|
by MARK GREY 7.5.10 Let me start off by saying I have been a fan of yours ever since the first time I saw you play at Virginia Tech. We both started college the same year, and while I was a Terp and you were a Hokie, I always found it much easier to root for you than anyone who played for my school. I saw so much of myself in you that I felt like I had no choice but to cheer for you. You were the true definition of “keeping it real,” you were like the second coming of Allen Iverson only in football. They used to criticize you because you were not the traditional drop back passer but you didn’t care, you just kept doing your thing and racking up award after award and the wins kept coming in.
I still remember that draft night in 2001. All the critics said you weren’t a NFL quarterback, but the Falcons still took you number one overall. Doubters said you were a trouble maker, a label I knew all about, but I knew just like me, you weren’t a troublemaker, you were just misunderstood. I couldn’t wait for you to get out there and show the NFL what you could do. As a kid, my favorite player was Randall Cunningham and I just knew you were about to be Randall 2.0. By just your second year in the league you were already in the Pro Bowl, and had become the most explosive player in the NFL. Despite your success, you still had your haters. They always said you weren’t an accurate passer or you didn’t make good decisions and you would never win, blah blah blah. It seemed like everyone was hating because you weren’t what they wanted you to be, but I loved the fact that you just kept being you.
Who can forget that day you went into Green Bay and became the first quarterback to win a road game in the playoffs at Lambeau Field, or that run against the Vikings where you made the defenders run into each other? Every week was a different highlight reel. Then came the cover of Madden, the 100 million dollar contract and the Nike deal -- you had officially made it. I felt like if you didn’t have to change to make it to the top of your field, why should I? You had made it all the way from Newport News to NFL poster boy. The face of the NFL now had braids and tattoos just like me. The stiffs upstairs in corporate America hated it, but there was nothing they could do. It was time for a new era and they were just going to have to accept it.
Then came the summer of 2007. Boy was that a mess. When I first heard about the whole dog fighting thing, I didn’t really think much about it. When you said you had nothing to do with it, part of me believed you and the other part didn’t even care, I just wanted to see you on the field making defenders look stupid. I figured, he has a thing for fighting dogs, its not like he killed anyone or anything. I figured there would be media backlash of course but how much trouble can you get into over a dog, after all this is Michael Vick we are talking about, the 100 million dollar man. We all know that rich people don’t go to jail. But as more of the details began to surface about the case, I started thinking, that’s pretty sick. What shocked me the most is that you had all this stuff in your name, at your house. I’m not even famous and I don’t like having the hotel room in my name when my friends and I go on vacation. Everyone knows at the end of the day, when it all goes to hell the persons who’s name it’s in is always responsible. As the days went by and I kept seeing you go in and out of court rooms, reading prewritten speeches for the cameras and finally taking that walk into jail, all I could think was, damn bro how did it come to this. I knew you had messed up but it seemed like jail was a bit much for fighting dogs. Then the Comish wanted to suspend you on top of going to jail too. I felt like wow, they really are trying to make an example out of one of our ghetto heroes again. It reminded me when I got kicked out of 8th grade for a joke I made in class about my art teacher. I know I was wrong but expulsion? Only thing more unfair then that was when I got expelled again in 10th grade for being in the hallway after the bell.
Then came release day. It was like when they let Tyson and Pac out all over again, another ghetto superstar who was wrongly imprisoned finally free. Once you were out it was never a question would you play again, just when and where. When you signed with the Eagles, I was a bit shocked because they already had McNabb, the Carlton Banks to your Will Smith, but after all, look at Andy Reid’s kids, I guess who was he to judge anyone. I never understood why Reid didn’t use you more, but then again nothing Andy Reid does makes much sense to me. Your first year back was a quiet one on the field, but more importantly it was a quiet one off the field. It was good to see that you had been humbled by the whole situation and grown up. They gave you a role and you accepted it and appeared just happy to be in NFL, and you knew better than to do anything to mess up a good thing.
Then just last week while watching TV, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw your name scroll across the bottom of the screen with the words shooting and party following it. I just knew that you knew better to be in this environment again. Do I think you shot anyone? No. Do I think there is anything wrong with going out to celebrate your birthday? No. But what I do know is all of that no longer matters. It’s like watching your path has allowed me to understand my own past. I now realize that I didn’t get kicked out of the 8th grade because of the one comment about a teacher, I got kicked out because I had already been suspended a number of times and clearly that wasn’t working. I now understand I didn’t get kicked out of 10th grade because my shirt was untucked while I was late for class, I got kicked out because when my principal Mr. Morse told me, “this is your final warning and if I see you in my office one more time you’re done.” he meant he didn’t want to see me in his office period. Like you Mike I had used the it’s not my fault excuse so much, I should’ve had it tattooed on my forehead. It’s only so many times you can be at the wrong place at the wrong time before you realize you should probably get a new watch and start going to different places. I now can see it wasn’t a coincidence that two schools over a thousand miles apart told me the school would be better off without me. It wasn’t that the whole United States school system was out to get me, or didn’t understand me. It was that I didn’t “get it.” This is now the most common used phrase with your name, and I now understand. It’s not that I’m disappointed with this latest individual action per say, as much am I’m just disappointed to see your name in the news again. I don’t care if you didn’t have anything to do with the shooting or not, my question is, why are you even there? Why are you having an event with your name on it? One that’s open to the public at that -- isn’t that part of your life behind you? My 30th birthday will be here in 2 months and like you I plan on having a good time with my close friends. However I don’t plan on celebrating my 30th in the same environment I did as my 21st. It’s not because “I’m not keeping it real,” it’s because I just want to keep “it” as in keep my house, my job, and my family name. I remember being 21 and having nothing to lose, and those days are long gone. You would be surprised how many less shooting and fighting goes on in a room full of people who have something to lose. I know you are a legend around the way and old habits die hard, but at some point you have to see when you surround yourself with people who have nothing to lose you’re the only one who loses. It takes a talented man to get out the hood but it takes a smart one to stay out.
So I say all this Mike not to judge or bash you, but to inform you and share. I have been a supporter and on the Michael Vick bandwagon since day 1, but it saddens me to say, this is my stop. It is time for me to get off the Michael Vick excuse line and accept the fact that you don’t “get it.” It’s not that I hate you because I have been on the don’t “get it” train, so to hate you would be hating a part of me. The biggest problem of being on the “don’t get it” train is you never even know you’re on it until you get off. So thanks for all the great highlights over the years, and more importantly, thank you for helping me understand life. I wish you all the best and will still be pulling for you to do well on and off the field, but i will no longer makes excuses for you, nor buy yours. Lets hope that we are on the same page at age 40. Mark Grey *Follow Mark Grey on Twitter @greyAmark |
