Finally Free

by Michael Vick

  The Redskins got off to a quick start, but we were in the midst of a rally when I suffered fractured ribs on a run near the goal line. I got sandwiched between two Washington defenders, including my former Atlanta teammate and friend, cornerback DeAngelo Hall. I had to leave the game, and the Redskins went on to win, 17-12.

  I would miss three games because of the injury. And as disappointed as I was to miss out on the game against Donovan, I was more disappointed to miss the game against the Falcons. It was a game where Kevin led us to a 31-17 win.

  Overall, we were 2-1 during the stretch while I was gone; Kevin did a very nice job. When I was healthy, Coach Reid put me back under center. I was still the starter.

  I returned to the lineup for a November 7 matchup against Indianapolis, which was quarterbacked by Peyton Manning.

  The Colts always seemed to be one of the best teams, so it was a huge confidence builder for us that we won 26-24. I threw one touchdown and ran for another.

  It was great to have an opportunity to get out and play the game you love so dearly against some of the best competition. Going up against Peyton, I knew it was going to be a tough challenge, and I knew it would be a game that went down to the wire. We would have to do everything right.

  We just put it all together against the Colts. And our locker room was absolutely crazy. Winning that game felt like we had won the Super Bowl.

  The celebration was unique for a regular season game. Cornerback Asante Samuel and wide receiver DeSean Jackson were our primary cheerleaders.

  Anytime you’re in a locker room after a win, it’s a dynamic atmosphere. It’s also a moment you have to cherish because you don’t get it that often. You have sixteen games minimum; it’s unlikely that you’ll win them all. The feeling only lasts for about thirty minutes, and then it’s over as far as being with the guys. But some wins are more special than others.

  After that game, I remember telling myself for the first time, I’m back. I’m back to being the player I know I can be.

  The next week—a November 15 Monday Night Football game at Washington—was when we got a second chance at Donovan and the Redskins. The pregame hype was intense.

  Some of what will follow here is almost embarrassing for me to include, but my coauthors, publisher, and I believe we need to do so in order to best characterize the season and to make sure things are presented fully and accurately. One of the main reasons this is important is because God did amazing things in my life and career through the course of the season, and I want to make absolutely certain He is glorified. So please know that it is with humility and a desire for God to get the credit that I present these things to you.

  Going into that Monday night game against the Redskins, I already had been named NFC Offensive Player of the Month for September and Offensive Player of the Week in early November. Even before kickoff, the ESPN announcers were raving on the telecast about my play up to that point. Steve Young, Ron Jaworski, and Jon Gruden all said I’d been playing better than ever.

  Young is the former San Francisco 49ers star that I grew up emulating. Jaworski formerly starred at quarterback for Philadelphia, and Gruden coached at Oakland and Tampa Bay, winning a Super Bowl with the Buccaneers.

  Young said on the pregame show: “Personally, this is the Michael Vick I dreamed of seeing when he came out of college. I used to talk to him and [say], ‘Look, if you can learn to throw the football from the pocket, and also use your legs outside the pocket when it’s time—if you can actually learn the quarterback job—you can be the greatest weapon at quarterback there has ever been in the NFL.’” It was big talk and seemed to border on excessive hype—but then the game started, and we got off to a roaring start.

  On the first play, I threw an 88-yard touchdown pass to DeSean Jackson. It was the longest gain on an opening play in team history. I scored on a 7-yard run on our second possession, and we were ahead 28-0 after the first quarter—the biggest lead a road team has had after one quarter in NFL history.

  ESPN play-by-play announcer Mike Tirico exulted: “I’ve never seen anything like this!” Gruden added, “This is just an unbelievable start by Michael Vick.”

  Next up, I tossed a 48-yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Maclin on the first play of the second quarter to increase the lead to 35-0. Gruden would later say, “Mike could be the NFL Player of the Year right now. He could be the Player of the Decade.”

  It is with gratitude to God, my coaches, and my teammates that I can tell you I became the first quarterback in NFL history to pass for more than 300 yards (333) and four touchdowns, plus rush for more than 50 yards (80) and two touchdowns on the ground in a single game. We had a runaway win that night, beating the Redskins 59-28.

  By the end of the game, the Pro Football Hall of Fame was prompted to call, asking for the jersey I wore to be sent in for display in its Canton, Ohio, gallery.

  Former NFL quarterback Trent Dilfer said on ESPN’s postgame show: “I don’t know what to say about the transformation of Michael Vick. I haven’t seen anything like this. There is a little bit of a panic mode setting in around the National Football League.”

  Young added: “There are not enough words. Truly, you’re seeing something extraordinary here. This was what we talked about when he came out of college. It is what we thought was possible. It is so exciting to me. This performance shows you that at the position of quarterback, you can crush teams. [Michael] was unstoppable. You can talk about this in any superlative you want. This was one of the [best] games at quarterback I have ever seen.”

  Gruden kiddingly gave me the nickname “Starship Seven,” a take on my jersey number. “Where he is now is a totally different place than Michael Vick has ever been,” he said.

