Aunt May to Vick- "You're Not Superman You Know"

The Falcons are entering camp and the big story out of Hotlanta is that someone has accused quarterback and appointed team leader Mike Vick of not giving his all come game time. That someone happens to be, surprise, Vick himself and the game in reference is the last game of the 2005 season when the Falcons were rolled by the Carolina Panthers. Now I am not quite sure what prompted Vick’s contrite admission of his underachieving play. Maybe Vick viewed recent game film of the beat-down and realized that there were some things he could have done better. If that’s the case I think every football player who has ever watched themselves on film can find some room for improvement. However Vick didn’t originally say that he saw some areas he needed to work on, he didn’t even say he made foolish decisions. Instead Vick committed the unpardonable sin of sports, especially team sports, in that he admittedly didn’t give his all and consequently let teammates down. Vick says he has since apologized to teammates and rationalizes his reflective self-critique by saying, "I set high standards. I know what I can do. I know what I'm supposed to do. When things don't go well I always blame myself. I think I'm my own worst critic and I think that's a good thing." Then referring to his Superman tattoo, Vick said, "That's the way I feel sometimes, but in reality that's not the way things are going to be.” But then later in the week Vick recants his previous comments that he didn’t give his all, and says that he gave 100 percent effort, but he didn’t play his best.
So which one is it Vick, did you slack off and quit on your teammates, or did you give 100 percent with no regrets and just happen to make some mistakes? Heck everyone has off days. That makes you human, Mike. Even if you feel like Superman, you can’t be perfect. But if it’s the case that you took a game off because you knew you didn’t make the playoffs, then that’s a different story. How do you reassure the fans and more importantly your teammates on which quarterback they’ll get on game day.
See Vick, I don’t feel sorry for you that you feel pressure to be a star. And I don’t feel sorry for you that you haven’t been as successful as you’d like to be. But I will feel sorry for you that almost everyone, including your own coaches, are trying to make you something you’re not. That’s right I am defending you Mike Vick, even if you won’t defend yourself. I know who you really are as a football player and I’ve seen what you can do when let loose. The others have too. Your first few years in the league I don’t even think they called you by your real name, you were simply known as “The Most Exciting Player in the NFL” or “The Incomparable Mike Vick” and it was consensus that if we had to pay to watch someone play football, it was Michael Vick. Have you forgotten? Let this jog your memory.



You will notice a couple of things about that video. First, Vick does several NFL defenses dirty, leaving them looking silly. Second, the majority of those highlights, and many Vick highlights you see around, show Vick in the old Falcons uni. That is because it is the old Vick that was the playmaker that everyone used to love (except opposing defensive coordinators.)
I think the Falcons will be the first to tell you that when Vick came out of college, his positives were his sheer athletic ability and playmaking potential. Scouts saw Vick as a rare talent who had a cannon for an arm and wheels like a sprinter. He was the first pick overall because of his sheer potential alone. And Vick didn’t disappoint either his first few season. The very thing defenses try to do to quarterbacks (collapse their pocket, pressure them, make them throw on the run) is when Vick seemed to be at his best. But then came the preseason game versus the Baltimore Ravens before the 2003 NFL season. What seemed to be a routine play ended in tragedy. Vick’s leg was broken and you guess how. Yep, he broke out of the pocket took off up the middle of the field and got tackled like any other normal play, this time he just happened to break his leg and in one play his season was over. The Atlanta Falcons front office’s worst nightmare had come true. Now a football player getting injured can and does happen all the time, especially to quarterbacks (see Culpepper, Palmer, Brees, Leftwich, Pennington just to name a few from last season) but the Falcons front office didn’t see it that way. Instead, they believed that because Vick has a propensity to scramble, he will inevitably get hurt when he does. So the solution. Make Michael Vick a drop back passer. That’s right, make him one, as in force, as in go against Vick’s natural tendencies when he is most comfortable and most dangerous to opposing teams. I have said for years that any player can get injured doing just about anything at any time on any field. It’s football and injuries, no matter how unforunate, are a part of the game. So here is my thinking.
If Vick’s career were only to last say four more years and was cut short due to injury, would it be worth it if sometime during those four years the Falcons brought home a Lombardi trophy to the ATL? Or on the contrary, would you prefer the Falcons to never win a championship but have Vick’s career extended for eight years instead of four. I know what I would choose if I were a Falcons fan. So I say to that slick Italian, quit trying to make Vick something he’s not. And to Coach Mora, scrap the west coast and it’s precision timing. Or if you really want keep it, but at least have a minimum of 5-7 designed QB runs a game. Then that pressure that keeps chasing Vick will have a hard time keeping up as Superman scurries down the sideline.