How Good Was Michael Vick Actually?

in the history of the nfl there have been just a handful of players who forever changed the game or a particular position with their play one example is michael vick although vic's career was a roller coaster filled with drama and arguments about his character nobody can disagree with the statement that he completely transformed the quarterback position in the nfl while his impact on the game is long reaching how good was michael vick actually vic comes from humble beginnings as he grew up in newport news virginia he lived in a public housing project that experienced a lot of violence and crime in an interview michael once said sports keep me off the streets it kept me from getting into what was going on the bad stuff lots of guys i knew have had bad problems luckily for vic his father got him into football at a very young age at the age of just three michael's dad began teaching him the fundamentals of throwing a football interestingly when vick first went to throw a football he did it with his left hand even though he did everything else with his right as vic got older he learned more about the game from his older cousin aaron brooks who went on to play quarterback at the university of virginia and later for the new orleans saints it's safe to say that aaron did a good job of teaching michael as vic became quite the high school football player as a three-year starter for warwick high school vic passed for 4846 yards and 43 touchdowns while also rushing for 1048 yards and 18 touchdowns one time during his senior season vic ran for six scores and threw for three more in the same game as a result of his dual threat dominance vic had interest from colleges all over the nation but he narrowed down his choices to virginia tech and syracuse vic ended up committing to virginia tech because of the school's proximity to his friends and family a decision that worked out pretty well for vic and the hokies vic's coming out party to the nation was delayed some as he red-shirted his freshman year but the following year was certainly one to remember for vic and his team in his first collegiate game vic scored three rushing touchdowns in just over one quarter of play but he injured his ankle flipping into the end zone for that final touchdown michael was forced to miss the rest of that game and the entire next one it was smooth sailing from then on out for vic and the hokies as he led them to an 11-0 record and a spot in this year's bcs national championship game although virginia tech lost to florida state in that game thick became one of the most talked about players in recent college football memory during that 1999 campaign vic amassed 2065 passing yards 682 rushing yards and 22 total touchdowns 13 through the air and nine on the ground is 180.4 passing efficiency that season set a freshman ncaa record and was the third highest of all time vic won an espy award as the nation's top college player and won the first ever archie griffin award as college football's most valuable player additionally he finished third in the heisman trophy voting that year which tied for the highest finish ever by a freshman vic's redshirt sophomore season was pretty impressive but the insane one the year before just set an almost unreachable bar of expectations a sprained ankle made him miss almost three full games but vic threw for 1234 yards and eight touchdowns while adding 617 rushing yards and eight more touchdowns on the ground it was considered by some to be a down year for michael vick but he still was sixth in the heisman trophy voting having already proven he was one of the most dynamic quarterbacks in college football history vic decided to forgo the rest of his collegiate eligibility to declare for the nfl draft at the nfl combine vic's athletic excellence was further put on display as his 40-yard dash time was 4.33 seconds which set a record back then for fastest ever by a quarterback it also was tied for second fastest among all prospects in that combine behind santana moss who ran a 4.3140 even though vick had only two years of college football under his belt his video game's stats and freakish athleticism led him to being taken with the first overall pick by the atlanta falcons in the 2001 nfl draft that actually was not the first time vic was drafted by a professional sports team despite the fact that vic had not played baseball since the eighth grade the colorado rockies selected him in the 30th round of the 2000 mlb draft just another testament to how he was widely viewed as a once in a generation type of athlete with that being said the start to vic's nfl career was not quite as exciting as his college one as a rookie he appeared in just eight games for the falcons and only started two of them vic's next season provided much more of what people expected from him coming out of virginia tech in his second season vic threw for 2936 yards rushed for 777 and had 24 combined touchdowns 16 passing and eight rushing he set an nfl record for most rushing yards by a quarterback in a single game when he ran for 173 against the minnesota vikings in week 13. michael vick led the falcons to their first postseason appearance since 1998 and was named to the pro bowl that year a fractured fibula suffered by vic in a preseason game before the 2003 season caused him to miss the first 11 games of the year while that was a season to forget for vic the next three would be much more memorable in 2004 vic threw for 2313 yards rushed for 902 and scored 17 total touchdowns with 14 passing ones against the denver broncos in week 8 vic became the first quarterback in the nfl to throw for more than 250 yards and rush for over 100 yards in the same game he set another nfl record for most rushing yards by a quarterback in a playoff game when he ran for 119 in a 47-17 divisional round victory over the saint louis rams his single-season rushing total that year was the third highest by a quarterback in league history and vic was named to his second pro bowl after making it to his second consecutive pro bowl and his third total one the next year vic broke another nfl record in 2006 as he became the first quarterback to ever rush for over 1 000 yards in a single season following piecing together a handful of impressive seasons shattering numerous records and potentially becoming the next face of the league vic missed the 2007-2008 seasons because he pleaded guilty to charges of dog fighting many people thought vick's career was over after his public fall from grace but the philadelphia eagles gave the quarterback another chance as he signed a two-year contract with the eagles prior to the 2009 season only the first year was guaranteed though as the contract contained a team option for the second vic spent his first year in philly serving primarily as donovan mcnabb's backup and only threw 13 total passes over the entire season mcnabb was traded the next year and vic entered the season as the backup behind kevin cobb cobb suffered a concussion early in the season based on vick's performance as his replacement the eagles named him the starter moving forward it was a long road but michael vick was finally an nfl starting quarterback again and he made the most of his second chance playing in just 12 games during the 2010 season vic managed to throw for over 3 000 yards and 21 touchdowns while rushing for 676 yards and adding nine touchdowns on the ground he led his team to the playoffs and earned another pro bowl nomination in the process vic was also named nfl comeback player of the year that season over the next two seasons vic started 25 games for philly and threw for 5 65 yards 30 touchdowns and rushed for nearly 1 000 yards and what ended up being his final season in eagles uniform vic lost the starting job to nick foles halfway through the 2013 season after that vic spent his final two years in the nfl mainly as a backup for the new york jets and then the pittsburgh steelers in 2016 vick announced that he would play one more season in the nfl but after spending that entire year not on a roster he officially retired from the league in february of 2017. football officially said goodbye to one of the most dynamic players of all time with over 6 000 rushing yards fix still holds the nfl record for the most career rushing yards by a quarterback while his off the field issues will always affect some people's perception of him there is no debating that michael vick forever transformed football and the quarterback position so there you have it the awesome career of michael vick what was your favorite michael vick moment let me know in the comments down below if you enjoyed the video make sure to drop a like and subscribe as always you're watching non-stop sports we'll catch you next time

Channel: Nonstop

Views: 551,293

Keywords: nfl, nfl history, michael vick, michael vick highlights, michael vick falcons, michael vick best runs, michael vick college highlights, michael vick eagles, the story of michael vick, fastest quaterback, how good was michael vick

Id: lKK5my_5YZ8

Length: 9min 16sec (556 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 14 2020