  Young predicted the performance would be my signature game: “This game will always be known as when Michael Vick was not just a highlight film, but actually dictated what happened in a football game.”

  I tried to downplay all the fuss over my performance, but I must say that I’ve never had a game where I had so many stats. Everything was clicking on all cylinders for the entire team. The offensive line, running backs, and receivers all played great. You dream about having a game like that.

  Yet I believed I could play even better.

  You know how much Coach Dungy’s opinion means to me, so I was especially humbled when he said he believed I was throwing from the pocket as well as any quarterback in the NFL, including Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. He also said my running ability gave the Eagles a talent equivalent to Chicago’s Devin Hester in the backfield. Hester is a dynamic wide receiver and record-setting kick returner, so I consider that a tremendous compliment.

  “You can’t play certain defenses against him,” Coach Dungy said of me. He also said my style of play most resembled two of my favorites—Steve Young and Randall Cunningham.

  Interestingly, the 80 yards I gained on the ground against the Redskins made me the No. 2 rusher among quarterbacks in NFL history, surpassing Young. By the time the season was over, I had 4,630 career rushing yards. Now, I have more rushing yards than any other quarterback in NFL history.

  One of the things I feel best about regarding the 2010 season is that I put in the extra time like I never did in Atlanta. I spent significant parts of Tuesdays—the players’ regular weekly day off—at the stadium, preparing for the upcoming game. Unlike my time with the Falcons, I tried to arrive early and stay late throughout the week.

  I’m taking the game more seriously now. I realize I may only have five or six more good years left in me before I have to take a backup role somewhere or face possible retirement. The extra work has made a tremendous difference in my play.

  I’m also evolving as a player as I get older. I know I can’t run around as much as I used to. So it’s good that in the offense I’m in now—the West Coast offense—there are opportunities to get the ball out quickly. There are more options, and there’s a lot of young talent around me—guys like DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin, our running b
ack LeSean McCoy, and our tight end Brent Celek. Those guys are amazing! So instead of using my legs all the time, I only use them when I need to. As time goes on, I think I’ll run even less. But I’ll still run when I have to.

  It’s been said that I can’t be a great quarterback without using my legs a lot. It’s one of the reasons I play the game—to prove those people wrong, to prove to all the naysayers who claim I can’t throw the football or that a quarterback with my type of abilities will never win a Super Bowl, that they are wrong.

  One of the big benefits for me here in Philly is that I’m extremely blessed to have some of the best, most experienced offensive coaches in the game in Andy Reid and Marty Mornhinweg, our offensive coordinator. They’ve coached quarterbacks like Brett Favre and my idol, Steve Young.

  Even the backups who have played for Coach Reid and Coach Mornhinweg have played well when called upon. It just goes to show that the system they run is great, and they do an excellent job of game planning.

  They’ve helped me get better in so many ways. Just evolving as a quarterback is probably the biggest thing, making sure I do all the things a quarterback is required to do. Marty is always talking about Steve. He’ll say, “When I had Steve Young, we used to do it this way.” I was humbled after the season to see Marty quoted as saying he thought I had a chance to be even better than Steve.

  The Monday Night Football performance against the Redskins seemed to further launch our team and me into the national consciousness. Suddenly, there were moral issues being debated: Did my play trump the past mistakes I’d made? Did I deserve to be forgiven? The issues would remain in the media for the rest of the season.

  NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, the man who suspended and reinstated me, was among many to step forward with support. He did so immediately after the Redskins game. “There is a big message in what Michael is doing,” the commissioner told the New York Daily News. “He’s a superstar athlete who everyone thought had everything in the world. He fell from grace tragically by making some horrific mistakes, paid a significant price, worked his way back in and now he’s being successful. It demonstrates to me [the need] to get to these young men earlier and work with them and make them understand their responsibility, making decisions that will define them for a period of time.”

  “There are so many examples in our society of failure, people falling short,” Goodell added. “We need more success stories. I’m hoping Michael Vick will be a success story. People need to see that. People need to be inspired by that—a person made a tragic error and he’s overcome it.”

  Those words meant a lot because I have such a special relationship with Commissioner Goodell and I’m committed to making him proud of me. He has become a bit of a father figure, friend, and mentor. During the season, we were talking or texting at least once a week. I can pick up the phone and call him anytime I’m having a problem. He has continued to advise me on having good people around me and making sure I’m making rational decisions on a day-to-day basis because I’m being watched each and every day. There are people out there who don’t want to see me excel. They want to see me fail.

  A flurry of articles ensued, delving into my background and the topic of forgiveness, like the one in Sports Illustrated that asked whether or not it was okay to cheer for me. Or the one in the New York Times quoting John Lord, a professor and chairman of the marketing department at Philadelphia’s St. Joseph’s University, who reasoned that it was okay “to forgive and forget because that seems to be where the momentum is going.”

  Writers who covered me—and some who didn’t—began to explore questions usually reserved for pastors and philosophers. Sam Donnellon, a columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News, agreed that it was okay for people to get second chances, but he questioned whether or not it was too soon for that to happen in my case.

