Background and career
Michael Dwayne Vick (born June 26, 1980) is a former professional American football quarterback and currently the head coach for the Norfolk State Spartans. He played in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons and ranks second in quarterback rushing yards, which he led at the time of his retirement. Vick played college football at Virginia Tech, winning the Archie Griffin Award and Big East Offensive Player of the Year in 1999. He was selected first overall by the Atlanta Falcons in the 2001 NFL draft. During his six years with the Falcons, he was named to three Pro Bowls and led the team to two playoff runs, one division title, and an NFC Championship Game appearance. Vick's NFL career came to a halt in 2007 after he pleaded guilty for his involvement in a dog fighting ring and spent 21 months in federal prison. His arrest and subsequent conviction garnered Vick notoriety with the general public, which lasted throughout the rest of his career. He was released by the Falcons shortly before leaving prison. After serving his sentence, Vick signed with the Philadelphia Eagles for the 2009 season. As a member of the Eagles for five years, he had his greatest statistical season and led the team to a division title in 2010, earning him Comeback Player of the Year and a fourth Pro Bowl selection. In his final two seasons, Vick played for the New York Jets and Pittsburgh Steelers, primarily as a backup. He officially retired in 2017 after spending the 2016 season as a free agent. After retiring as a player, Vick pursued a coaching career and was named the head football coach at Norfolk State in 2024.
Vick was born in Newport News, Virginia, as the third of four children to Brenda Vick and Michael Boddie, then unmarried teenagers. His mother worked two jobs, obtained public financial assistance and had help from her parents, while his father worked long hours in the shipyards as a sandblaster and spray-painter. They were married when Michael was about five years old, but the children elected to continue to use their "Vick" surname. The family lived in the Ridley Circle Homes, a public housing project in a financially depressed and crime-ridden neighborhood located in the East End section of the port city. Local residents interviewed in a 2007 newspaper article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch noted that "not much [had] changed" nearly a decade after Vick left. One resident said that there was drug dealing, drive-by shootings, and other killings in the neighborhood, and suggested that sports were a way out and a dream for many. In a 2001 interview, Vick told the Newport News Daily Press that when he was 10 or 11, "I would go fishing even if the fish weren't biting, just to get away from the violence and stress of daily life in the projects." Boddie's employment required a great deal of travel, but he taught football skills to his two sons at an early age. Vick was only three years old when his father, nicknamed "Bullet" for his speed during his own playing days, began teaching him the fundamentals. Michael subsequently taught the game to his younger brother, Marcus Vick. As he grew up, Vick went by the nickname "Ookie", and learned about football from Aaron Brooks, a second cousin who was four years older. Vick and Brooks spent a lot of time at the local Boys and Girls Club. "Sports kept me off the streets," Vick told Sporting News magazine in an interview published April 9, 2001. "It kept me from getting into what was going on, the bad stuff. Lots of guys I knew have had bad problems."
Vick first came to prominence while at Homer L. Ferguson High School in Newport News. As a freshman, he impressed many with his athletic ability; he threw for over 400 yards in a game that year. Ferguson High School was closed in 1996 as part of a Newport News Public Schools building modernization program. Vick, as a sophomore, and coach Tommy Reamon both moved to Warwick High School. Vick was a three-year starter for the Warwick Raiders. Under Reamon's coaching, he passed for 4,846 yards with 43 touchdowns. He added 1,048 yards and 18 scores on the ground. As a senior, he passed for 1,668 yards, accounting for 10 passing and as many rushing touchdowns. During one game, he ran for six touchdowns and threw for three touchdowns. Reamon, who had helped guide Brooks from Newport News to the University of Virginia, helped Vick with his SATs and helped him and his family choose between Syracuse University and Virginia Tech. Reamon favored Virginia Tech, where he felt better guidance was available under Frank Beamer, who promised to redshirt him and provide the freshman needed time to develop. Reamon sold Michael on the school's proximity to family and friends, and Vick chose to attend Virginia Tech. As he left the Newport News public housing projects in 1998 with a college football scholarship in hand, Vick was seen in the Newport News community as a success story.
In his first collegiate game for Virginia Tech as a redshirt freshman, against James Madison in 1999, Vick scored three rushing touchdowns in just over one quarter of play. He performed a flip to score his last touchdown but landed awkwardly on his ankle, forcing him to miss the remainder of the game and all of the following game. During the season, Vick led a last-minute game-winning drive against West Virginia in the annual Black Diamond Trophy game. He led the Hokies to an 11–0 undefeated season and to the Bowl Championship Series national title game in the Nokia Sugar Bowl against Florida State. Although Virginia Tech lost 46–29, Vick brought the team back from a 21-point deficit to take a brief lead. During the season, Vick appeared on the cover of an ESPN The Magazine issue.
Vick led the NCAA in passing efficiency in 1999, a record for a freshman (180.4) and the third-highest all-time mark. Vick won both an ESPY Award as the nation's top college player and the first-ever Archie Griffin Award as college football's most valuable player. He won the Big East Offensive Player of the Year. He was invited to the 1999 Heisman Trophy presentation and finished third in the voting behind Ron Dayne and Joe Hamilton. Vick's third-place finish matched the highest finish ever by a freshman up to that point, first set by Herschel Walker in 1980.
One highlight of Vick's 2000 season was his career high rushing total of 210 yards against Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Against West Virginia University in the Black Diamond Trophy game, Vick accounted for 288 total yards of offense and two touchdowns in a 48–20 win. The following week, Vick led the Hokies back from a 14–0 deficit to beat Syracuse at the Carrier Dome, where the Hokies had not won since 1986. Vick put the game away with a 55-yard run with 1:34 left. In the following game, against Pittsburgh, Vick was injured and had to miss the rest of the game. He also missed the game against Central Florida, and was unable to start against the Miami Hurricanes, who handed Virginia Tech their only loss of the season. Vick's final game while playing for Virginia Tech was against the Clemson Tigers in the Toyota Gator Bowl; Virginia Tech won and Vick was named the game's MVP. His football accomplishments in two seasons led to his induction in to the Virginia Tech Sports Hall of Fame in 2017. Vick finished sixth in Heisman Trophy voting for the 2000 season. Vick left Virginia Tech after his redshirt sophomore season. Aware that the rest of his family was still living in their three-bedroom apartment in the Ridley Circle Homes, Vick stated that he was going to buy his mother "a home and a car." ESPN later reported that Vick used some of his NFL and endorsement earnings to buy his mother a brand-new house in an upscale section of Suffolk, Virginia. Vick was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2025.
