I was painfully sifting through Peter King’s Monday Morning Quarterback column (I used to love it, but now I much prefer Drew Magary’s mashup of it every week) and it was mostly about Michael Vick and Tony Dungy’s trip to prison this week to speak to some incarcerated folks. I think it’s great that the two of them do things like that, but that’s not remotely what I’m talking about here.
In King’s column, he passes along some of the banter between Vick and some of the inmates. And this quote really bugs me.
“You gonna learn to slide now?” one inmate asked Vick.
“No. No,” Vick said. “Not how I play. In 20 years, I’ll look back at my career and say, ‘I never learned to slide.’ ”
Does that irritate anyone else? Not, “I’m working on it,” or “it’s something I need to add to my game.” Nope, he clearly stated that he has no interest in it. Was he joking or lying? Could have been, but I’m not buying that logic.
Quick question: Do you know how many seasons that Vick played an entire 16 games? One.
Sure, he played in 15 games three times earlier on in his career, but he’s much older now and we’ve seen the types of hits that he takes over the course of the season. And especially now, when the gameplan to attack him seems to be to confuse him with blitzes. Blitzes….um, hurt.
Let’s also throw in the fact that the refs hardly protect him. He gets treated less like a quarterback than probably any other quarterback in the league. It’s not even a debate as to whether he gets star treatment when it comes to cheap shots. We saw first hand what it takes to get a roughing-the-quarterback penalty on Peyton Manning. Vick could get whacked with a socket wrench while standing on the sidelines drinking Gatorade and the refs wouldn’t say anything.
But this is why it’s so important for him to slide. It wasn’t just the blitzes that caused his play to decline in 2010. It was the physical beating. His accuracy wasn’t nearly as sharp as it was during the middle of the year, and a lot of that has to do with his legs getting pounded on all season.
So what gives? Why won’t he learn to slide? And why is this solely his decision? If I’m Andy Reid and on the cusp of moving Kevin Kolb to another team, I can’t have my superstar playing in a reckless fashion that’s going to get him hurt. Whether it’s Kafka or a QB they bring off the streets as a backup to Vick, this ship will not sail the same without Vick running it.
You can argue that this was an off-the-cuff remark that he made and it doesn’t mean anything. Maybe, but his play all last year would support the fact that he was dead serious.
Look, we get it. You don’t play like a punk. You’re a little guy that’s tough as nails. Point given. Point received. Got it.
Now start sliding already.
I would rather him tell the truth than lie.
I would rather VIck learn how to protect himself better by sliding,running out of bounds and getting out of harms way more often..He will not last a full Season
or have his HOF Career like Coac MM thinks he will if he doesn’t protect himeself better.. Bottom line, the Eagles won’t win a SB with him injured and at 80% full speed/strength due to injuries..
He doesn’t know how to slide I’m convinced. We gotta understand that this guy is not human on the football field. He’s always been faster and more athletic than everyone else on the field since he was little kid, now he’s a grown man and he’s still faster and more athletic than everyone else, making guys 10 yrs younger than him miss. So I don’t think we ll ever see vick just flat out slide feet first. He ll either take the hit or run out of bounds, he’s one of the most fearless qbs I have ever seen but we need him healthy for the entire season.