  It had been more than three years since I had been convicted and sent to prison, but people still wondered if it had been long enough. The season before, when I was sitting on the bench, not much was being said or written. But once I began having success, people began weighing in.

  Through nine games, we were 6-3—tied for first with the New York Giants in the NFC East Division.

  The next game, on November 21, was huge—at home against the Giants. With seven games remaining, and two of those against each other, playoff positioning and winning the division were foremost on our minds.

  We beat the Giants 27-17 to take sole possession of first place in the division with a 7-3 record.

  Increasingly in interviews, I was getting asked more about life than football. After a game, a reporter asked me if I was at peace because everything was going well for me. I said I was at peace the season before, even when I was on the bench, and that I was just happy to be playing football.

  I doubt that’s the answer he expected.

  One thing I’ve noticed is that reporters are going to be reporters. Their job is to make a story sound good or to make a story sound extremely bad. You just have to anticipate both good and bad questions and know how you’re going to respond.

  Judges generally don’t talk about football players, but the 2010 season was an exception. Much to my amazement, the man who sentenced me in 2007 spoke out publicly to compliment me.

  In early December, the Washington Post was working on a story about the legal challenges to the health-care law and interviewed Judge Henry Hudson, who was hearing the case. While they were asking him about that, they also asked him about my on-field success and off-field progress. “He’s an example of how the system can work,” Judge Hudson said of me. “He’s having a terrific season. I’m very happy for him. I wish him the best of success.”

  It meant a lot coming from him.

  He made a decision in my life that was pivotal, at a time in my life when nothing really mattered to me. He was probably the only one who thought that a twenty-three-month prison sentence was what I needed to get my life turned around. To see what he said in the paper was gratifying since it demonstrated that I was changing the minds of people who once felt differently about me. It definitely showed me that I was on the right track and doing the right things.

  When I first got sentenced, I felt like it was a harsh punishment, but I also had to think about the things that transpired during my pretrial release period. I wasn’t respectful to the courts; I wasn’t respectful to the public. Judge Hudson knew why he put me in prison for that long, and it’s great for him to see me come out and have success, knowing that he did it for a reason. I commend him for that, and I’ll continue to make him proud.

  It’s just the beginning. It won’t stop here. I’ll have to continue to make great strides.

  Judge Hudson was the first of several high-profile people who would comment on how a second chance had helped me and what they thought about it. In between, though, I was still playing football and trying to help the Eagles secure a playoff berth and, hopefully, a Super Bowl title.

  After a win over Dallas, we had another signature game.

  On December 19, at the Giants’ new stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey (the Meadowlands), we trailed 31-10 with seven and a half minutes remaining, and came from behind to win 38-31. Like any other game, we went into that one thinking we were going to win, but obviously, when you fall that far behind, there is a sense of doubt and you start thinking ahead to next week.

  I’ll never forget that game, though. DeSean Jackson and I were on the sidelines talking, and he was kind of discouraged. I encouraged him to stay in the game and stay focused and keep fighting. I told him that, regardless of anything else that happened, we were going to leave there with some pride and some dignity about ourselves and be able to say we gave it everything we had. Right after that, we scored a touchdown on our next possession. Then a second and a third and a fourth followed and, before you knew it, we had won the game.

  DeSean came up with the game-winning punt return for a touchdown as time expired. It was like a walk-off grand slam home run to w
in the game. It was amazing! I just couldn’t believe it happened the way it did.

  I was blessed to throw three touchdown passes in the game, and to run for 130 yards and another score. Fox TV announcer Jimmy Johnson was among those who felt I was a leading candidate for the MVP award, which eventually—and deservedly—went to Tom Brady.

  The win over the Giants essentially clinched the NFC East for us. It was called a “comeback for the ages” and was dubbed “the New Miracle at the New Meadowlands.” At the old Giants Stadium, the Eagles had beaten the Giants 19-17 in November 1978, in a game called simply “the Miracle at the Meadowlands.” In that one, Philadelphia scored a touchdown on a bizarre fumble return to win. This win seemed just as unlikely as that one.

  We were 10-4; we owned the tiebreaker for the division title over the Giants because we had won both games against them; and things seemed good.

  Just before our next game, a report by Sports Illustrated writer and NBC broadcaster Peter King opened up a firestorm. King reported that President Barack Obama had called Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie to discuss alternative energy that he was pushing for at Lincoln Financial Field, and my name came up in the conversation.

  Mr. Lurie told King: “The president said, ‘So many people who serve time never get a fair second chance.’ He was passionate about it. He said it’s never a level playing field for prisoners when they get out of jail. And he was happy that we did something on such a national stage that showed our faith in giving someone a second chance after such a major downfall.”

  I was just ecstatic when I heard that. After all, it’s the president of the United States, and it doesn’t get any better than that. I was very surprised he would mention my name.

  I was so grateful to have such a prominent person commend me in front of the entire world about everything that I had worked for and tried to accomplish. It kind of showed that I was on the right track and I was doing the right thing. I hope those comments reverberated around the world to people who are trying to make a comeback and have been given a second chance—to those who are trying to do things right the second time around.