laughed at this line from John Gonzalez in the Philadelphia Inquirer: “We’ve been held hostage by the Great Vick Debate for two weeks.” And I thought: “Two whole weeks? Poor dears!”

As you know, Michael Vick is now an Eagle, and he made his first appearance for his new franchise Thursday night. And this spawned the sort of Vick back-and-forth’ing we Atlantans have come to regard as Standard Operating Procedure. The NAACP had promised some sort of rally outside Lincoln Financial Field, but apparently it never really developed. Gonzalez counted more media personnel than supporters and wrote this:

“People are still taking sides and shouting, but it is lame sound and fury signifying that principles don’t really matter as long as the media give you the 15 minutes you desperately crave. Who needs courage or convictions when there are soapboxes to stand on and bullhorns to shout into and spotlights to court?

“It’s all so reflexive now with Vick. Love him. Hate him. Doesn’t matter. …

Continue reading Bradley’s Buzz: Michael Vick returns with a shovel pass »

From Sam Wood of the Philadelphia Inquirer comes this predictable news: Dick’s Sporting Goods will not stock Michael Vick’s new No. 7 Eagles jersey until the chain, according to a spokesman, “evaluate(s) the reaction of Eagles fans.”

Wood quotes Jeff Hennion, Dick’s chief marketing officer, thusly: “Right now we don’t know how much of a demand there is for [the jersey]. If there is a demand for it, we’ll sell it.”

I have three words for Dick’s. Those words:

Are you serious?

The Vick jersey will be the hottest seller of the year, hotter even than Brett Favre’s purple No. 4. NFLShop.com is selling Vick’s jersey, which tells us the league itself isn’t backing away from making money off No. 7. Were Dick’s taking a iron-clad stand on moral grounds, that would be understandable. (Self-righteous, but understandable.) To suggest their stores must first test the water is merely a case of trying to cover one’s corporate assets.

Dick’s wants to be able to say to PETA: “Look, we resisted …

Continue reading Dick’s to Vick: We say ‘nix’ to your jersey, sort of »

I’m sure “60 Minutes” wasn’t thrilled with Michael Vick pre-empting himself and holding an introductory briefing two days before his taped interview with James Brown was scheduled to air. But the press conference in Philadelphia was a press conference, which serves a different purpose than the sitdown interview. And Vick was impressive in former, even more so in the latter.

I watched the interview in the press lounge at Turner Field, and there were the usual “Yeah, rights,” from a few of the skeptics behind me. But I felt no skepticism. I felt I was watching a humbled man admit to having been a fool and an ingrate and an all-around bad buy.

And let me ask this: When last did you own up to so many sins and failings? In the confessional box? Ever? And when last did you do it before an audience of millions?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it now: I’ve always liked the guy, and I felt almost personally disappointed when I read the indictment against him. I can only imagine how …

Continue reading Michael Vick on “60 Minutes”: Contrition and a confession »

Michael Dwayne Vick doesn’t dream small. He didn’t just want to be a NFL quarterback; he wanted to be the greatest quarterback the league has ever seen and to revolutionize his sport in the process. He knows he has been blessed with a rare and perhaps unprecedented skill-set. Indeed, he said as much in his introduction as an Eagle on Friday.

In that briefing, Vick used the right words and struck the proper chords, which was hardly surprising. (No matter what his detractors might insist, he has always been an effective speaker.) He made his apologies in the requisite amounts, and the thought occurred — just as it did two years ago in the ballroom of the Omni Hotel in Richmond — that it’s difficult to consider him a bad guy if you’re ever around him.

But as I heard Vick’s words, I got the feeling that the notion of a grand design still simmers within. As he eases back into the NFL and public life, there’s a part of Michael Vick that’s thinking: I can write the greatest …

Continue reading Vick’s aim? Only the greatest comeback story ever written »

The newly local reaction

The Philadelphia papers are, if you’ll pardon the expression, abuzz this morning. John Gonzalez of the Inquirer reports that the Eagles’ press corps was stunned by the news.

“And so now Ron Mexico is an Eagle,” Gonzalez writes. “To say it’s a shocking development is a gross understatement. If anyone in town expected this or knew it was happening, they did a good job keeping it a secret. Vick reportedly flew into town Tuesday night and remained undetected until late last evening. That’s a hard thing to pull off. If his football comeback falls through, he has a terrific career ahead of him as a spy.”

This being Vick, there’s no firm consensus. Phil Sheridan of the Inquirer writes: “The Eagles are taking an enormous risk. All that’s at stake is everything owner Jeff Lurie and head coach Andy Reid have ever said about what the franchise stands for, and they have put all of that in the hands of a man who went to prison for murdering dogs. It just isn’t …

Continue reading Bradley’s Buzz: The (split) verdict on Vick’s signing »

MIchael Vick has a team, and that team will come to the Georgia Dome on Dec. 6. We in Atlanta have seen some momentous days in our time as a big-league city — we’ve played host to the Super Bowl, to the World Series, to All-Star games in three different sports, to Muhammad Ali’s return-from-exile fight against Jerry Quarry, even to an Olympiad — but we won’t have seen anything quite like this.

The saga that has in many ways divided our city will be coming to our city for one last act. The man who packed the Dome will return on an opponent’s roster. Nothing says Vick will actually play that day — he’s being signed to back up the majorly successful Donovan McNabb — but what if he does?

Will there be a Deion Sanders “This Is My House” Moment? Will Vick take a Jeff George victory lap if the Eagles win? Will Vick jerseys outnumber those shirts bearing the names and numbers of current Falcons that day in the Dome?

We cannot know the answers to any of this today, same as we couldn’t …

Continue reading Dec. 6, 2009: Vick vs. the Falcons – are we ready for this? »